Colocation America Inc.

Understanding IP Addresses and Subnets

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Internet Protocol, or IP, is a protocol used by private and public networks to facilitate communication between devices within the network. All types of network, from the World Wide Web to small private network, depend on assigned IP addresses to dictate where information goes. An IP address is set of unique 8-bit numbers assigned to a device that connect to a network. The address is broken up into four blocks or "octets" that contains numbers from 0 to 255.

The numbers assigned can ranged from 0 to 4,294,967,295 which means that in theory there could be over 4 billion devices on the Internet with their own unique address. That may sound like a lot but as more and more devices are fitted with the ability to connect to networks, IP addresses are becoming scarce. Even with the use of private IP addresses and NAT extending the amount of available IP addresses, the supply of dedicated IP addresses will soon be exhausted. The adoption of IPv6 is underway to provide more unique addresses than the 4 billion addresses available in the IPv4 era. IPv6 will be 128bits long which will increase the amount of available IP addresses about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times the amount available today.

What is a Subnet?

A subnet is short for sub network and is defined as a small network that sits within a larger network. The smallest subnet is called a broadcast domain and contains no more subdivisions the subnet. Its primary purpose is to route communication between devices on a data network through a device's MAC addresses. A MAC address cannot be routed across multiple subnets or even the Internet as it is limited to small networks because it uses ARP broadcasting. ARP broadcasting requires a small network or else the amount of traffic will bring down the whole network because of its inability to scale well and the increase of broadcast noise. The most common broadcast domain is a small 8 bits subnet but there are other broadcast domains that are slightly smaller or larger.

A subnet consists of a "Network ID" and a "Broadcast ID". The Network ID is its beginning number and it is always an even number. It designates a particular subnet to give it an identity on the network. When a subnet is refer to, the Network ID and the subnet's subnet mask is used. The Broadcast ID is always an odd number and is the subnet's ending number. It has the special purpose of designating the listening address for all devices on the subnet. When someone wants to send data to all the devices that resides in a subnet, they use the subnet's Broadcast ID.

What is a Subnet Mask?

A subnet mask will "mask" out the host bits, leaving only the Network ID visible. It also helps define the size of a particular subnet. Most subnet mask with a bit range of 0 to 8 belongs to DSL and T1 IP blocks while the private networks have bit range in the 8 to 24 IP blocks. A subnet mask can be converted into binary form that c onsists of 0s and 1s. All zeros are placed on the right while all 1s are placed on the left. For example, a 255.255.255.252 subnet mask has a binary mask that is 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111100. The number of 0s a binary mask has is di rectly related to the subnet length. Continuing from the example, the subnet length of the subnet mask 255.255.255.252 is 2.

When calculating subnets and subnet masks, there are special numbers that reoccur and remembering these numbers is essential. These numbers are 255, 254, 252, 248, 240, 224, 192, and 128. These numbers are useful for IP networking and help determine where a subnet can be properly broken up into smaller subnets.

What's the Subnet Mask good for?

Subnet mask can do more than determine the size of a particular subnet. If the IP address on a subnet is known, the subnet mask can be used to determine where the end points of that particular subnet are. To calculate the Network ID of a subnet, take an IP address within the subnet and run the AND operator (on a calculator) on the subnet mask. Using a calculator to find the Network ID is the easy way as you do not have to convert it into binary form. Once the Network ID is found, calculating the Broadcast ID is easy. First, find the subnet length by counting the 0s in the subnet binary form. Then put 2 to the power of the subnet length to get maximum host for the subnet. With all this information, the range of the subnet can be determined and the Broadcast ID is at the point where the subnet ends.

IP Classes

IP addresses are broken up into five classes that separate the Internet according to specific addresses. The five classes are Class A, B, C, D, and E. Each class takes up about half of the available address compared to the class before it. Class A is comprised of half the entire IP addresses available online while Class B takes up half of the remaining half. C Class IP's in turn will take up half of the remaining half left over from Class B and so on. Each class gives out IP addresses for different purposes. Class A IP address are usually owned by businesses that bought the blocks early on. The U.S. Army owns a portion of Class A IP addresses while the rest are owned by major companies like GE, IBM, Level 3, AT&T, HP, and Apple.

IP Services - Colocation America

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Whichever IP option you choose, itâs always best paired with our SEO Hosting plan which can help achieve your business marketing goals!

Colocation America is dedicated to bringing the best and latest technology to their clients, and thatâs no different when it comes to IP services. We strive to have our services be the epitome of reliability, performance and ultimate availability. Our clients can rest assured that we will deliver maximum performance and scalability, helping them with their existing IPv4 configurations or switching to the new IPv6 Internet Protocol.

IPv4 is the first version of Internet Protocol to be widely deployed and is the core of standards-based internetworking methods of the Internet. It uses a 32-bit (4 byte) address.

IPv6, the successor to IPv4, is an Internet layer protocol for packet-switching internetworking. Its address space is much longer than IPv4, and is compromised of 128 bits. While still in its infancy, much growth and prosperity awaits it.

Our options give clients the ultimate flexibility and most customized options to fit their business needs.

Some of the features and benefits include:

10Gb infrastructure for multiple connectivity and bandwidth options
100% Uptime
24/7/365 Networking Monitoring
Specialized Routing Options available

IP Transit Services - Colocation America

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0800

IP Transit Services

This Service Level Agreement (âSLAâ) is issued in accordance with the Master Services
Agreement (the âAgreementâ) between Colocation America and Customer. Any capitalized
terms not otherwise defined herein shall have the meanings ascribed to such terms in the Terms

and Conditions of the Agreement. This SLA sets forth the IP transit, peering and level 2 services

to be provided by Colocation America to Customer and the Service Levels in accordance with
which such services will be provided.

