I have been reading networking, tcp/ip udp smtp tuts and info. etc etc etc literally all day. That means almost (literally) all the AOL tuts on them and many of the links posted on those tuts and I know alot more now than before but there is still something Im not satisfied about . . . subnetting.

Really its subnetting masks and their association(s) with IP addressing - I can't even think of how to properly formulate the question . . One question might be 'Are subnet masks distinctive to individual hosts? (like IP addresses)' or something like that . . .

On this site a bit more than halfway down is a table (Table 30-2 Class B Subnetting Reference Chart). Can someone explain this to me and why. Don't go into base numbers and bits and bytes and octets etc etc because I know already. . I just don't/can't completely fathom the why's and why not's of this structure illustrated on these tables.