Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

Objectives
Part 1: Access the Windows Calculator
Part 2: Convert between Numbering Systems
Part 3: Convert Host IPv4 Addresses and Subnet
Masks into Binary
Part 4: Determine the Number of Hosts in a Network
Using Powers of 2 Part 5: Convert MAC Addresses
and IPv6 Addresses to Binary
Background / Scenario
Network technicians use binary, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers when
working with computers and networking devices. Microsoft provides a built-in
Calculator application as part of the operating system. The Windows 7 version
of Calculator includes a Standard view that can be used to perform basic
arithmetic tasks such as addition, subtract, multiplication, and division. The
Calculator application also has advanced programming, scientific, and statistical
capabilities.
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

In this lab, you will use the Windows 7 Calculator application Programmer view
to convert between the binary, decimal, and hexadecimal number systems. You
will also use the Scientific view powers function to determine the number of
hosts that can be addressed based on the number of host bits available.
Required Resources
1 PC (Windows 7 or 8)
Note: If using an operating system other than Windows 7, the Calculator
application views and functions available may vary from those shown in this lab.
However, you should be able to perform the calculations. All rights reserved.
This document is Cisco Public.

Part 1: Access the Windows Calculator

In Part 1, you will become familiar with the Microsoft Windows built-in calculator
application and view the available modes.
Step 1: Click the Windows Start button and select All Programs.
Step 2: Click the Accessories folder and select Calculator.
Step 3: After Calculator opens, click the View menu.
What are the four available modes?
Hexadecimal, Decimal, Octal, Binary
Note: The Programmer and Scientific modes are used in this lab.
Part 2: Convert between Numbering Systems
In the Windows Calculator Programmer view, several number system modes are
available: Hex (Hexadecimal or base 16), Dec (Decimal or base 10), Oct (Octal
or base 8), and Bin (Binary or base 2).

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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

We are accustomed to using the decimal number system that uses the digits 0
to 9. The decimal numbering system is used in everyday life for all counting,
money, and financial transactions. Computers and other electronic devices use
the binary numbering system with only the digits 0 and 1 for data storage, data
transmission

and

numerical

calculations.

All

computer

calculations

are

ultimately performed internally in binary (digital) form, regardless of how they

are displayed.
One disadvantage of binary numbers is that the binary number equivalent of a
large decimal number can be quite long. This makes them difficult to read and
write. One way to overcome this problem is to arrange binary numbers into
groups of four as hexadecimal numbers. Hexadecimal numbers are base 16,
and a combination of numbers from 0 to 9 and the letters A to F are used to
represent the binary or decimal equivalent. Hexadecimal characters are used
when writing or displaying IPv6 and MAC addresses.
The octal numbering system is very similar in principle to hexadecimal. Octal
numbers represent binary numbers in groups of three. This numbering system
uses digits 0 to 7. Octal numbers are also a convenient way to represent a large
binary number in smaller groups, but this numbering system is not commonly
used.
In this lab, the Windows 7 Calculator is used to convert between different
numbering systems in the Programmer mode.
a. Click the View menu and select Programmer to switch to Programmer mode.
Note: For Windows XP and Vista, only two modes, Standard and Scientific, are
available. If you are using one of these operating systems, you can use the
scientific mode to perform this lab.
Which number system is currently active? Decimal
Which numbers on the number pad are active in decimal mode? Zero
b. Click the Bin (Binary) radio button. Which numbers are active on the number
pad now?
0,1
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

Why do you think the other numbers are grayed out?

Because, Binary is all about 0 and 1

c. Click the Hex (Hexadecimal) radio button. Which characters are activated on
the number pad now?
0 to 9
A to F
Because in hexadecimal we need an alphabetical number.
d. Click the Dec radio button. Using your mouse, click the number 1 followed by
the number 5 on the number pad. The decimal number 15 is now entered.
Note: The numbers and letters on the keyboard can also be used to enter
the values. If using the numerical keypad, type the number 15. If the
number does not enter into the calculator, press the Num Lock key to
enable the numeric keypad.
Click the Bin radio button. What happened to the number 15?
1111
e. Numbers are converted from one numbering system to another by selecting the
desired number mode. Click the Dec radio button again. The number converts
back to decimal.
f. Click the Hex radio button to change to Hexadecimal mode. Which hexadecimal
character (0 through 9 or A to F) represents decimal 15?
F
g. As you were switching between the numbering systems, you may have noticed
the binary number 1111 is displayed during the conversion. This assists you in
relating the binary digits to other numbering system values. Each set of 4 bits
represents a hexadecimal character or potentially multiple decimal characters.

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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

h. Clear the values in the window by clicking C above the 9 on the calculator
keypad. Convert the following numbers between the binary, decimal, and
hexadecimal numbering systems.
Decimal

Hexadeci

Binary

mal

86

1010110

56

175

10101111

AF

204

11001100

CC

19

0001

13

0011
77

0100

4D

1101
42

0010

2A

1010
56

00111000

38

147

10010011

93

228
11100100
E4
i. As you record the values in the table above, do you see a pattern between the
binary and hexadecimal numbers?
Yes