1. General

1.1. In this SLA, the following terms have the following meanings:

a) âAvailabilityâ means all the time in any calendar month less
Scheduled Downtime.
b) âBusiness Dayâ means every day excluding Saturdays and Sundays and
national holidays in the United States.
c) âCDRâ (Committed Data Rate) means the data throughput rate selected by Customer
in the Signed Proposal and provided as part of Services.
d) âForce Majeurâ means an act of nature (including fire, flood, earthquake, storm,
hurricane or other natural disaster), war, invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (whether war
is declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or
confiscation, terrorist activities, nationalization, government sanction, blockage, or embargo.
e) âNetworkâ means the physical connection between the equipment provided by
Customer and either (i) the Internet or (ii) private networks maintained and operated by
Customer or Customerâs agents.
f) âNetwork Availabilityâ means all the time in any calendar month less
Scheduled Downtime.
g) âNetwork Downtimeâ means any interruption of Network Availability, other than
interruptions due to:
1. The failure of a Third Party System or equipment that is not fully
owned and managed by Colocation America, including circuits or links between
Colocation Americaâs routing equipment and routing equipment owned and
maintained by other carriers;
2. Scheduled maintenance performed at Colocation Americaâs initiative;
3. Maintenance or Service interruptions requested by Customer;
4. Customerâs acts or failure to act in a timely and/or proper manner when
notified to do so by Colocation America (including, without limitation, Customerâs
failure to permit entry by Colocation America or make facilities or components
available to Colocation America for testing or repair; or otherwise to comply
with Colocation Americaâs instructions and service requirements); or
5. The transmission of data at a rate in excess of the CDR or the requested
burstable port the Customer is on.
h) âSigned Proposalâ shall mean the proposal for Services executed by both
Colocation America and Customer.
i) âServicesâ shall have the meaning ascribed thereto in paragraph 2.1.
j) âThird Party Systemâ means any telecommunication system that is neither owned
nor operated by or on behalf of Colocation America.

1.2. This SLA only applies to the Services to the extent that they are provided by means

of systems and equipment that are either owned or operated by or on behalf of Colocation
America.

1.3. Colocation America shall not be liable to pay compensation under this SLA where itsfailure to meet any of its obligations under this SLA is a caused by a Force Majeure event, by a failure in any Customer equipment, or by any act or omission of Customer, or third party acting on Customerâs behalf.

1.4. Credits and/or other compensation under this SLA shall only be payable where:

a) Customer is not currently, nor was at the time the Service Outage occurred,
in default of any of the terms and conditions of the Agreement and this SLA;
b) Customer has submitted to Colocation America a claim in writing via
support@Colocation America.com identifying the circumstances in which Customer
claims that the credit and/or compensation arose; and
c) Colocation America has agreed in writing, acting reasonably and without undue
delay, to issue such credit and/or other compensation in connection with such claim.
All credits and/or other compensation so payable shall be applied to Customerâs account to be
reconciled following Colocation Americaâs agreement to issue such credit and/or other
compensation in connection with such claim. In order to receive credits, Customer must submit
a trouble ticket within 48 hours of the Service Outage. All claims for credits and/or
compensation must be submitted promptly, and in any event within 7 days from the date of the
Service Outage. Claims should be submitted to support@Colocation America.com and marked
in the subject line with âclaim for services credit.â Customerâs failure to notify Colocation
America within the period stated above shall result in Customerâs waiver of its right to receive
any such credit and/or other compensation.

1.5. The maximum monthly credit and/or compensation available under this SLA is limited to an amount not greater than one monthâs fees. Credit and/or other compensation provided hereunder shall be Customerâs sole and exclusive remedy for any Service Outage or any failure to meet the Deliverables.

1.6. Colocation America reserves the right to amend the SLA from time to time. Colocation America shall give Customer not less than one (1) monthâs notice of any changes in the SLA and Customer will be notified by e-mail. Upon receipt of such notice, Customer shall have the right, for a period of 30 days thereafter, to terminate this SLA if Customer disagrees with such amendment.

2. Provision of Services

2.1. Colocation America will provide Customer with one or more of the following for the six-month, one-year, two-year or month-to-month term set forth in the Signed Proposal: wholesale Internet bandwidth (IP transit services); voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between such networks (peering services); and/or private links that enable point to point transfer of raw data (layer 2 services) (collectively âServicesâ) in accordance with the terms and conditions contained herein.

2.2. Colocation America will provide Services by the service commencement date set out in the Signed Proposal. If Colocation America is unable to commence providing Services by the service commencement date, at Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of 50% of the setup fee (non-recurring charge) set out in the Signed Proposal.

2.3. For each additional business day from the service commencement date that Colocation America is unable to commence providing Services, at Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of an additional 5% of the setup fee, up to a maximum of 100% of the setup fee.

2.4. Colocation America shall charge, and Customer shall be obligated to pay, the fees for the Services set forth on the Signed Proposal.

