An administrator is currently designing the IP addressing scheme for a small company. They have been asked to use the 192.168.100.x block of addresses with a /27 network prefix. How many networks and

255 networks with 224 hosts misrepresents the math entirely and does not correspond to any valid interpretation of a /27 mask on this address block.

30 networks with 8 hosts inverts the correct values - the /27 produces 8 subnets and 30 hosts, not the other way around.

With a /27 mask on a /24 Class C block, 3 bits are borrowed from the host portion (27 - 24 = 3), creating 2^3 = 8 subnets. Each subnet retains 5 host bits, giving 2^5 = 32 total addresses per subnet minus 2 (network and broadcast addresses) for 30 usable hosts per subnet.

27 networks is not a valid result because subnet counts must be a power of 2; the 3 borrowed bits yield exactly 8 subnets, not 27.