Part 1 - Trace Route
First, access the command-line interface on your computer. Use the trace route command to access a website that is hosted at an overseas location (news sites from other countries are a good choice). This shows the path that a packet of data takes between your computer and the web server hosting the site.
1a) Copy and paste the route information into your assignment document.
1b) Your internet access is provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Identify your ISP and show where that information is listed in the trace route. Give the line in the trace route that identifies the ISP and explain how the ISP is identified in that line.
1c) Every website is hosted by a server which delivers requested content to users. This will be the very last location visited in your route. What is the IP address of the host server for the site you chose?
1d) In between your ISP and the host server, there are a series of hops as the packet is routed from your computer to the host server. You will see some of these hops are within your ISP and within the ISP for the host server. But in between, these hops are on the Internet backbone. Look at the addresses and try to follow the path that your packet took. Identify at least three cities that the packet went through, and explain how you can tell in the trace route.
1e) The Internet backbone is the core of this world-wide network. It provides key data routes and high-capacity exchange points accessible by all ISPs through service and interconnect agreements. Tier 1 providers are the owners of this backbone network infrastructure. Which Tier 1 provider network did your packet utilize?
Part 2 - IP Internet Addresses
As you can see in your trace route, devices on the internet are identified by an IP address. IP stands for Internet Protocol which defines what data packets look like. You will explore these packets more in a later lab, but now, you will focus just on that IP address.
The IP address is a unique identifier for each device connected to the Internet. Every packet of information that travels on the internet includes a source address and a destination address.
2a) Find an internet tool that allows you to look up your computer’s IP address. Give the website for the tool, and list your IP address.
2b) Go back to your command-line interface. Do a trace route to your own IP address. Describe the route taken, and explain how this relates to communication initiated and received by your computer.
2c) It is likely that you actually have two IP addresses. If your result was four numbers with periods in between, that is your IPv4 address. If your result was eight hexadecimal numbers with colons in between, that is your IPv6 address. Find a look up tool that will allow you to get the other IP address. Give the website for the tool, and list the other IP address here. Note that you may not have an IPv6 address as not all networks are enabled with this newer protocol. If you do not have am IPv6 address, list the look-up site you utilized for IPv6 and state that it was not enabled.
2d) Explain in your own words how IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are different and why both are utilized. Be sure to provide in-text citations and references for your resources to support your explanation.
Part 3 - Local Addressing with IPv4
Regardless of how an internet connection is shared, the IPv6 address will appear uniquely for each network interface in each device. However, that is not true for IPv4 addresses. There are not enough IPv4 addresses for all devices connected to the internet to be uniquely identified. Instead, IPv4 addresses are shared.
Commonly, a Local Area Network (LAN) is configured to give internet to many devices through a shared Internet gateway. Every device on that LAN will appear to the internet to have the same IPv4 address. The router serving as the gateway keeps track of which packet needs to go where through a methodology called Network Address Translation (NAT).
All devices on the LAN are assigned a local IPv4 address which is unique for each device on that LAN even though they all appear to be the same to broader Internet.
This local IPv4 address can be assigned automatically by the LANs central router or server. This is done with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
Alternatively, local IPv4 addresses can be configured statically on each device. In this case, it is imperative to insure that each device has a unique address.
On a LAN, some parts of each local IPv4 address are the same for each device while other parts are not. The subnet mask identifies which parts are the same and which are different. This is important because it lets a router quickly identify whether or not information is being sent to another computer on that LAN. Configurations where multiple LANs form a Wide Area Network (WAN) rely on this for routing. A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 means that the first three numbers in the local IP address will be the same and the fourth will be different. A subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 means that the first number in the local IP address will be the same, and the other three may be different. A subnet mask of 255.255.128.0 means that the first two numbers, and the first 7 of the 8 bits in the third number must be the same.
The dynamic address or static address IPv4 settings can be changed through the network interface IPv4 settings on a computer. The location of these settings differs on different operating systems. Search for “set static IP on (desired operating system)” to find system specific instructions to locate these settings.
Imagine you are working with a LAN that uses a router as a gateway with IPv4 address 192.168.0.1. The subnet is 255.255.255.0. The router is configured with a DHCP address pool from 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.200.
3a) One possible dynamic IPv4 local address would be 192.168.0.125. List two other possible IPv4 addresses that might be assigned dynamically using DHCP to obtain an IP address automatically.
3b) One possible static IPv4 local address would be 192.168.0.17. List two other IPv4 addresses that could be statically assigned by a system administrator.
3c) Explain in your own words why each device on a network has to have a unique address.
3d) Explain in your own words how an Internet gateway works.
Part 4 - IP Configuration
Go back to the command-line interface. Use it to display all your current network interface settings. The command on Windows operating systems is “ipconfig /all.” You will need to look up the equivalent if you are using another operating system.
4a) Copy the IP configuration information for the main adapter being utilized to access the internet.
4b) Explain what the information in 4a tells you about the connection. Include details such as whether or not the connection is through a gateway, whether the address is static or dynamic, and what IP addresses are assigned.
4c) In the configuration settings, you will also find a “Physical Address” specified. Research what the “Physical Address” is, and explain it in a short paragraph. Include an in-text citation and an end reference for your resource.
Part 5 - Automatic Access
5) In a single paragraph, briefly explain why internet connectivity appears to most users to be automatic even though IP addressing requires complex, unique settings for each device.
5) Please describe in your own words why Internet access appears to be automatic to most users despite the configuration requirements described here. Be sure to provide in-text citations and references to support your explanation.