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Network Calculators Help |
Supervene / | calculator / |
This calculator will calculate what subnet mask to use to get the required
number of networks or nodes.
You'll need to enter the network portion
of a TCP/IP address and the required number of sub-networks or nodes. When you
have entered these values, click on 'Calculate' and it will list the network
class (A, B or C), the number of sub-networks, the number of nodes per
sub-network and the subnet mask to use. To get a listing of all the subnets,
click on 'List Networks' and a new window will open with the listing. You can
then print the list by selecting 'File - Print' on your browser menu or save it
by selecting 'File - Save As'. Depending on what operating sytem and browser
you have, the menu commands may be slightly different. The lists will only
show the first 256 and last 256 entries. If there are more than 512 subnets,
the middle entries will be shown by '.. .. ..". This has been done because if
there are a significant number of subnets, your computer may take from minutes
to hours to display all entries.
The calculator can now also do
supernetting calculations. Just select the number of nodes to be higher than
the default for that Class of Address (> 16777214 for Class A, > 65534 for
Class B and > 254 for Class C), click on 'Calculate' and it will show you the
supernet information. If you then click on 'List Networks' it will list the
supernet information. Again, you can print or save this.
There are two
conditions by which the supernetting calculator will show an 'Illegal' result.
This occurs when the supernet is too large and incorporates either the default
route (0.0.0.0), or the broadcast address (255.255.255.255). These supernets
cannot be used for obvious reasons.
You can also force the calculator to display using a specific class. For
example, if you want to subnet 10.12.0.0 with 16 subnets, select the "Class B"
radio button. It will then calculate and display 16 subnets from 10.12.0.0 to
10.12.255.255 instead of showing 16 subnets from 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255.
However, if you choose a number of nodes that is larger than the lower class can
support, the calculator will then use the normal class.
If you select a
value in 'Required nodes', the calculator will use this value to calculate
everything. If you wish to base the calculations on the 'Required
sub-networks', select nothing in the 'Required nodes' field.
I've had quite a few e-mails telling me the calculator is wrong because it
shows the all zeroes and all ones subnets as being usable. RFC 950, which first
defined subnetting, prohibited the use of these two subnets to eliminate
situations that could confuse a router using classful routing protocols like
RIP-1. These situations would occur because a classfull routing protocol does
not supply the subnet mask or prefix length with each route. The router could
not tell the difference between a route to the whole network and the all zeroes
subnet; nor could it tell if a broadcast would have to be sent to the entire
network or just the all ones subnet.
However, with today's classless
routing protocols like OSPF and BGP4 which do supply the subnet mask, a router
can now distinguish the routes and broadcasts. Therefore, these subnets can now
be used with caution; you have to ensure that all of the network components are
classless! A lot of certification exams will assume a classfull environment so
make sure you answer the questions that way. However, in my humble opinion,
these exams need to be rewritten to "get with the times".
This calculator will calculate the network and node components of a TCP/IP
address along with the broadcast address for that network. It will
automatically calculate based on the information provided in the subnet
calculator, or you can enter information in directly, Just enter a subnet mask
and an ip address and click on 'Calculate'.
If you click on the 'Explain'
button, a screen will open which shows an explanation using the values you
entered. However, you must have "cookies" enabled in your browser. If not,
you will see a default example.
This converter will take an IP address in either dotted decimal notation,
binary, hex or as a single decimal number (see below) and convert it to the
others. Just fill in one of the 4 sections, click on the corresponding
"Calculate" button, and presto, the address is converted into the other 3
formats. There is limited error checking, so make sure that you enter the
numbers properly.
Have you ever seen some people list their web site
using a single decimal number for the ip address like 'http://178363777'? All
they are doing is converting the 32 bit binary IP address to a decimal number.
Remember, the dotted notation is just a representation of a 32 bit binary
number.
This converter will take a subnet mask in either dotted decimal notation or
as the number of bits (/xx convention) and convert it to the other. Just fill
in one of the sections, click on the corresponding "Calculate" button, and
presto, the subnet mask is converted into the other format. NOTE: Due to the
nature of the calculator, only contiguous subnet masks are supported.
Therefore, if you enter a value that would create a non-contiguous subnet mask,
the value is automatically rounded to the next hightest allowed value.