iMET 12 Assignment

286 Special Topics in Educational Technology

Flex: Exploring Your Network

Assigned: 09/09/09:  Due: 09/16/09

Introduction

For this assignment you will explore four simple commands using the command² (PC) or terminal² (MAC) interface to discover information about your computer, the network it is a part of, and the internet.⁴ Briefly describe what you learned including where and how you located the required information in a forum post. Respond to one peer's post.

Assignment

Part 1: Use the computer(s) in your classroom, office, or home network¹ to answer the following questions. Do not post your IP address or MAC address in the forum; this information may be considered private by your school, company, or other location.

1. If you use a PC, locate and make a note of your computer's IP address OR
   if you use a MAC, locate and make a note of your computer's MAC address
   
• Briefly describe where and how you located this information
  
  
2. What is the make/model of your (wired or wireless) network interface card?
• Briefly describe where and how you located this information
  
  
3. Use your computer's ping command to ping www.yahoo.com³
• What output did the command return?
• If you received greater than 0% packet loss, explain why you think that that happened
  
  
4. Use your computer's traceroute (or tracert) command to trace the route to www.yahoo.com
• What output did the command return?
  
  
5. Use your computer's nslookup command to look up the hostname www.yahoo.com
• Now use nslookup to lookup the IP address 209.131.36.158
• Explain the output of these two commands
  
  
6. Visit another computer on your network. You may need to ask your IT person, a co-worker, a fellow student, or a family member for access to this computer.
   Please don't use another computer that you aren't authorized to access.
   
   
   • Make a note of the IP address and MAC address of the second computer. How do these addresses compare to those of your computer?
     
     
   • Run the ping, traceroute (or tracert), and nslookup commands on the first computer's IP address from the second computer. Explain your understanding of the output of these commands.
     
     
7. Describe your experience collecting this information.
   Do you feel like you have a better understanding of how your computer is connected to your network and to the Internet?
   Why or why not?

Part 2: Read your peers' responses. Respond to one peer's post.

(If the experience described in one of those responses differs significantly from yours, reply and offer an explanation for that difference.)

¹ If you are the person who installed or configured your home network, please use a computer on another network for this assignment.

² These programs need to be run from the command line.

To run command line programs in Windows 2000 or XP, click the Start button and choose All Programs, Accessories, and then Command Prompt.

To run these programs on in Mac OS X, use the /Applications/Utilities/Terminal program.

Note: Your access to these commands may be blocked by your network administrator. If that is the case you may need to do this assignment from a different location or from a different computer.

³ Your access to this website may be blocked by your network administrator. If that is the case you may need to choose another, unblocked web address.

⁴ For those members of the class who are already network specialists, please explore four (4) alternate 'items' that you are not already familiar with and briefly describe them in the forum post. Please include what you learned, where and how you located the information, and why you chose these 4 particular 'items'.

Resources

Command-line interface: defined: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line_interface

The Command Line in Windows - http://commandwindows.com/

WikiHow - http://www.wikihow.com/Find-Your-IP-Address-on-a-Mac

Basic Networking Tutorial - http://www.techiwarehouse.com/cms/engine.php?page_id=d9e99072