ELI5

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Zach

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🏙️ The City = The Entire Network

A city has different neighborhoods to keep things organized, right? If everything was just one big mess with no divisions, it would be chaos.

🏘️ Neighborhoods = Subnets

To keep things structured, the city is divided into neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has its own houses, streets, and addresses. In networking, these neighborhoods are called subnets—smaller sections of a larger network.

📬 Houses = Devices (Computers, Phones, Routers, etc.)

Each house in a neighborhood has its own address so the mail (or internet data) knows where to go. Similarly, every device in a subnet has its own unique IP address so data knows where to be delivered.

🚦 Why Use Subnets?

1. Better Organization – Instead of having one giant, overcrowded city, we split it into manageable parts.
2. Security – Each subnet can have its own rules (firewalls, permissions, etc.).
3. Efficiency – Traffic stays within a smaller area instead of overwhelming the entire network.
4. Faster Communication – Instead of checking every house in the whole city, the system only looks within the right neighborhood.

🏡 Example of a Subnet

• You have a home network (your Wi-Fi).
• Your router assigns devices 192.168.1.X (where X is a different number for each device).
• This means all devices in your home are in the same "neighborhood" (subnet).

If you have a guest Wi-Fi, it might use 192.168.2.X, making it a separate subnet—kind of like a gated community within the city!