What is the difference between the 4C block and 8C block of IP addresses for US hosting servers?

Users who frequently rent overseas servers will often find that when renting cluster servers, the IP section does not directly indicate the number of IP addresses but instead writes phrases like 4C or 8C. So what is the difference between 4C and 8C, and how are they calculated for US-based cluster servers? Let's introduce it below.

What is the C section?

Conventional IPv4 assigns IP addresses in the form of AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD (where ABCD are numbers). The A section represents the IP section indicated by the letter A, the B section represents the IP section indicated by the letter B, and so on. Therefore, the C section refers to the position indicated by the letter C, which means that one C section is actually AAA.BBB.CCC.0-AAA.BBB.CCC.256, a total of 256 IP addresses. The host number with all zeros is the network address, and the one with all ones is the broadcast address, so 2 addresses should be deducted. In addition, the data center will allocate one IP address as the gateway. Therefore, the maximum number of usable IP addresses in one C section is 253. This is why many data centers provide an entire C section with 253 IP addresses.

Method for calculating multiple C sections

When encountering multiple C segments, generally divide 256 by the number of C segments, for example, 4 C segments will have 64 IP addresses per C segment. Similarly, remove a network address and a broadcast address, and then remove an additional address used as a gateway. There are a total of 61 available IP addresses in each C segment, multiplied by 4, resulting in a total of 244 available IP addresses for the 4 C segments. Similarly, if there are 8 C segments, divide 256 by 8, resulting in 32 IP addresses per C segment, and then subtract 3 (network address, broadcast address, gateway). Each C segment has 29 available IP addresses, so the total number of IP addresses for 8 C segments is 232.

What is the difference between 4C and 8C IP addresses?

Firstly, the difference lies in the number of C segments. 4C refers to 4 different C segments, while 8C refers to 8 different C segments. Naturally, using 8C for SEO will provide a higher diversity of IP addresses. However, 4C has more available IP addresses compared to 8C. Therefore, users can choose according to their own needs.

How to choose a reliable server for site grouping?

First, you should choose a reputable and qualified professional service provider for leasing. It is best to choose a vendor that supports testing, which is more reliable. Secondly, you should check whether the server's IP is a dedicated IP. There are many small data centers that use virtual shared IPs through routers, which can be misleading. So, you can request a routing table to ensure that the multi-site servers are authentic.