INTRODUCTION TO

LESSON 8 (BINARY CONVERSION, SUBNETTING)

COMPUTER NETWORKING
 • BINARY IS A BASE 2 NUMBER SYSTEM
INVENTED BY GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ THAT
IS MADE UP OF ONLY TWO NUMBERS:
0 AND 1.

BINARY • THIS NUMBER SYSTEM IS THE BASIS FOR

ALL BINARY CODE, WHICH IS USED TO
WRITE DATA SUCH AS THE
INSTRUCTIONS THAT COMPUTER
PROCESSORS USE, OR THE DIGITAL TEXT
YOU READ EVERY DAY.
 • THE DECIMAL NUMBER SYSTEM
CONSISTS OF TEN SINGLE- DIGIT
NUMBERS: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, AND 9.
DECIMAL • DECIMAL IS A TERM THAT
DESCRIBES THE BASE-10 NUMBER
SYSTEM COMMONLY USED BY LAY
PEOPLE IN THE DEVELOPED
WORLD.
 • THE HEXADECIMAL NUMERAL SYSTEM, OFTEN
SHORTENED TO "HEX", IS A NUMERAL SYSTEM
MADE UP OF 16 SYMBOLS (BASE 16).

• THE STANDARD NUMERAL SYSTEM IS CALLED

HEXA
DECIMAL (BASE 10) AND USES TEN SYMBOLS:
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
• HEXADECIMAL USES THE DECIMAL NUMBERS AND
DECIMAL SIX EXTRA SYMBOLS. THERE ARE NO NUMERICAL
SYMBOLS THAT REPRESENT VALUES GREATER THAN
TEN, SO LETTERS TAKEN FROM THE ENGLISH
ALPHABET ARE USED, SPECIFICALLY A, B, C, D, E
AND F. HEXADECIMAL A = DECIMAL 10, AND
HEXADECIMAL F = DECIMAL 15.
DECIMAL TO BINARY
175 1 01 0 1111
- 128
• YES - 1
• NO – 0

47 • EQUAL - 1

- 32
15
- 8
7
- 4
3
- 2 1
BINARY TO DECIMAL • DIVIDE AND CONQUER

11111111
128
32

1
4
2
8
10101111 175 240 15

160 15
BINARY TO HEXADECIMAL • HEXADECIMAL = 8 BITS
8 4 2 1

1111
• BINARY – SEMI DECI

84 1 8 2
• SEMI DECI – HEXA

11011010 DA 15
13 10
0 5 10 = A 15 = F
1 6 11 = B
2 7 12 = C
3 8 13 = D
4 9 14 = E
HEXADECIMAL TO DECIMAL • HEXADECIMAL = 8 BITS
8 4 2 1

128
• HEXA – SEMI DECI
1111
64
• SEMI DECI – BINARY

16
• BINARY – DECIMAL

8
2
DA 1101 10 10 218 15
13 10 208 10
0 5 10 = A 15 = F
1 6 11 = B
2 7 12 = C
3 8 13 = D
4 9 14 = E
DECIMAL TO HEXADECIMAL
84 1 8 2 • HEXADECIMAL = 8 BITS
8 4 2 1
218 11 01 1010 DA 1111
128
90 13 10 15 • SEMI DECIMAL

