Calculating the broadcast address can be easy if you know what you’re doing. The broadcast address can be obtained by setting up a binary OR statement between the both the subnet address and the inverted form of the Subnet mask.

Before further explaining, let take a look at the OR operator. When comparing a binary “1″ and “0″ together, they will form either a logical open gate or true statement (1) or a logical false or closed gate statement (0). Let’s take a look at a few statements below:

The OR statement

0 OR 0 = 0
0 OR 1 = 1
1 OR 0 = 1
1 OR 1 = 1

As you can see, a 0 and another 0 together comes out as 0 (false). Anything compared to a 1 will come out a 1 (true).

The AND statement

0 AND 0 = 0
1 AND 0 = 0
0 AND 1 = 0
1 AND 1 = 1

This can be summarized quite easily as well. The outcome will result in a 0 unless both bits are a 1 (true). This is basically the opposite of what we saw with the OR statement.

Before learning how to calculate the broadcast address, you’ll first need to learn how to calculate the subnet address. This can be done by performing a binary AND between the current IP address and between the subnet mask.

Here in an example, via shunsoft.net:

“… If we have the IP 150.10.10.10 with a mask 255.255.252.0 (also written 150.10.10.10/22)

The IP in binary is: 10010110.00001010.00001010.00001010; 150.10.10.10

The mask is: 11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000; 255.255.252.0

Binary AND

Subnet Address: 10010110.00001010.00001000.00000000; 150.10.8.0″

So, we must then use the subnet mask address and the inverted mask to find the broadcast address. Let’s take a look at another example from shunsoft.netI:

“If we have the IP 150.10.10.10 with a mask 255.255.252.0 (also written 150.10.10.10/22), the Subnet Address is 150.10.8.0 (see “How to calculate the Subnet Address ?”).

Subnet Address: 10010110.00001010.00001000.00000000; 150.10.8.0

The inverted mask: 00000000.00000000.00000011.11111111; 0.0.3.255

Binary OR

Broadcast Address: 10010110.00001010.00001011.11111111; 150.10.11.255″

If you’d like to skip all the manual labor and would like to find the broadcast address automatically, then you could just use one of the many broadcast address calculators that exist around the web. There is one that can be found at pigtail.net, and it is recommended. Just follow the link below.

Calculate Broadcast Address

This calculator does all of the aforementioned steps, but much faster than any human could perform them naturally. It can take out some of the more tedious steps involved, and it also a good alternative for those who are exactly sure how to follow along with the steps. Manually calculating the address not only takes longer, but is also more prone to yielding an incorrect answer. Using a calculator is actually a suggested method.

Related posts:

1. Broadcast Address A broadcast address can be described as an IP address...
2. Subnet Mask Also known as a netmask, a subnet mask is a...
3. How to find Subnet Mask If you want to find your subnet mask of the...
4. How to change MAC Address Most of the people think MAC address can not be...
5. How to Change IP Address Often we have the need to change out IP address...