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Quick and Dirty Subnetting PDF

1) The document discusses the importance of being able to calculate subnets quickly, especially for designing Active Directory site structures. 2) It provides a concise summary of the principles of extended subnetting, including rules like not allowing all 0s or 1s in the network or host portions. 3) Formulas are given for calculating the number of networks or hosts from a subnet mask, such as 2^(number of bits used) - 2. A subnetting table is also provided.

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ErickReyes
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248 views

Quick and Dirty Subnetting PDF

1) The document discusses the importance of being able to calculate subnets quickly, especially for designing Active Directory site structures. 2) It provides a concise summary of the principles of extended subnetting, including rules like not allowing all 0s or 1s in the network or host portions. 3) Formulas are given for calculating the number of networks or hosts from a subnet mask, such as 2^(number of bits used) - 2. A subnetting table is also provided.

Uploaded by

ErickReyes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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www.preplogic.

com 1-800-418-6789

We cant emphasize enough the importance of minimum amount of


information you have to
being able to calculate subnets on the fly when carry around in your head
working with Windows servers and clients, in order to calculate subnet (or supernet) masks
particularly for designing your Active Directory in any situation, an exam, your job, etc. In this
site structure (also something you will get post, we will address the more complicated
subnetting known as extended subnetting.
hammered on in MS exam 70-642: MCTS: Windows Instead of using the basic classful subnet masks (255.0.0.0,
Server Network Infrastructure, Configuring). 255.255.0.0 and 255.255.255.0), we will explore the use of
extended subnet masks.
If you know the principles and theory behind subnetting and can
convert binary numbers to decimal and decimal to binary, you
may find this very short summary of how to perform subnetting SOME RULES TO REMEMBER
useful.

1 The network portion of the IP address described by the


For people who work with IP addressing and routing as part extended subnet mask cannot be expressed as all 0s or
of their jobs, subnetting (breaking a larger IP network into all 1s. (The validity of this rule depends on a number of
separated and smaller networks) or supernetting (combining two factors such as the type of hardware and the routing protocol
or more networks or subnets together) becomes second nature. in use.) So, for example, lets assume we have extended a
For them, it is a fairly easy thing to calculate subnets. A lot of Class B network by borrowing two bits from the host portion
people who are new to networking or relatively inexperienced of the address thus: 172.16.0.0/18. The subnet mask is
with TCP/IP often and wrongly think that performing subnetting 255.255.192.0 or 11111111.11111111.11000000.00000
is a mysterious and difficult task. I remember the frustration 000. Notice that we have used the first 18 of the 32 bits for the
I felt many years ago when, as an inexperienced network subnet mask. This is where the /18 notation originates.
admin, I could not get anyone to give me a good explanation
of subnetting. Some of the more experienced network Any combination of 0s and 1s in the 3rd octet could possibly
administrators, in fact, refused to explain it to me. I dont know if comprise a network ID. However, following our rule of not
they were protecting their jobs or what, but it did seem to me at allowing all 1s or all 0s in the positions covered by the extended
the time that they were going out of their way to create a false subnet mask, we get the following valid network IDs in the 3rd
aura of mystery and difficulty concerning subnetting. octet:
The truth is this: calculating subnets is fairly easy and doesnt 00000000 = 0 Not a valid network ID (all 0s)
require that you memorize anything except a few general 01000000 = 64 Valid network ID (172.16.64.0)
principles and know how to work with binary numbers. The 10000000 = 128 Valid network ID (172.16.128.0)
purpose of this short explanation is to provide you with the 11000000 = 192 Not a valid network ID (all 1s)

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2 The host portion of the IP address cannot be expressed as all 0s
or all 1s. All 0s in the host portion of the address indicates the SUBNETTING TABLE
Network ID. All 1s in the host portion of the address indicates 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
the address for the broadcast on the subnet. Therefore, using our 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
example above, here are the valid host IDs for our two valid subnets
172.16.64.0/18 and 172.16.128.0/18: 192
172.16.64.1/18 - 172.16.127.254/18 224
172.16.128.1/18 - 172.16.191.254/18 240
To understand the rule more clearly, convert the host addresses to 248
binary: 252
64 1 127 254 254
x.y. 01000000.00000001 -x.y. 01111111.11111110
To use the table, find the value for the subnet mask.
128 1 191 254 Lets say you are subnetting a Class B address
x.y. 10000000.00000001 -x.y. 10111111.11111110 with the subnet mask 255.255.248.0. Find 248 on
the chart and follow the lines to determine the

3
To calculate the number of hosts or the number of networks for a low order bit for the subnet. The value for the low
given subnet mask, use the following formula: order bit for 248 is 8. That tells you two things: the
starting network ID and the difference between
2^(number of bits used) - 2 = number of networks/hosts (The ^ one network ID and the next: 8. Therefore, given
means raised to the power of.) a class B address of 172.16.0.0/21 (subnet mask of
255.255.248.0), the possible network IDs and host
So, given the fact that we have borrowed 2 bits to extend our network,
ranges are
we have 2^2 - 2 = 2 networks (remember, we are excluding the all 1
and all 0 networks). Network IDs Host Ranges

We have 14 bits left to describe the hosts on each network; therefore 172.16.8.0/21 172.16.8.1 -
172.16.15.254
we have 2^14 - 2 = 16,382 hosts per network (remember we are
172.16.16.0/21 172.16.16.1 -
excluding host addresses with all 0s or all 1s). 172.16.23.254

4 The value of the lowest order bit in the subnet mask tells you 172.16.24.0/21 172.16.24.1 -
172.16.31.254
two things: a) it tells you the first network ID for the subnets . . . .
created by the extended subnet mask, b) it tells you the value 172.16.240.0/21 172.16.240.1 -
that you can add to one network ID to arrive at the next possible 172.16.247.254
network ID.
To determine the number of networks created by the
Lets take our example extended subnet mask of 255.255.192.0. subnet mask, count the number of bits used for the
The 3rd octet expressed in binary with the decimal equivalents is: subnet mask. For a subnet mask of 248, the number
is 5 bits. Therefore, the number of networks is 2^5
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
- 2 = 30. To determine the number of hosts, count
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
the remaining bits. For a subnetted Class B address
The value of the lowest order bit is 64. Therefore, our first with a subnet mask of 255.255.248.0, we have 3
network ID is 172.16.64.0/18. The next and last network ID is + 8 = 11 bits remaining. Therefore, we can have 2^11
172.16.128.0/18 (64 + 64 = 128) - 2 = 2046 hosts per network.

To help you calculate subnet masks, you might want to memorize the So, to sum up, memorize the Subnetting Table above
table on the right side of this page. and the following rules:
1. You cant have all 0s or all 1s in the host or
Thats it. The first thing I do when I go into an exam situation where network portion of the address (unless the
I know I am going to be asked about subnetting is to draw out the hardware and software support it).
subnetting table on a blank piece of paper.
2. To determine the number of networks or hosts,
For the Microsoft 70-642: MCTS: Windows Server Network use the formula 2^(no. of bits used) - 2.
Infrastructure, Configuring, you will find that you need to be able 3. The low order bit in the subnet mask determines
to calculate subnets quickly and accurately. I have found this quick the starting network ID and the difference between
method to be helpful, but particularly helpful on this exam. possible network IDs.

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