Class A network in a school

[Sydders01]

Hi All,

 

Please what is your take on having a class A network in a school environment. insight on your pros or cons will be valuable.

 

Thanks

[localzuk]

We use a class A network in our Trust, but it is split up into multiple subnets for each site, then further for individual subnets for different functions.

 

If you're a single school though, I can't see the purpose of doing so. Even the biggest school won't need more than a few thousand IPs, something like a /20 or /19 overall.

 

I'm reality, it doesn't really matter.

[mikeprice]

The large business that I used to work in had a Class A network - as advised by a firm of network consultants in the early days of proiper IT networking

 

 

It was generally recognised to be a dumb move and an excellent example of the sort of problems you can get with "consultants"

 

but by this time the whole company was networked so it was too much trouble to convert to a more sensible concept

 

mind you - it wasn't the only 'unusual' thing implemented the the network group at that place - which is why I was in charge of the networking on our systems rather than them!!!

[Guest Guest]

We're on a class A despite having less than 400 devices, it's from when our broadband was provided by the LA. Doesn't make any difference though so we'll stick with it

[XiJ]

All our local primaries are in Class A networks. It comes from a time when all the schools were on LA internet and each school has its own addresses as part of the whole.

 

Now it’s just easier and less time consuming to carry on the same scheme. The biggest primary I know has a /22 and doesn’t need anything like that.

[Norphy]

The whole class A/B/C thing is somewhat arbitrary when it comes to private networks. As long as you stick to a private range, it doesn’t really matter what you use.

 

The only thing I’d say is if you want to use ranges larger than a /24, it’s worth use a range in the A or B ranges, rather than a C. I’ve found that sometimes when you try to combine C ranges, devices can be funny if they get allocated a 0 or 255 address

[Bionic]

The whole class A/B/C thing is somewhat arbitrary when it comes to private networks. As long as you stick to a private range, it doesn’t really matter what you use.

 

Some users may experience poor network performance on a class A network that hasn't been split into separate VLANs, dependant on the number of network devices that are connected to the network. Broadcast storms could cause problems on a poorly configured class A network too.

[FishCustard]

Why are we still talking about class A/B/C networks when CIDR has been around since 1993?

 

If you have a choice, use the 10.0.0.0/8, set sensible subnets on your VLANs (i.e. does your data/PC VLAN need a /20 when you've got 500 devices? Probably not.), and you'll have enough room for expansion should you take over every school in your county.

 

(I would also add - never use the 172.16.0.0/12 range if you can avoid it as it's harder to remember and work with mentally.)