[W/K] :: network address

  network address n. (also `net address') As used by hackers, means an
     address on `the' network (see the network; this used to include bang
     path addresses but now almost always implies an {Internet address}).
     Net addresses are often used in email text as a more concise substitute
     for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to know each other quite
     well by network names without ever learning each others' `legal'
     monikers. Indeed, display of a network address (e.g. on business cards)
     used to function as an important hacker identification signal, like
     lodge pins among Masons or tie-dyed T-shirts among Grateful Dead fans.
     In the day of pervasive Internet this is less true, but you can still be
     fairly sure that anyone with a network address handwritten on his or her
     convention badge is a hacker.
  
  

  network address
       
           1. The network portion of an IP address.  For a
          class A network, the network address is the first byte of
          the IP address.  For a class B network, the network address
          is the first two bytes of the IP address.  For a class C
          network, the network address is the first three bytes of the
          IP address.  In each case, the remainder is the host
          address.  In the Internet, assigned network addresses are
          globally unique.
       
          See also subnet address, Internet Registry.
       
          2. (Or "net address") An electronic mail address on the
          network.  In the 1980s this might have been a bang path but
          now (1997) it is nearly always a domain address.  Such an
          address is essential if one wants to be to be taken seriously
          by hackers; in particular, persons or organisations that
          claim to understand, work with, sell to, or recruit from among
          hackers but *don't* display net addresses are quietly presumed
          to be clueless poseurs and mentally flushed.
       
          Hackers often put their net addresses on their business cards
          and wear them prominently in contexts where they expect to
          meet other hackers face-to-face (e.g. science-fiction
          fandom).  This is mostly functional, but is also a signal
          that one identifies with hackerdom (like lodge pins among
          Masons or tie-dyed T-shirts among Grateful Dead fans).  Net
          addresses are often used in e-mail text as a more concise
          substitute for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to
          know each other quite well by network names without ever
          learning each others' real monikers.
       
          See also sitename, domainist.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1997-05-10)