In networking, a wildcard mask is a 32-bit quantity that is divided into four octets. A wildcard mask is paired with an IP address. The numbers one and zero in the mask are used to identify how to treat the corresponding IP address bits. The term wildcard masking is a nickname for the ACL mask-bit matching process and comes from of an analogy of a wildcard that matches any other card in the game of poker.
Wildcard masks have no functional relationship with subnet masks. They are used for different purposes and follow different rules. Subnet masks start from the left side of an IP address and work towards the right to extend the network field by borrowing bits from the host field. Wildcard masks are designed to filter individual or groups of IP addresses permitting or denying access to resources based on the address in a Cloud Hosting or aWebsite Hosting that has a Dedicated Server. Trying to figure out how wildcard masks work by relating them to subnet masking will only confuse the entire matter. The only similarity between a wildcard mask and a subnet mask is that they are both thirty-two bits long and use ones and zeros for the mask.