Subnetting in 60 seconds
A subnet mask separates the network bits from the host bits. /24 means the first 24 bits identify the network and the remaining 8 bits identify hosts (256 addresses, 254 usable).
Private RFC1918 ranges: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16. Anything else is publicly routable.
Use /30 for point-to-point links (2 usable hosts), /31 for modern P2P (RFC 3021), /29 for tiny LANs.