3. Service Levels for Network Availability

3.1. Colocation America guarantees an overall Network Availability of 99.99%.

3.2. If Customer requests a credit for Network Downtime, and such request is validated by Colocation America, Colocation America shall credit Customer in accordance with the provisions hereunder:

a) If in one calendar month a Customer experiences Network Downtime that is not
the result of a Third Party System, faulty equipment within the Customerâs cabinet or
cage or any form of negligence on the Customerâs part, at Customerâs request Customer
will receive a credit towards the invoice which Customer receives two months following
the month in which Network Downtime was reported. For the purpose of determining
the amount of any credit, Network Downtime will be deemed to commence when the
Network outage is reported on Colocation Americaâs monitoring system. An alert system
notifies Colocation America support staff immediately when any Network Downtime is
reported on the monitoring system and a trouble ticket will be opened within 5 minutes
of Colocation Americaâs discovery of Network Downtime if it has not yet been reported
by Customer.

3.3. If there is any Network Downtime in the aggregate in any calendar month that exceeds our Network Availability commit rate in 3.1., Customer shall be entitled to a credit of 100% of that monthâs invoice for the portion of the invoice that corresponds to the CDR.

3.4. If there is any Network Downtime in the aggregate in any calendar month that exceeds our Network Availability commit rate in 3.1., Customer may give written notice of Customerâs intent to terminate this SLA and any connections or other Services, which termination will take effect after 30 days.

4. Packet Loss Rate

4.1. The rate of packet loss on all links across the Network will be less than 0.1% (one packet in one thousand) (the âPermissible Packet Loss Rateâ).

4.2. At the end of each month Colocation America will calculate the average packet loss of the Network during that month, as measured by the packet loss between each pair of access routers in the Network averaged over all such pairs. In no case will tests performed by Customers be recognized by Colocation America as valid, measurable criteria for determining whether the rate of packet loss exceeded the Permissible Packet Loss Rate.

4.3. Packet loss within the Network caused by congestion of Customerâs access link or by traffic demand in excess of Customerâs committed CDR will not give rise to any compensation payments and/or credits.

4.4. If the rate of packet loss exceeds the Permissible Packet Loss Rate but is less than 0.2% in any month, at Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of one day of Transit Services.

4.5. If the rate of packet loss exceeds 0.2% but is less than 0.5% in any month, at Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of five days of Transit Services.

4.6. If the rate of packet loss exceeds 0.5%, at Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for one months worth of Transit Services.

5. Latency

5.1. The latency on all links within Colocation Americaâs Network will be less than 10milliseconds within California, less than 35 milliseconds between California and Chicago, and less than 60 milliseconds between California and Ashburn, VA.

5.2. Latency within the Network caused by congestion of Customerâs access link or by traffic demand in excess of Customerâs committed CDR will not give rise to any compensation payments and/or credits.

5.3. If latency exceeds those figures outlined in 5.1. within any month for a period of over 1 hour but is less than 2 hours, and Colocation America confirms such latency statistics, upon Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of one day of Transit Services.

5.4. If latency exceeds those figures outlined in 5.1. within any month for a period of over 2 hours but is less than 5 hours, and Colocation America confirms such latency statistics, upon Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of five days of Transit Services.

5.5. If latency exceeds those figures outlined in 5.1. within any month for a period of over 5hours, and Colocation America confirms such latency statistics, upon Customerâs request Colocation America will credit Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for one months worth of Transit Services.

6. Faults / Response Time Agreements

6.1. Colocation America shall monitor the connection to the Internet 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Customer can contact Colocation America 24x7 via e-mail at Support@ColocationAmerica.com or via telephone at 1-800-296-8915 extension 2. A member of the technical support team will contact Customer within 15 minutes providing the identity of the person assigned to resolve the ticket and any status information that has been gathered. Emergency tickets, such as packet loss and routing issues take priority over all other network related tickets and are escalated for immediate resolution. Due to the variety of causes for packet loss and routing issues, resolution and repair times can and will vary.

6.2. Customerâs circuit will be monitored 24x7 by an automated system, which will notify Colocation Americaâs technical team of any irregularities. Customer is solely responsible for providing Colocation America with accurate and current contact information for Customer's designated points of contact.

7. Network Maintenance

7.1. Colocation America may suspend Services to carry out periodic maintenance or upgrade work on the Network (âScheduled Downtimeâ).

7.2. Except in the case of an emergency Colocation America will provide Customer with one weekâs notice of any suspension of Services other than pre-determined Scheduled Downtime. If Colocation America fails to provide the appropriate notice, at Customerâs request, Customer will be entitled to a credit to Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of one day of Services.

7.3. Colocation America will endeavor not to suspend the Services for planned maintenance or upgrade work more than 12 times in any calendar year and at Customerâs request, Customer will receive a credit to Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of one day of Services for each additional service suspension for such work. Colocation America will endeavor to ensure that interruption of service does not exceed a total of 12 hours in any calendar year and at Customerâs request, Customer will receive a credit to Customerâs account in the amount of the pro rated fee for the provision of one day of Services for each additional hour of service suspension for such work.

7.4. The standard for the Colocation America maintenance window for planned outages is between 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., local time for the node location in question. Colocation America will endeavor to accommodate Customerâs requirements in terms of outage times, however, depending on the circumstances this may not always be possible. Outage times will be quoted in Pacific Time to prevent mistakes being made over the various time zones.

8. Reporting

8.1. Colocation America will provide Customer with near real-time performance and status reports regarding Availability, transmission volume and utilization of Customerâs ports, and Network performance and status via MRTG graphs.

IPV6 - Colocation America

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

IPv6 is the succession to IPv4, a publicly used Internet Protocol, and is designed to meet the requirements of Internet expansion. While IPv4 is still the most widely used, the Internet Engineering Task Force is advising all to use IPv6 because of the foreseeable exhaustion of IPv4. Colocation America offers a vastly larger address space which derives from their usage of a 128-bit address. This expansion gives the flexibility that allocating address and routing traffic needs, as well as eliminates the need for NAT [network address translation].

