Industrial Engineer · phase 5 of 16 · noun
IP Address / Subnet Mask
Network settings that identify an Ethernet device and determine which addresses are locally reachable.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- The IP address is a device's number on an Ethernet network, and the subnet mask says which part of that number identifies the network and which part identifies the device. Two devices can talk directly only if the mask puts them on the same network.
- Example
- A drive on the plant network with a mask that fixes the first three numbers can reach any device whose first three numbers match its own. A typo in the mask makes the PLC unreachable while every link light stays green.
- Why it matters
- Duplicate addresses and wrong masks produce intermittent faults that look like bad cables. Keep a written address list for every panel and check it before you plug anything in.
- Hook
- The number on the door and the name of the street.
Word knowledge
How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.
In a sentence
During commissioning, enter the PLC's IP Address and Subnet Mask in the Ethernet module before testing communication with the HMI.
Why these words
- IP English initialism of Internet Protocol specifies the protocol family associated with the following noun
- Address Middle English adress, from Old French adrescier, to direct provides the phrase's head noun and its location-related wording
Where it came from
- Origin
- English technical coinage formed from Internet Protocol and address
- Entered the language
- 1980s
- What changed
- Address developed from the idea of directing something toward a destination, then became a computing term for a numbered location; IP narrowed it to Internet Protocol terminology.
How it is spelled
- Pattern
- IP is written as an unpunctuated capital initialism
- Pattern
- address retains double d and final double s
- Breaks the pattern
- IP is pronounced as two separate letters rather than as one spoken word.
Spelled like
- addressable
- addressee
- IP packet
Broken into chunks
-
IP
- IP packet
- IP routing
-
address
- addressable
- addressee
What it sits beside
Same subject
- Subnet Mask
- Default Gateway
- DHCP
- MAC Address
Same shape
- MAC Address
- I/O Address
- Node Address
Ethernet configuration fields
- IP Address
- Subnet Mask
- Default Gateway
network address notation
- IPv4 address
- IPv6 address
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 5: PLC Industrial Communications
The protocols that let controllers, drives and operator panels talk, plus the addressing and description files that make them agree on what was said.
