The /24 at the end of an IP address is part of CIDR notation (Classless Inter-Domain Routing), which specifies the subnet mask for the network. Here's what it means:
- CIDR Notation: The /24 indicates that the first 24 bits of the IP address are used for the network portion, and the remaining bits are used for host addresses.
- Subnet Mask: In binary, a /24 subnet mask is 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000, which translates to 255.255.255.0.
- IP Range: With a /24 subnet, you can have up to 256 IP addresses in the range, but typically only 254 are usable for hosts (excluding the network and broadcast addresses).
For example, if you have an IP address 192.168.1.0/24, it means the network part is 192.168.1, and the host part can range from 0 to 255.