There are several new features which make IPv6 smoother and an improvement over IPv4. The simplification of stateless address configuration and network renumbering speeds along the process of switching Internet connectivity providers. Contrary to popular belief, IPv6 is not completely different than IPv4, it is simply slightly more advanced with the goal of solving the problems it left behind. The main differences between the two versions occur in the following areas: addressing and routing, security, network address translation, administrative workload and support for mobile devices. However the most important feature that IPv6 has is a set of possible migration and transition plans from IPv4.

The Internet Protocol [IP] is one of the pillars in support of the Internet which has been around for almost 20 years. It originated as a concise set of 45 pages in RFC 791 and acts as the network-layer protocol for the Internet. In 1991 the IETF determined that the IPv4 had outgrown its design and moved to develop the next thing. After much research, the IETF released a clear direction and IPv6 started to be formed in 1994. It is now described in the Internet standard document RFC 2460, published in December 1998. As of 1994, over 30 IPv6 RFCs have been published.

The most impactful change from IPv4 to IPv6 is the actual address. IPv4 had a 32 bit long [4 bytes] address, which is composed of a network and host portions. With IPv6, address are now 128 bits long [16 bytes], typically the host portion of this address will be derived from a MAC address or other interface identifier.

In text format, an IPv4 address is as follows:

nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

0<=nnn<=255

Each n is a decimal digit

In text format, an IPv6 address is as follows:

xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx

Each x is a hexadecimal digit

A double colon ( : : ) can be used when the address is in text form to designate any number of 0 bits.

IPv4 addresses were originally allocated by network class and as space is depleted, smaller allocations using CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) are made. IPv6 is still in early stages when it comes to allocations. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) recommends that every home, organization and/or entity be allocated a /48 subnet prefix length. This leaves bits for the organization to subnet.

IPV4 - Colocation America

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ths is an Internet Protocol (IPv4) Subnet Chart. You can use this to quickly look up how you might need to subnet your network. At the bottom there is a quick how-to on calculating subnets.

For more information on subnetting, see RFC 1817 and RFC 1812.

Class address ranges:

Class A = 1.0.0.0 to 126.0.0.0
Class B = 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.0.0
Class C = 192.0.1.0 to 223.255.255.0

Reserved address ranges for private (non-routed) use (see RFC 1918):

10.0.0.0 -> 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 -> 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 -> 192.168.255.255

Other reserved addresses:

127.0.0.0 is reserved for loopback and IPC on the local host
224.0.0.0 -> 239.255.255.255 is reserved for multicast addresses

Chart notes:

Number of Subnets - "( )" Refers to the number of effective subnets, since the use of subnet numbers of all 0s or all 1s is highly frowned upon and RFC non-compliant.
Number of Hosts - Refers to the number of effective hosts, excluding the network and broadcast address.

Class A IP Addresses

Network Bits	Subnet Mask	Number of Subnets	Number of Hosts
/8	255.0.0.0	0	16777214
/9	255.128.0.0	2 (0)	8388606
/10	255.192.0.0	4 (2)	4194302
/11	255.224.0.0	8 (6)	2097150
/12	255.240.0.0	16 (14)	1048574
/13	255.248.0.0	32 (30)	524286
/14	255.252.0.0	64 (62)	262142
/15	255.254.0.0	128 (126)	131070
/16	255.255.0.0	256 (254)	65534
/17	255.255.128.0	512 (510)	32766
/18	255.255.192.0	1024 (1022)	16382
/19	255.255.224.0	2048 (2046)	8190
/20	255.255.240.0	4096 (4094)	4094
/21	255.255.248.0	8192 (8190)	2046
/22	255.255.252.0	16384 (16382)	1022
/23	255.255.254.0	32768 (32766)	510
/24	255.255.255.0	65536 (65534)	254
/25	255.255.255.128	131072 (131070)	126
/26	255.255.255.192	262144 (262142)	62
/27	255.255.255.224	524288 (524286)	30
/28	255.255.255.240	1048576 (1048574)	14
/29	255.255.255.248	2097152 (2097150)	6
/30	255.255.255.252	4194304 (4194302)	2

Class B IP Addresses

Network Bits	Subnet Mask	Number of Subnets	Number of Hosts
/16	255.255.0.0	0	65534
/17	255.255.128.0	2 (0)	32766
/18	255.255.192.0	4 (2)	16382
/19	255.255.224.0	8 (6)	8190
/20	255.255.240.0	16 (14)	4094
/21	255.255.248.0	32 (30)	2046
/22	255.255.252.0	64 (62)	1022
/23	255.255.254.0	128 (126)	510
/24	255.255.255.0	256 (254)	254
/25	255.255.255.128	512 (510)	126
/26	255.255.255.192	1024 (1022)	62
/27	255.255.255.224	2048 (2046)	30
/28	255.255.255.240	4096 (4094)	14
/29	255.255.255.248	8192 (8190)	6
/30	255.255.255.252	16384 (16382)	2

Class C IP Addresses

Network Bits	Subnet Mask	Number of Subnets	Number of Hosts
/24	255.255.255.0	0	254
/25	255.255.255.128	2 (0)	126
/26	255.255.255.192	4 (2)	62
/27	255.255.255.224	8 (6)	30
/28	255.255.255.240	16 (14)	14
/29	255.255.255.248	32 (30)	6
/30	255.255.255.252	64 (62)	2

Supernetting (CIDR) Chart

CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing.
Note: The Number of Class C networks must be contiguous.
For example, 192.169.1.0/22 represents the following block of addresses:
192.169.1.0, 192.169.2.0, 192.169.3.0 and 192.169.4.0.

