Why don't we use all the whole octec to identify an IP address? For example, why does an A-class-IP address, begin with
10000000 and not 11111111? Thus, can we have more IP addresses?
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Welcome to IP Version 6, IPv6! This new standard was developed in part to address the limitation of IPv4 address schemes. You can subnet your addresses in several ways creating more or less addresses. However, that said, whatever you do has to be understood by all routers and routing switches and the applications on the network. In your example, however, you can't look just at the address. You have to also look at the subnet mask.
This was first published in February 2004