Simple Tricks To Ace the Subnetting Portion of Any Certification Exam

Subnetting seems to be a battle of fighting bits, decimal numbers, and countless methods and processes to convert from one to the other. While the methods may be confusing, the mathematics behind them is the same for all. In this paper, you will learn some of the simpler ways to figure out many of the subnetting questions that you will find on the industry certification tests.
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Simple Tricks To Ace the Subnetting Portion of Any Certification ExamExpert Reference Series of White Papers Simple Tricks To Acethe Subnetting Portion of Any Certification Exam1-800-COURSES www.globalknowledge.comSimple Tricks To Ace the SubnettingPortion of Any Certification ExamTed Rohling, Global Knowledge Instructor, CISSPIntroductionSubnetting seems to be a battle of fighting bits, decimal numbers, and countless methods and processes toconvert from one to the other. While the methods may be confusing, the mathematics behind them is the samefor all. In this paper, you will learn some of the simpler ways to figure out many of the subnetting questionsthat you will find on the industry certification tests.Unlike some of the more complex methods, these methods use subtraction, addition, multiplication, and divi-sion—no converting from binary or decimal. As a matter of fact, if you can do the four basic math functions,you can learn these failure-free methods quickly and easily.Warning: The basic assumption is that you are already familiar with subnetting and have actually learnedsubnetting concepts elsewhere. This white paper does not teach subnetting, it teaches useful methods forpassing certification test questions.Overview of SubnettingThe reason we subnet is to break larger IP networks into smaller ones. Often we have networks that are thesame size. These use a fixed length subnet mask for all networks. Other network designs employ different sub-net masks, depending on the number of addresses required for each subnet. This is called variable length sub-net masking or VLSM.As I learned subnetting, I began to realize that subnetting is much like my grandmothers kitchen. When mygrandmother made pies, she cut the pies in various configurations depending on the needs of the pie eaters.Often, the pie was cut with all pieces the same size. Other times she cut the slices in various sizes, dependingon who was eating. My grandfather always got the biggest piece . . . go figure.In the end analysis, subnetting is taking a pie, your assigned address space, and cutting the address space intovariously sized pieces depending on need. My grandmother cut her pies with a knife. We cut our address spaceby using subnet masks. By visually inspecting the pie my grandmother cut, you could determine how big eachpiece was. By looking at the address and subnet mask, you can see how many addresses are found in eachsubnet and what those addresses are.Let’s review some of the more important concepts related to subnetting.Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. Page 2Address Class IdentificationYou will often need to identify the class of an IP address in order to complete test questions successfully.Below is an address class table to assist you.Address Class Table Address Class First Octet Value Range First Octet Binary Value A 0-127 0nnnnnnn B 128-191 10nnnnnn C 192-223 110nnnnnn D 224-239 1111nnnnThe Octet and the Binary ProgressionAn octet is an eight bit data element. When IP was being developed, the term byte had two possible mean-ings, a seven bit byte or an eight bit byte. The IP developers started using the term “octet” to reflect the eightbit byte format. An eight bit data element has the ability to store the binary equivalent of decimal numbersfrom 0 to 255.Binary Table 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1The subnet mask and IP addressing revolve around the table shown above. This is the binary to decimal equiv-alent table. One of the first things you might consider doing in a certification test environment is to copy thistable from memory on to your scratch paper or erasable worksheet provided at the testing center.Another table to record is below:Mask Table Binary Mask Addresses 00000000 0 256 10000000 128 128 11000000 192 64 11100000 224 32 11110000 240 16 11111000 248 8 11111100 252 4 11111110 254 2 11111111 255 1Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. Page 3This table contains the eight possible octet values for any mask along with the decimal equivalent. It will beused to determine the mask when the number of subnets required is given.Mask-to-Prefix or Prefix-to-Mask Conversion255.255.255.0 is equivalent to a prefix of /24.If you see masks or prefixes on your exam, don’t panic. The prefix is simply another way to state the mask. Theprefix contains a count of the total number of 1 bits i ...