I created this object to help out with subnet definitions. Basically, I wanted a way to take a CIDR subnet definition (a.b.c.d/e) and derive a whole bunch of other things from it -- network number, netmask, and the first and last IP addresses in the range, as well as the total number of available addresses. Much of the code was borrowed from various places on line, and this probably isn't the most efficient way to do things, but it works.