Not everybody knows how to do the math quickly to get the CIDR notation for subnet masks. Traditionally subnet masks for networks are written and expressed as explicit numeric form for example 255.255.255.122 etc.

However, the CIDR notation lets you specify the subnet mask as a two digit decimal number with the IP address, for example:

192.168.0.0/16 means a 192.168.0.0 class B IP range, that can hold 65536 hosts.

There are a lot of websites which explain the CIDR notation and the decimal conversions. But in a Jiffy, you can refer to the cheat sheet available at http://oav.net/mirrors/cidr.html . A quick sheet is shown below:

Netmask              Netmask (binary)                 CIDR     Notes   
_____________________________________________________________________________
255.255.255.255  11111111.11111111.11111111.11111111  /32  Host (single addr)
255.255.255.254  11111111.11111111.11111111.11111110  /31  Unuseable
255.255.255.252  11111111.11111111.11111111.11111100  /30    2  useable
255.255.255.248  11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000  /29    6  useable
255.255.255.240  11111111.11111111.11111111.11110000  /28   14  useable
255.255.255.224  11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000  /27   30  useable
255.255.255.192  11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000  /26   62  useable
255.255.255.128  11111111.11111111.11111111.10000000  /25  126  useable
255.255.255.0    11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000  /24 "Class C" 254 useable

255.255.254.0    11111111.11111111.11111110.00000000  /23    2  Class C's
255.255.252.0    11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000  /22    4  Class C's
255.255.248.0    11111111.11111111.11111000.00000000  /21    8  Class C's
255.255.240.0    11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000  /20   16  Class C's
255.255.224.0    11111111.11111111.11100000.00000000  /19   32  Class C's
255.255.192.0    11111111.11111111.11000000.00000000  /18   64  Class C's
255.255.128.0    11111111.11111111.10000000.00000000  /17  128  Class C's
255.255.0.0      11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000  /16  "Class B"
    
255.254.0.0      11111111.11111110.00000000.00000000  /15    2  Class B's
255.252.0.0      11111111.11111100.00000000.00000000  /14    4  Class B's
255.248.0.0      11111111.11111000.00000000.00000000  /13    8  Class B's
255.240.0.0      11111111.11110000.00000000.00000000  /12   16  Class B's
255.224.0.0      11111111.11100000.00000000.00000000  /11   32  Class B's
255.192.0.0      11111111.11000000.00000000.00000000  /10   64  Class B's
255.128.0.0      11111111.10000000.00000000.00000000  /9   128  Class B's
255.0.0.0        11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000  /8   "Class A"
 
254.0.0.0        11111110.00000000.00000000.00000000  /7
252.0.0.0        11111100.00000000.00000000.00000000  /6
248.0.0.0        11111000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /5
240.0.0.0        11110000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /4
224.0.0.0        11100000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /3
192.0.0.0        11000000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /2
128.0.0.0        10000000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /1
0.0.0.0          00000000.00000000.00000000.00000000  /0   IP space

                                   Net     Host    Total
Net      Addr                      Addr    Addr    Number
Class   Range      NetMask         Bits    Bits   of hosts
----------------------------------------------------------
A        0-127    255.0.0.0         8      24     16777216   (i.e. 114.0.0.0)
B      128-191    255.255.0.0      16      16        65536   (i.e. 150.0.0.0)
C      192-254    255.255.255.0    24       8          256   (i.e. 199.0.0.0)
D      224-239    (multicast)
E      240-255    (reserved)
F      208-215    255.255.255.240  28       4           16
G      216/8      ARIN - North America
G      217/8      RIPE NCC - Europe
G      218-219/8  APNIC
H      220-221    255.255.255.248  29       3            8   (reserved)
K      222-223    255.255.255.254  31       1            2   (reserved)
(ref: RFC1375 & http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space )
(               http://www.iana.org/numbers.htm                    )
----------------------------------------------------------

The current list of special use prefixes:
    0.0.0.0/8   
    127.0.0.0/8
    192.0.2.0/24
    10.0.0.0/8
    172.16.0.0/12
    192.168.0.0/16
    169.254.0.0/16
    all D/E space