Class C

CIDR Block	Supernet Mask	Number of Class C Addresses	Number of Hosts
/14	255.252.0.0	1024	262144
/15	255.254.0.0	512	131072
/16	255.255.0.0	256	65536
/17	255.255.128.0	128	32768
/18	255.255.192.0	64	16384
/19	255.255.224.0	32	8192
/20	255.255.240.0	16	4096
/21	255.255.248.0	8	2048
/22	255.255.252.0	4	1024
/23	255.255.254.0	2	512

Quick Subnetting How-To (Thanks to Jason@ GeekVenue.)

[Understanding decimal - Base 10]

The first thing you must know is that the common number system used world wide is the decimal system (otherwise known as base 10). What makes the decimal system a base 10 system is that it is based on grouping numbers by 10's. It is believed that the system evolved because we have ten fingers and ten toes which over the years we have used for counting. I use mine all the time (grin). We name the ten digits: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.

The decimal system has a 1's place, a 10's place, a 100's place, a 1000's place and so on. We say the number places are grouped by 10's becausemultiplying each number place by 10 gives you the next number place. So: 1x10=10 (the 10's place), 10x10=100 (the 100's place), 100x10=1000 (the 1000's place) etc.

Let's look at the decimal number 103 by place.

103 <- read from right to left

We have a 3 in the 1's place
We have a 0in the 10's place
We have a 1 in the 100's place

Thus: 100+0+3=103

By now you probably feel like you have attended Kindergarten for the second time in your life? Sorry about that but it is very important that you understand the concept of what a number system is, and what it is based on before we look at binary.

[Understanding binary - base 2]

Binary is a base 2 system, and thus groups numbers by 2's and not by 10's like the decimal system. We name the two digits: zero and one. The binary system has a 1's place, a 2's place, a 4's place, an 8's place, a 16's place and so on. We say the number places are grouped by 2's because multiplying each number place by 2 gives you the next number place. So: 1x2=2 (the 2's place), 2x2=4 (the 4's place), 4x2=8 (the 8's place), 8x2=16 (the 16's place) etc.

Let's look at the decimal number Let's look at the decimal number 103 in binary format:

01100111 <- read from right to left

We have a 1 in the 1's place
We have a 1 in the 2's place
We have a 1 in the 4's place
We have a 0 in the 8's place
We have a 0 in the 16's place
We have a 1 in the 32's place
We have a 1 in the 64's place
We have a 0 in the 128's place

Thus: 0+64+32+0+0+4+2+1=103

Okay, Let's test your skills. Here is a list of binary numbers, try converting them to decimal and check your answers at the end of this post.

10000000
11000000
11100000
01000000
10000011
10010001
11111111

If you were able to convert these numbers to decimal then congratulations! You're ready to move on to the next section.

[Understanding a subnet mask]

Now that you understand what binary is, let's have a look at our two subnet masks from the beginning of my post:

192.168.1.0 / 255.255.255.0
192.168.1.0/24

The concept of a subnet mask is simple. You have a network and you have hosts on the network (anything with an IP address is a host). The subnet mask determines what portion of the TCP/IP address represents your network and what portion can be used for your hosts. Because I am a simple person, I think of it like this; The network number represents the street I live on, and the host portion is used for the numbers on all the houses on my street.

A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 means that the first three octets of the address will be used for the network, and thus our network number is 192.168.1. This means we can have 254 computers on this network, because the fourth octet is not being used by the network portion of the address. We know this because of the 0 in the subnet mask (255.255.255.0).

We call each of the number sections an octet because we think of them in binary, and there are eight possible bits in each section. Eight bits is an octet. 11111111 in binary is 255 in decimal (did you do the conversions?). So our decimal subnet mask 255.255.255.0 displayed in binary is going to be:

11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000

If you count all the ones, you will find that there are 24 of them. Now look at the subnet mask examples again.

192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
192.168.1.0/24

Do you see why both subnet masks are the same? The number 24 is the number of bits used in the network portion of the address, and is short-hand for writing the address/subnet mask combination. It becomes important to understand this when you start dividing your network into multiple sub networks.

[Understanding Subnetting]

Before reading this section, you should have a good understanding of what a subnet mask is and how binary bits represent the subnet mask.

Simply put, subnetting is dividing your network into multiple sub networks. To go back to my silly example about houses and streets, subnetting gives you multiple streets in your neighborhood.

There are two methods for dividing your network into multiple sub networks; One is to simply change your network numbers keeping the same subnet mask. The other is to subnet your network into smaller sub networks.

Keeping the same mask:
Your network could be divided into two or more networks by changing the network portion of the address such as 192.168.1 and 192.168.2 and keeping the same subnet mask.

Example:
192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0

Doing this would give you two separate networks with 254 hosts per network. This is a very common method of dealing with multiple networks. However, back in the good old days you had to pay for every IP address you used, and if you had 25 computers on your network you probably would not want to pay for 254 addresses! The answer to the problem is...subnetting.

Subnetting a network:
Subnetting is when you use bits from the host portion of your address as part of your network number. This let's you subdivide your network at the cost of host addresses, which is great if you're paying for every host IP address. It will save you money because you pay for fewer TCP/IP addresses. Confused? Here is where understanding binary is important.

