/18 subnet (255.255.192.0)

A /18 network has 16,384 addresses, of which 16,382 can be given to hosts after the network and broadcast addresses. A large network, the classic “class B” size at /16. Common as a cloud VPC range or a site-wide allocation.

CIDR notation
/18
Subnet mask
255.255.192.0
Wildcard mask
0.0.63.255
Binary mask
11111111.11111111.11000000.00000000
Total addresses
16,384
Usable hosts
16,382
Example network
172.16.0.0/18
Example usable range
172.16.0.1 – 172.16.63.254
/24 networks in a /18
64

Calculate a /18 for your own address

In firewall rules and investigations

A /18 rule matches every address from 172.16.0.0 to 172.16.63.255. In Cisco ACLs the same range is written with the wildcard mask 0.0.63.255. When an alert names an IP, checking whether it falls inside a known /18 (your own network, a cloud provider’s published range or a blocked range) is often the quickest first step.