/6 subnet (252.0.0.0)

A /6 network has 67,108,864 addresses, of which 67,108,862 can be given to hosts after the network and broadcast addresses. A huge block covering a large share of the IPv4 address space, seen in routing and broad firewall rules.

CIDR notation
/6
Subnet mask
252.0.0.0
Wildcard mask
3.255.255.255
Binary mask
11111100.00000000.00000000.00000000
Total addresses
67,108,864
Usable hosts
67,108,862
Example network
0.0.0.0/6
Example usable range
0.0.0.1 – 3.255.255.254
/24 networks in a /6
262,144

Calculate a /6 for your own address

In firewall rules and investigations

A /6 rule matches every address from 0.0.0.0 to 3.255.255.255. In Cisco ACLs the same range is written with the wildcard mask 3.255.255.255. When an alert names an IP, checking whether it falls inside a known /6 (your own network, a cloud provider’s published range or a blocked range) is often the quickest first step.