diff --git a/src/H3.h b/src/H3.h
index 2a5368a93d..1c2d621f3d 100644
--- a/src/H3.h
+++ b/src/H3.h
@@ -59,8 +59,13 @@
 #ifndef H3_H
 #define H3_H
 
+#include <climits>
+
+// the number of values representable by a byte
+#define H3_BYTE_RANGE (UCHAR_MAX+1)
+
 template<class T, int N> class H3 {
-    T byte_lookup[N][256];
+    T byte_lookup[N][H3_BYTE_RANGE];
 public:
     H3();
     ~H3() { free(byte_lookup); }
@@ -90,9 +95,9 @@ public:
 template<class T, int N>
 H3<T,N>::H3()
 {
-    T bit_lookup[N * 8];
+    T bit_lookup[N * CHAR_BIT];
 
-    for (size_t bit = 0; bit < N * 8; bit++) {
+    for (size_t bit = 0; bit < N * CHAR_BIT; bit++) {
 	bit_lookup[bit] = 0;
 	for (size_t i = 0; i < sizeof(T)/2; i++) {
 	    // assume random() returns at least 16 random bits
@@ -101,12 +106,12 @@ H3<T,N>::H3()
     }
 
     for (size_t byte = 0; byte < N; byte++) {
-        for (unsigned val = 0; val < 256; val++) {
+        for (unsigned val = 0; val < H3_BYTE_RANGE; val++) {
             byte_lookup[byte][val] = 0;
-            for (size_t bit = 0; bit < 8; bit++) {
+            for (size_t bit = 0; bit < CHAR_BIT; bit++) {
 		// Does this mean byte_lookup[*][0] == 0? -RP
 	        if (val & (1 << bit))
-		    byte_lookup[byte][val] ^= bit_lookup[byte*8+bit];
+		    byte_lookup[byte][val] ^= bit_lookup[byte*CHAR_BIT+bit];
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/Hash.cc b/src/Hash.cc
index ffabe36f83..1902af4f37 100644
--- a/src/Hash.cc
+++ b/src/Hash.cc
@@ -168,13 +168,12 @@ hash_t HashKey::HashBytes(const void* bytes, int size)
 	{
 	if ( size <= UHASH_KEY_SIZE )
 		{
-		const uint8* b = reinterpret_cast<const uint8*>(bytes);
 		// H3 doesn't check if size is zero
 		return ( size == 0 ) ? 0 : (*h3)(bytes, size);
 		}
 
 	// Fall back to HMAC/MD5 for longer data (which is usually rare).
 	hash_t digest[16];
-	hmac_md5(size, (unsigned char*) bytes, (unsigned char*) digest);
+	hmac_md5(size, (const unsigned char*) bytes, (unsigned char*) digest);
 	return digest[0];
 	}