64
26
16
10
8
2 0 5 10 = A 15 = F
2 1
2
6
7
11 = B
12 = C
0 3
4
8
9
13 = D
14 = E
SUBNET MASK
• “SUBNET” MEANS SUB-NETWORK. SO THE
PURPOSE OF SUBNET MASK WAS TO CREATE
ANOTHER PARTITION (3RD PART) IN AN IP
ADDRESS AFTER NETWORK PART.
SUBNETTING
• IS THE PRACTICE OF DIVIDING A NETWORK INTO
TWO OR MORE SMALLER NETWORKS. IT
INCREASES ROUTING EFFICIENCY, ENHANCES
THE SECURITY OF THE NETWORK AND REDUCES
THE SIZE OF THE BROADCAST DOMAIN.
• IN THE PICTURE ABOVE WE
HAVE ONE HUGE
NETWORK: 10.0.0.0/24.
ALL HOSTS ON THE
NETWORK ARE IN THE
SAME SUBNET, WHICH HAS
FOLLOWING
DISADVANTAGES:
• A SINGLE BROADCAST DOMAIN – ALL HOSTS
ARE IN THE SAME BROADCAST DOMAIN. A
BROADCAST SENT BY ANY DEVICE ON THE
NETWORK WILL BE PROCESSED BY ALL HOSTS,
CREATING LOTS OF UNNECESSARY TRAFFIC.
• NETWORK SECURITY – EACH DEVICE CAN
REACH ANY OTHER DEVICE ON THE NETWORK,
WHICH CAN PRESENT SECURITY PROBLEMS. FOR
EXAMPLE, A SERVER CONTAINING SENSITIVE
INFORMATION SHOULDN’T BE IN THE SAME
NETWORK AS AN USER WORKSTATION.
• ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEMS – IN A LARGE
NETWORKS, DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS ARE
USUALLY GROUPED INTO DIFFERENT SUBNETS.
FOR EXAMPLE, YOU CAN GROUP ALL DEVICES
FROM THE ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT IN THE
SAME SUBNET AND THEN GIVE ACCESS TO
SENSITIVE FINANCIAL DATA ONLY TO HOSTS
FROM THAT SUBNET.
NOW, TWO SUBNETS WERE CREATED
FOR DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS:
10.0.0.0/24 FOR ACCOUNTING AND
10.1.0.0/24 FOR MARKETING.
DEVICES IN EACH SUBNET ARE NOW
IN A DIFFERENT BROADCAST DOMAIN.
THIS WILL REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF
TRAFFIC FLOWING ON THE NETWORK
AND ALLOW US TO IMPLEMENT
PACKET FILTERING ON THE ROUTER.
 SUBNET MASK
• AN IP ADDRESS IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS: NETWORK AND HOST
PARTS. FOR EXAMPLE, AN IP CLASS A ADDRESS CONSISTS OF 8 BITS
IDENTIFYING THE NETWORK AND 24 BITS IDENTIFYING THE HOST. THIS IS
BECAUSE THE DEFAULT SUBNET MASK FOR A CLASS A IP ADDRESS IS 8
BITS LONG. (OR, WRITTEN IN DOTTED DECIMAL NOTATION, 255.0.0.0).
WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WELL, LIKE AN IP ADDRESS, A SUBNET MASK
ALSO CONSISTS OF 32 BITS. COMPUTERS USE IT TO DETERMINE THE
NETWORK PART AND THE HOST PART OF AN ADDRESS. THE 1S IN THE
SUBNET MASK REPRESENT A NETWORK PART, THE 0S A HOST PART.
• COMPUTERS WORKS ONLY WITH BITS. THE MATH USED TO
DETERMINE A NETWORK RANGE IS BINARY AND.
• COMPUTERS THEN USE THE AND OPERATION TO DETERMINE
THE NETWORK NUMBER:
CREATE SUBNETS
• THERE ARE A COUPLE OF WAYS TO CREATE SUBNETS. IN THIS ARTICLE WE WILL SUBNET A CLASS
C ADDRESS 192.168.0.0 THAT, BY DEFAULT, HAS 24 SUBNET BITS AND 8 HOST BITS.
• BEFORE WE START SUBNETTING, WE HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES THESE TWO QUESTIONS:
• 1. HOW MANY SUBNETS DO WE NEED?
• 2X = NUMBER OF SUBNETS. X IS THE NUMBER OF 1S IN THE SUBNET MASK. WITH 1 SUBNET BIT, WE
CAN HAVE 21 OR 2 SUBNETS. WITH 2 BITS, 22 OR 4 SUBNETS, WITH 3 BITS, 23 OR 8 SUBNETS,
ETC.

• 2. HOW MANY HOSTS PER SUBNET DO WE NEED?

• 2Y – 2 = NUMBER OF HOSTS PER SUBNET. Y IS THE NUMBER OF 0S IN THE SUBNET MASK.
SUBNETTING EXAMPLE
An example will help you understand the subnetting
concept. Let’s say that we need to subnet a class C
address 192.168.0.0/24. We need two subnets with
50 hosts per subnet. Here is our calculation:
1. Since we need only two subnets, we need 21
subnet bits. In our case, this means that we will take
one bit from the host part. Here is the calculation:
• FIRST, WE HAVE A CLASS C ADDRESS 192.168.0.0 WITH THE
SUBNET MASK OF 24. LET’S CONVERT THEM TO BINARY:

• 192.168.0.0 = 11000000.10101000.00000000.00000000
255.255.255.0 =
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
• WE NEED TO TAKE COVERT A SINGLE ZERO FROM THE HOST PART
OF THE SUBNET MASK. HERE IS OUR NEW SUBNET MASK:

• 255.255.255.128 =
11111111.11111111.11111111.10000000
• REMEMBER, THE ONES IN THE SUBNET MASK REPRESENT THE
NETWORK.
• 2. WE NEED 50 HOSTS PER SUBNET. SINCE WE TOOK ONE BIT
FROM THE HOST PART, WE ARE LEFT WITH SEVEN BITS FOR THE
HOSTS. IS IT ENOUGH FOR 50 HOSTS? THE FORMULA TO
CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF HOSTS IS 2Y – 2, WITH Y
REPRESENTING THE NUMBER OF HOST BITS. SINCE 27 – 2 IS 126,
WE HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH BITS FOR OUR HOSTS.
• 3. OUR NETWORK WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:
• 192.168.0.0/25 – THE FIRST SUBNET HAS THE SUBNET NUMBER
OF 192.168.0.0. THE RANGE OF IP ADDRESSES IN THIS SUBNET IS
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.0.127.
• 192.168.0.128/25 – THE SECOND SUBNET HAS THE SUBNET
NUMBER OF 192.168.0.128. THE RANGE OF IP ADDRESSES IN
THIS SUBNET IS 192.168.0.128 – 192.168.0.255.
NETWORK AND
BROADCAST ADDRESSES
CLASSES RANGE
N= NETWORK SLOT
H= HOST SLOT 201.45.60.81
201.45.60.0 NA
A 0-127 NHHH 201.45.60.255 BA
B 128-191 NNHH
NETWORK ADDRESS
C 192-223 NNNH N = COPY H = 0
D&E 224-255 BROADCAST ADDRESS
N = COPY H = 255
SUBNET MASK
N= NETWORK SLOT SUBNET MASK SUBNET MASK
CLASSES RANGE H= HOST SLOT LONG FORMAT (LF) CIDR (/FORMAT)

A 0-127 NHHH 255.0.0.0 /8

B 128-191 NNHH 255.255.0.0 /16

C 192-223 NNNH 255.255.255.0 /24

D&E 224-255 N = COPY H = 0

N = COPY H = 255
N = 255
H=0