# Some terminology questions..

## Simpleton

Ok, so I should know these from my windows use but I wanted clarification so I can install gentoo successfully... 

what is "broadcast address"?

and "network mask" is that just the Subnet Mask ( 255.255.255.0 thing? )

scott

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## kraylus

not too keen on some of the terminology myself but i believe that broadcast address is the range of IPs that you're on.

for example, if you have a gateway computer dividing the internet connection to other PCs in the house and the gateway's internal IP is 192.168.0.1 then the broadcast would be 192.168.0.XXX (a range of 2-255 i think).

dont take my word for it though. any reason why you're asking?

ryan

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## Guest

well I'm on a uni lan and the broadcast address thing kind of stumped me, I thought it may be something like what you said. Though on the network the ip's are statically assigned I believe, so I hope it will still work.

also, maybe a few small things you can help me on...

my partition is set like this

C: Win98 (fat32)

D: Winxp (fat32)

E: Files (fat32)

F: Gentoo Boot (ext2)

G: Gentoo Swap

H: Gentoo Root (ext2)

would I be correct in assuming that my Gentoo Boot would be specified as /dev/hda4 ?? and would Grub refer to it as (hd0,3) ??

and lastly where is says about configuring the /etc/fstab..... what command do I use to edit the fstab.conf file?

thanks, and sorry for the hassles...

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## klieber

 *Simpleton wrote:*   

> what is "broadcast address"?

 

It's the IP address that specifies "all hosts" on your network.

 *Simpleton wrote:*   

> and "network mask" is that just the Subnet Mask ( 255.255.255.0 thing? )

 

Yes.

BTW, both of these questions are answered by doing a simple google search.

--kurt

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## nate

 *Anonymous wrote:*   

> 
> 
> my partition is set like this
> 
> C: Win98 (fat32)
> ...

 

Sounds about right.  Though the drive letter is only a windows thing   :Smile:   And yes Grub will see /dev/hda4 as (hd0,3).

As for the fstab.conf file. hmmm... I always use a text editor to edit it.  I don't think there is a  configurator on gentoo (though I may be wrong).

Check out http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/build.xml#doc_chap16 to see how fstab.conf is formated.

Hope this helps,

Nathan

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## Houdini

disclaimer: this assumes your uni's network doesn't suck   :Razz: 

if your IP address is w.x.y.z, your broadcast address will almost always be w.x.y.255

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## delta407

 *Houdini wrote:*   

> disclaimer: this assumes your uni's network doesn't suck  
> 
> if your IP address is w.x.y.z, your broadcast address will almost always be w.x.y.255

 

No, this assumes you have a netmask of 255.255.255.0.

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