Talk:Octet (computing)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I have always been under the impression that an octet was three bits representing an octal number. I guess this because I grew up in a Varian 501 which is an octal machine. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 210.213.254.182 (talk • contribs) 07:41, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
- This can be the case, but only generally specifying an IP number, because three digits from the IP number are specified using eight bits. I don't think the three digits should be called an octet itself, only the eight bits that make up that particular three digits, if that makes sense! There's some good info on it here: http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/IPaddressing.asp
Matt512 15:24, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
-
- I think you are talking about two different things. What 210 was saying was that the three bits that make up an octal digit (for example, the binary number 101, which represents the octal digit 5) could be referred to as an octet. I believe this is another acceptable usage of the term "octet", but not one that is typically used in networking, since there is little call to express an IP address in octal as opposed to either decimal or hexadecimal. --ΨΦorg 21:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
