Subnetting

Rebster40

I have been using Mike Meyers AIO as well as Labsim. Everything has been going smoothly until I ran into subnetting yesterday. I cannot seem to grasp it at all, no matter how much I read and watch, it just does not make sense to me. Could anyone point me in the right direction or lend some advice? Thanks.

gosh1976

Subnetting is one of those things that you just have to work at and practice and then at some point it just clicks. Then you should practice some more to improve speed especially if you are going to move on to Cisco at some point.

Here are some great practice sites:
subnettingquestions.com - Free Subnetting Questions and Answers Randomly Generated Online
IP Subnet Practice

I didn't use this site but many people recommend it: Learn To Subnet:  A Free, Lecture-Based Presentation on IP Addressing and Subnetting

getting different explanations from different sources help: watch the professor messer videos on subnetting. There is one on binary math and two on subnetting Professor Messer's Free CompTIA Network+ Certification Training Course | Professor Messer - CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, Certification Training

cisco has some games that may help you. There is a binary math game and a couple different subnetting games. You will probably have to sign up for a free account. https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-1802
https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-7561
Cisco Binary Game

After you have ANDing down and really understand the concepts and can do the problems with binary math I recommend using one of the charts or other methods out there to gain speed. I took this guys method and changed it around a bit to work better for me. Creating Your Own Mental Subnet Calculator

gosh1976

my interwebs are going crazy... this was a double post

Rebster40

Thank you for the reply, I will definitely be checking those links out more thoroughly. Does one need to know subnetting in and out to pass the exam, or just a general understanding of how it works? I was planning on taking the exam very soon, but it seems it may take a bit to get this topic drilled in if it is needed. Thanks.

gosh1976

Rebster40 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply, I will definitely be checking those links out more thoroughly. Does one need to know subnetting in and out to pass the exam, or just a general understanding of how it works? I was planning on taking the exam very soon, but it seems it may take a bit to get this topic drilled in if it is needed. Thanks.

I would say you need to have a pretty good handle on it. You need to be able to subnet but not necessarily lightning fast. Of course there's only so much I can say due to the NDA and you might get totally different questions than I did. Depending on how you are doing with the other objectives- I think there's still plenty of time before the end of the year to learn it well enough for the Net+.

Is it just a general head scratcher for you right now or do you have some specific questions?

badboyeee

Rebster40 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply, I will definitely be checking those links out more thoroughly. Does one need to know subnetting in and out to pass the exam, or just a general understanding of how it works? I was planning on taking the exam very soon, but it seems it may take a bit to get this topic drilled in if it is needed. Thanks.

If you just ran into yesterday, reread that section on Subnetting again a couple more times. I don't think anyone can fully grasp it the first time. You don't need to be an expert on it either but it will be important if you plan to go beyond Network+. A full basic understanding is the very minimal that you need, but read into it a little more just in case. We all had different experiences so can't say exactly.

Try Professor Messer's free videos if you haven't already:
Professor Messer's Free CompTIA Network+ Certification Training Course | Professor Messer - CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, Certification Training

Rebster40

Yes, I have a grasp on the topic. I understand the purpose of it and why it is important and what not. When I watch someone take a Class B address and convert it to binary and divide it up into multiple networks and try to take it all in is a bit overwhelming to me. I contacted my local testing center and the last possible day to take an exam is December 15. Cutting it a little close, but we will see. I am planning on moving beyond the Network+ cert, so I do want to understand subnetting in and out eventually, just trying to get a general idea of what I should be expected to know for this particular exam. Thanks for the replies.

Pratt2

What worked for me was finding some hard sample questions with answers given. I kind of worked backwards. Making sure I didn't get lazy with the binary helped a lot as well.

miller811

here is the method that made it click for me

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38772-subnetting-made-easy.html

and my favorite practice site

IP Subnet Practice

Rebster40

miller811 wrote: »

here is the method that made it click for me

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/38772-subnetting-made-easy.html

Thanks you for this. This is so much easier to take in than the other methods I have looked at.

sthompson86

This site helped me a lot when I was learning(still learning) subnettingquestions.com - Free Subnetting Questions and Answers Randomly Generated Online

Those questions are a bit too advanced for the Net+, but you will need to understand sub-netting to that extent for CCNA etc.

Mike-Mike

In the Sybex kit, Bill Ferguson's Review Guide really helped me with that