Lets look at a new subnet mask:
255.255.255.224

As you can see in the fourth octet, some of the host portion of this subnet mask is now being used for part of the network address. Which means we are now using some of the binary bits in the fourth octet for our network numbers, and that gives us fewer hosts than our old mask (which gave us 254), but gives us more networks (which is why we call it subnetting).

How can we tell how many networks and hosts per network this new subnet mask will give us? Well... we shall have to use some of our newly acquired binary skills.

The first task is to find out how many bits in the fourth octet are being used? The decimal number is 224, what is the decimal number 224 as represented in binary?

The decimal number 224 in binary is:
11100000

We have a 0 in the 1's place
We have a 0 in the 2's place
We have a 0 in the 4's place
We have a 0 in the 8's place
We have a 0 in the 16's place
We have a 1 in the 32's place
We have a 1 in the 64's place
We have a 1 in the 128's place

Thus: 128+64+32+0+0+0+0+0=224

So our complete subnet mask in binary is:
1111111.11111111.11111111.11100000

We now know that three bits from the fourth octet are used. How can we tell how many sub networks we're going to have? This requires some math- sorry. The formula is: 2ⁿ-2, where n is the number of bits being used from the host portion of our subnet mask.

Note: We subtract 2 from the total because you do not count all 0's or all 1's.

The formula for three bits is:
2³-2=6

In simpler terms:
(2x2x2)-2=6

So our network is sub divided into 6 networks. Next, we want to know what the network numbers are, and how many hosts we can have on each of the 6 networks?

What is the first subnet? Let's have a look at the bits in our fourth octet again. The bit that gives us the answer is the (1) closest to the first zero, and in this case it is the 3rd bit from the left.

11100000

The 3rd bit will start our first network, and the 3rd bit is in the 32's place (remember binary). Start adding the value 32 to itself six times to get the six network numbers.

Note: A quicker way to find our starting network number is to subtract our mask from 256.
256-224=32

Here are our network numbers:

32
64
96
128
160
192

A better way to display this is:

192.168.1.32
192.168.1.64
192.168.1.96
192.168.1.128
192.168.1.160
192.168.1.192

The host addresses will fall between the network numbers, so we will have 30 hosts per network. You're probably wondering why it's not 31? The answer is that the last address of each subnet is used as the broadcast address for that subnet.

Example:
Subnet:192.168.1.32 / 255.255.255.224
Address Range: 192.168.1.33 through 192.168.1.62 (30 hosts)
Subnet Broadcast Address:192.168.1.63

Quiz:
Let's test your skills- write the address range and broadcast address for the following subnet. You will find the answer at the end of this post.

Subnet: 192.168.1.128 / 255.255.255.224
Address Range?
Subnet Broadcast Address?

If we we're paying for our TCP/IP addresses, we would only pay for one network and host combination, thus paying for 30 hosts and not 254. It could mean some real savings, it also frees up the remaining addresses for other organizations to use.

Let's look at another subnet mask:
255.255.255.240

How many bits are used from the host portion? To find this out, we need to know how the decimal number 240 is represented in binary.

The answer is:
11110000

So four bits are taken from the host portion of our mask. We do the same math as before:

2⁴-2=14

In simpler terms:
(2x2x2x2)-2=14

We will have 14 sub networks, and what will the network numbers be? Look at the fourth bit, it's in the 16's place:
11110000

Note: A quicker way to find our starting network number is to subtract the value of our mask from 256. So: 256-240=16

Start adding 16 to itself- fourteen times to get all 14 network numbers:

16
32
48
64
80
96
112
128
144
160
176
192
208
224

A better way to display our subnets is:

192.168.1.16
192.168.1.32
192.168.1.48
192.168.1.64
192.168.1.80
192.168.1.96
192.168.1.112
192.168.1.128
192.168.1.144
192.168.1.160
192.168.1.176
192.168.1.192
192.168.1.208
192.168.1.224

The host addresses fall between the network numbers. So we will have 14 host addresses on each of our 14 sub networks (remember: the last or 15th address is the broadcast address for that subnet).

If you had a small company with 10 hosts and needed to have a static IP address for all of your hosts, you would be assigned a network/subnet mask and a valid IP address range.

Here is an example of what that might look like:

Network: 205.112.10.16/.255.255.255.240
Address Range: 205.112.10.17 through 205.112.10.30
Subnet Broadcast Address: 205.112.10.31

[Answers to Binary Conversions]

10000000 = 128
11000000 = 192
11100000 = 224
01000000 = 64
10000011 = 131
10010001 = 145
11111111 = 255

[Answer to Subnet Question]

Subnet:192.168.1.128 / 255.255.255.224
Address Range: 192.168.1.129 through 192.168.1.158
Subnet Broadcast Address: 192.168.1.159

Data Network - Colocation America

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Colocation America maintains a private metro fiber network to and from key POP (Point Of Presence) in Los Angeles (One Wilshire), San Francisco (200 Paul) and New York (60 Hudson).

