[PHP] Ip Address to binary

[Jason Bell]

does anyone know of a way to convert an IP address to Binary using PHP? My plan is to 
store the IP address in MySQL so that I can manage a mass amount of IP subnets, and 
easily make sure I'm not assigning duplicate subnets.  the best way I can think of is 
to use binary.

any other ideas, thoughts or comments?


Thanks!

-Jason Bell