Violet’s IP Playground
Bits awaken • subnets bloom • hidden network truths step into candlelight
Violet studies the hidden shape of networks - public, private, routed, masked, whispered, and misunderstood.
Give Violet an address, a mask, or a hostname. She will tell you what realm it belongs to.
🧿 A network potion for the curious
Where addresses reveal their secrets.
Most subnet tools calculate. Violet seduces, explains, warns, and reveals. Here the octets awaken,
the mask draws its boundary, and the true nature of every IPv4 address begins to show itself.
The Bit Awakening
Toggle the bits. Watch the decimal values rise. Slide the CIDR mask and let Violet paint the line
between network and host. This is where an address stops being abstract and becomes territory.
Live address
192.168.1.14/24
Mask boundary
255.255.255.0
Each octet is a row of eight sleeping switches. When they awaken, value emerges. When Violet
shifts the mask, the left side becomes law - the realm itself - and the right side becomes the
host space that lives within it.
Last usable
192.168.1.254
Classful hint
Class C heritage
The Subnet Spellbook
Feed Violet an IPv4 address, CIDR block, or IPv4 plus subnet mask. She will reveal the network,
broadcast, usable range, host count, and the nature of the territory you have entered.
Entered host
192.168.1.14
Last usable
192.168.1.254
Violet marks the edges: network on the left, broadcast on the right, and the living host space in between.
Nature of the address
Private RFC1918
A private LAN range very common in homes and offices.
Class C heritage - old world default /24 territory.
Violet’s cautions
- This address is not publicly routable. That is often correct, but it matters when expectations are wrong.
This address has taken shape beneath Violet’s gaze. The boundary is clear, the realm defined,
and the host space counted. Beyond 192.168.1.255, another subnet begins.
The Reverse Resolve Oracle
Ask Violet about an IPv4 address or hostname. She will look for forward answers, reverse answers,
and the little inconsistencies that make operators sigh and analysts narrow their eyes.
A name that points one way and an address that points another can unsettle mail systems, security tools,
and the people who must explain them. Violet notices such imbalances.
Violet’s Atlas of Known Realms
Public. Private. Link-local. Loopback. CGNAT. Documentation. Benchmark. Multicast. These ranges are not
all what they seem, and many technical users are taught them only halfway.
Private RFC1918
10.0.0.0/8
A vast internal realm for private networks.
Realm range
10.0.0.0 → 10.255.255.255
Private RFC1918
172.16.0.0/12
Private space often used by enterprises and segmented environments.
Realm range
172.16.0.0 → 172.31.255.255
Private RFC1918
192.168.0.0/16
The familiar small-lan territory of homes and offices.
Realm range
192.168.0.0 → 192.168.255.255
Loopback
127.0.0.0/8
Traffic that never leaves the host.
Realm range
127.0.0.0 → 127.255.255.255
Link-local / APIPA
169.254.0.0/16
Often seen after DHCP failure or self-assignment.
Realm range
169.254.0.0 → 169.254.255.255
CGNAT
100.64.0.0/10
Carrier-managed address space, not truly public.
Realm range
100.64.0.0 → 100.127.255.255
TEST-NET-1
192.0.2.0/24
Documentation space for examples.
Realm range
192.0.2.0 → 192.0.2.255
TEST-NET-2
198.51.100.0/24
Documentation space for examples.
Realm range
198.51.100.0 → 198.51.100.255
TEST-NET-3
203.0.113.0/24
Documentation space for examples.
Realm range
203.0.113.0 → 203.0.113.255
Benchmark
198.18.0.0/15
For lab-style testing and benchmarking.
Realm range
198.18.0.0 → 198.19.255.255
Multicast
224.0.0.0/4
Where one voice may speak to many listeners.
Realm range
224.0.0.0 → 239.255.255.255
Reserved / future use
240.0.0.0/4
Reserved space not meant for normal host assignment.
Realm range
240.0.0.0 → 255.255.255.254
Limited broadcast
255.255.255.255/32
The local all-hosts shout.
Realm range
255.255.255.255 → 255.255.255.255
Some addresses are meant for the world. Some are meant only for the inner rooms. Some are examples,
some are echoes, and some are warnings wearing ordinary clothes.
What Violet wants you to remember
The octets
IPv4 is four octets, each built from eight bits. Each row is a small field of switches waiting to become value.
The boundary
The mask is not decoration. It is the line that decides what is realm and what is resident.
The misconception
“It has an IP” is not enough. Violet cares whether it is public, private, routable, valid, aligned, and named.
The best operators do not merely memorize ranges. They feel the shape of them. They know when a mask is broken,
when a gateway is lying, when an address is private despite its costume, and when DNS is only pretending to be whole.