Colocation America provides Tugged and UnTugged VLANs with speed ranging from 100 MBPS to 10,000 MBPS over CAT5, CAT6 and Fiber to and from One Wilshire Meet-Me-Room located in the below Los Angeles colocation facilities across to San Francisco colocation facility and its New York data center facility:

Los Angeles Data Centers:

Aon Center : 707 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90017
One Wilshire: 624 S. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90017
Digital Reality Trust: 600 W. 7th St. Los Angeles, CA 90017
Quinby Building: 650 S. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90017
Telecom Center: 530 W. 6th St. Los Angeles, CA 90014

San Francisco Data Centers:

200 Paul Exchange200: Paul St. San Francisco, CA 94110

New York Data Centers:

60 Hudson Building: 60 Hudson Ave. New York, NY 10013

New Jersey Data Centers:

100 Delawanna Buiding:100 Delawanna Ave. Clifton, NJ 07014

Chicago Data Centers:

350 E Cermak Rd. Chicago, IL 60616
701 S Lasalle St. Chicago, IL 60605
725 S Wells St. Chicago, IL 60607
427 S Lasalle St. Chicago, IL 60605
717 S Wells St. Chicago, IL 60607
601 W Polk St. Chicago, IL 60607
600 W Chicago Ave Chicago, IL 60654
1331 E Business Center Dr. Mt Prospect, IL 60056
800 E. Business Center Dr. Mt. Prospect, IL 60056
1850 Springer Dr. Lombard, IL 60148
1808 Swift Dr. Oakbrook, IL 60523
360 E 22nd St. Lombard, IL 60148
2425 Busse Rd. Arlington Heights, IL 60005
1905 Lunt Ave. Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Click here for more information about our facilities.

Turn up is as quick as less than 24 hours with low monthly costs to fit every budget from small, medium and large businesses across the world.

10MB Speed Test File
100MB Speed Test File

Traceroute

Test IP: 67.227.19.70

If you wish to use Colocation Americaâs Fiber Network, Colocation Services and unmatched personal expertise in the telecom industry, please contact our sales department by emailing Sales@ColocationAmerica.com OR toll free by calling 1-800-296-8915.

Bandwidth - Colocation America

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The second largest aspect of the billing and pricing of collocation services is what they typically refer to as bandwidth charges. This is somewhat misleading of a name because bandwidth typically refers just to the amount of possible data per second that the connection can handle but what the providers are referring to is the amount of data transferred to and from the server for the given billing cycle.

Most providers will include a base amount of data transfers with the basic package and will be referred to by the number of gigabytes (GB) allowed. This can be as small as 2GB per month or as high as several hundred. The providers will also have a fee that will be charged to the customer for data transfers that exceed the amount of allotted bandwidth. Charges can range as low as pennies per GB to several dollars per GB. Be sure of what the rate is before signing any agreements.

Actual billing of the bandwidth charges can be calculated one of two ways by the collocation provider. The most common method is called 95th percentile while the other is the straight data transfer rates. Small servers with low bandwidth usage will typically use the straight data rates while larger servers tend to use the 95th percentile. Let's examine them in more detail.

Colocation America maintains one of the largest and most secure carrier-neutral data center in the industry, and can now offer you all the bandwidth you'll ever need.

With 12 different carriers delivering 24Gbps of bandwidth into a fully meshed and redundant network datacenter, Colocation America is able to provide the bandwidth you require to manage your business, at a very competitive rate.

What is the 95th percentile, and why is it useful in measuring bandwidth?

The 95th percentile is the smallest number that is greater than 95% of the numbers in a given set. The reason this statistic is so useful in measuring data throughput is that is gives a very accurate picture of the cost of the bandwidth. Here's an example. Suppose an ISP sells you a T1 line, but you're only using it to access the web. Even though you might frequently download very large files (filling the pipe) your cost to the ISP is negligible, because your usage is intermittent. A single T3 connection to the backbone could easily support hundreds of such downstream customers, and never become saturated. As another example, suppose you are hosting a very busy web site that half-way fills your T1 for several hours every day. This type of bandwidth is more expensive, because your ISP can't oversell their connection to the backbone as effectively. The important thing to realize is that it doesn't cost your ISP anything to sell you a pipe of any particular size - it is the sustained rate of data transfer that costs them money. The sum of the 95th percentile usage of all of an ISP's customers predicts the peak amount of backbone traffic that the ISP will incur (in a given direction).

Here are some examples, ISPs must charge for bandwidth by one of three means:

95th Percentile
The 95th percentile calculation is a hard formula to try and explain. The easiest way to explain it is to give an example of how the calculation might be computed after a bit of explanation.

In order to determine the amount of data transferred to a server, the provider will monitor the network port that a server is attached to. Every 3 to 5 minutes, they will get a reading for the data transfer rate recorded over that time period. These are then stored in a database. At the end of the billing cycle, the database is queried for the entry that is the 95th percentile in overall size. This number is ten put into the formula such as this: (95th Percentile rate) x (billing cycle length) = Bandwidth usage.

Now, this in general will benefit most individuals since most network connections are idle for the majority of the time they are idle. However, if a site has a high sustained data transfer rate that is used for more than 5% of the time the link is up, it can be very expensive. Let's look at two examples using a shorter time span of 1 day to make it simple.

Example #1:
Over a 30 day period, a Web server gets about 30GB of traffic. For 28 of these days, the traffic consists of only .5GB/day. The last two days has 8GB/day of traffic. In this case of bursting traffic, the 95th percentile would be around .5GB/day. Using the 95th percentile calculation, the bandwidth charge would be: (.5GB/day) * (30days) = 15GB

Example #2:
Over a 30 day period, a Web server gets about 30GB of total traffic. For 20 of these 30 days, there is only a small amount of traffic that doesn't add up at a single GB. The remaining 10 days sees traffic of 3GB/day. The 95ht percentile in this case would be 3GB. Using the 95th percentile calculation, the bandwidth charge would be: (2GB/day) * (30days) = 90GB

As you can see, the consistent traffic with several days of busting traffic in the first example actually is more beneficial to the customer compared to the second example with its traffic that bursted for more than 5% of the time. Thankfully, the majority of servers on the Internet are going to be similar to example #1 and not example #2.