Part 3: Convert Host IPv4 Addresses and Subnet Masks into Binary
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses and subnet masks are represented
in

dotted

decimal

format

(four

octets),

such

as

192.168.1.10

and

255.255.255.0, respectively. This makes these addresses more readable to

humans. Each of the decimal octets in the address or a mask can be converted
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

to 8 binary bits. An octet is always 8 binary bits. If all 4 octets were converted to
binary, how many bits would there be? 32 bits

a. Use the Windows Calculator application to convert the IP address 192.168.1.10

into binary and record the binary numbers in the following table:
Decimal

Binary

192

1100 0000

168

1010 1000

0000 0001

10
0000 1010
b. Subnet masks, such as 255.255.255.0, are also represented in a dotted decimal
format. A subnet mask will always consist of four 8-bit octets, each represented
as a decimal number. Using the Windows Calculator, convert the 8 possible
decimal subnet mask octet values to binary numbers and record the binary
numbers in the following table:
Decimal

Binary

0000 0000

128

1000 0000

192

1100 0000

224

1110 0000

240

1111 0000

248

1111 1000

252

1111 1100

254

1111 1110

255
1111 1111
c. With the combination of IPv4 address and the subnet mask, the network portion
can be determined and the number of hosts available in a given IPv4 subnet
can also be calculated. The process is examined in Part 4.
Part 4: Determine the Number of Hosts in a Network Using Powers of 2
Given an IPv4 network address and a subnet mask, the network portion can be
determined along with the number of hosts available in the network.
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

a. To calculate the number of hosts on a network, you must determine the

network and host portion of the address.
Using the example of 192.168.1.10 with a subnet of 255.255.248.0, the
address and subnet mask are converted to binary numbers. Align the bits as
you record your conversions to binary numbers.
Decimal IP Address and Binary
Subnet Mask
192.168.1.10

IP

Address

and

Subnet

Mask
11000000

10101000

00000001

11111111

11111000

00001010
255.255.248.0

11111111

00000000
Because the first 21 bits in the subnet mask are consecutive numeral ones,
the corresponding first 21 bits in the IP address in binary is 11000000
10101000 00000; these represent the network portion of the address. The
remaining 11 bits are 001 00001010 and represent the host portion of the
address.
What is the decimal and binary network number for this address?
192.168.1.10
What is the decimal and binary host portion for this address?
192.168.1.10
Because the network number and the broadcast address use two addresses
out of the subnet, the formula to determine the number of hosts available in
an IPv4 subnet is the number 2 to the power of the number of host bits
available, minus 2:
Number of available hosts = 2 (number of host bits) 2
b. Using the Windows Calculator application, switch to the Scientific mode by
clicking the View menu, then select Scientific.
c. Input 2. Click the xy key. This key raises a number to a power.
d. Input 11. Click =, or press Enter on the keyboard for the answer.
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

e. Subtract 2 from the answer by using the calculator if desired.

f. In this example, there are 2046 hosts are available on this network (211-2).
g. If given the number of host bits, determine the number of hosts available and
record the number in the following table.
Number of Available Number
Host Bits

of

Available Hosts
5

30

14

16382

24

16777214

10
1022
h. For a given subnet mask, determine the number of hosts available and record
the answer in the following table.

Subnet

Numbe

Numbe

r of

r of

Availab

Availab

le Host le

Mask

Binary Subnet Mask

255.255.255.

11111111.11111111.11111111.000

00000

255.255.240.

11111111.11111111.11110000.000

00000

255.255.255.

11111111.11111111.11111111.100

128

00000

255.255.255.

11111111.11111111.11111111.111

252

11100

255.255.0.0

11111111.11111111.00000000.000

Bits

Hosts

254

12

4094

126

16

65534

00000
Part 5: Convert MAC Addresses and IPv6 Addresses to Binary
Both Media Access Control (MAC) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
addresses are represented as hexadecimal digits for readability. However,
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

computers only understand binary digits and use these binary digits for
computations. In this part, you will convert these hexadecimal addresses to
binary addresses.
Step 1: Convert MAC addresses to binary digits.
a. The MAC or physical address is normally represented as 12 hexadecimal
characters, grouped in pairs and separated by hyphens (-). Physical addresses
on a Windows-based computer are displayed in a format of xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx,
where each x is a number from 0 to 9 or a letter from A to F. Each of the hex
characters in the address can be converted to 4 binary bits, which is what the
computer understands. If all 12 hex characters were converted to binary, how
many bits would there be?
48 bits, 12 hexadecimal characters and 4 bits per character

b. Record the MAC address for your PC.

B8-CA-3A-9F-7F-11
c. Convert the MAC address into binary digits using the Windows Calculator
application.
10111000 11001010 00111010 10011111 01111111 00010001
Step 2: Convert an IPv6 address into binary digits.
IPv6 addresses are also written in hexadecimal characters for human
convenience. These IPv6 addresses can be converted to binary numbers for
computer use.
a. IPv6 addresses are binary numbers represented in human-readable notations:
2001:0DB8:ACAD:0001:0000:0000:0000:0001

or

in

shorter

format:

2001:DB8:ACAD:1::1.
b. An IPv6 address is 128 bits long. Using the Windows Calculator application,
convert the sample IPv6 address into binary numbers and record it in the table
below.
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Lab Using the Windows Calculator with Network Addresses

Hexadecimal

Binary

2001

0010000000000001

0DB8

0000110110111000

ACAD

1010110010101101

0001

0000000000000001

0000

0000000000000000

0000

0000000000000000

0000

0000000000000000

0001

0000000000000001

Reflection
1. Can you perform all the conversions without the assistance of the calculator?
What can you do to make it happen? Yes, If you want to able to do that you
should know the binary of 1 through 9 and A to F.

2. For most IPv6 addresses, the network portion of the address is usually 64 bits.
How many hosts are available on a subnet where the first 64 bits represent the
network? Hint: All host addresses are available in the subnet for hosts.

62

hosts

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