Following bandwidth pricing is for co-location and dedicated server customers.
For connectivity outside Colocation America's Data Center please contact Colocation America .

All customers will be on Premium Bandwidth by default, you
may request to modify your bandwidth preference at any time*.

PREMIUM (Performance Based Routing)
Commitment Levels	Price Per Mbps	Monthly Recurring	Equivalent Monthly transfer in GIGs/month
5 Mbps	$30	$150	1,650+
10 Mbps Un-metered	$25	$250	3,300
10 Mbps	$20	$200	3,300+
20 Mbps	$15	$300	6,600+
50 Mbps	$10	$500	16,500+
100 Mbps	$7	$700	33,000
Connections are burstable, Bandwidth is calculated based on the 95th percentile rule. 10 Mbps Un-metered and 100 Mbps commitment levels are delivered via dedicated 10Mbps or 100Mbps ports which are limited by port speeds of 10Mbps and 100Mbps respectively. Please contact Sales for prices on Fractional GIGE.

CBR (Cost Based Routing)
Commitment Levels	Price Per Mbps	Monthly Recurring	Equivalent Monthly transfer in GIGs/month
5 Mbps	$25	$125	1,650+
10 Mbps Un-metered	$20	$200	3,300
10 Mbps	$15	$150	3,300+
20 Mbps	$10	$200	6,600+
50 Mbps	$7	$350	16,500+
100 Mbps	$4	$400	33,000
Connections are burstable, Bandwidth is calculated based on the 95th percentile rule. 10 Mbps Un-metered and 100 Mbps commitment levels are delivered via dedicated 10Mbps or 100Mbps ports which are limited by port speeds of 10Mbps and 100Mbps respectively. Please contact Sales for prices on Fractional GIGE.

* In most cases change of bandwidth preference to cost based routing from premium bandwidth
or reverse does not require change of IP address but in some rare cases it maybe required.

Partners

Connectivity - Colocation America

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Colocation America is your one-stop shop for colocation hosting and managed IT solutions. Situated in the renowned One Wilshire building, AON Center, Quimby Building, Telecom Center, and 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles, coupled with our locations in San Francisco, New York, New Jersey and Chicago. Our world- class data centers have been specially engineered to provide you with the highest degree of uptime and reliability.

With access to more than 200 premier Tier-1 carriers, we offer what is virtually an unlimited network capacity, while simultaneously managing your IT systems based on your exact requirements and specifications.

Colocation Power

Power utilization is possibly the main issue for co-location facilities today. The growth of 1U colocation (one rack unit), 2U Colocation, 4U Colocation, 1/4 rack colocation, 1/2 rack colocation, Full rack colocation and blade servers has increased the potential power needs for each unit. The typical rack + power formula was that every rack would acquire a 20A (Amp) circuit, which would only be somewhat used in a set point.

The emergence of capacity hungry technology has wrought some changes in the power demands that consumers place in co-location providers:

Whereas some time ago a individual 20A circuit per cabinet had average power request of 2x 30A or 2x20A circuit, on behalf of an roughly 30% raise over the last three years.

Customers are now using more of the circuits they order. An average customer may have previously used the 10-12 A per rack, a small part of a 20A circuit. Now, colocation providers report that multiple customers now apply far more prepared existing capacity, only leaving enough headroom to restart the equipment when necessary.

Due to the intensifying power desires, power pricing volatility and re-energized interest in the actual power consumption, countless colocation providers set out to cover the actual power expenditure data as part of pricing, altogether in response to increased customer demand.

Global Leading Carriers

Our colocation hosting service is backed by an impressive network compromised of some of the world's leading internet bandwidth providers. This list includes top-notch carriers such as:

360 Networks
Allied Telecom Group
AT&T
Atlantic Crossing
Brasil Central
British Telecom
China Netcom
Cinco Telecom
Clear Channel Communications
Cogent
Comcast
FiberNet
France Telecom
Genesis Networks
Global Crossing
Host Ventures
Japan Telecom
Korean Telecom
Latin America Nautilus
Level (3)
Metro Communications
Net One
Open Telecom
PacWest
Peer 1
Primus Telecommunications
Qwest
SoCal Edison
Sprint Nextel
Taiwan Fixed Networks
TeleBermuda International
Telus
Time Warner Cable
T-Mobile
Towerstream
Verizon
Wilshire Connection
Yak Communications

Please feel free to contact us for a complete list of more than 240 Tier-1 internet bandwidth providers in our network.

Features of Our Colocation Hosting Facilities

Robust Electrical Capacity - The One Wilshire facility is specially engineered to deliver power 75 to150 watts per square foot at 480 volts on a 3-phase, 4-wire system. Our other locations, such as our 7th Street data center, all enjoy an incredibly robust electrical structure that more than meets all of our clients' needs.
Redundant Emergency Power Systems - Colocation America currently has a total of five backup generators to support our main power supply in the event of service interruptions or low voltage conditions. Our other locations throughout Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York are equally equipped with power redundancy and quality generator backups.
Reliable Fire Protection - We have a remarkable fire detection and prevention system in place to protect your vital systems and hardware. Our data centers are adequately equipped with a pre-action fire suppression system and receive the added benefit of building maintenance required to maintain the local fire/life/safety system.
State of the Art Security - Our colocation hosting facilities are protected by 24/7-365 on-site physical security integrated with advanced video surveillance cameras and electronic card access systems to ensure that only authorized personnel can enter the building. In addition, the perimeter and all sensitive areas are monitored around-the-clock.