Computer Network Course for MTP

Focus on 5 layer TCP/IP model

1) Physical Layer : Consists of physical devices, that interconnects computer

2) Data link layer : (First protocols introduced)

Responsible for defining a common way of interpreting these signals so network
devices can communicate [Ethernet]

3) Network Layer : A collection of networks connected together through routers, the

most famous of these being the Internet
-> responsible for transfer of data from one network to other. (Most famous
protocol : IP )
-> responsible for selecting the target individual nodes

4) Transport Layer : Sets out which client and server programs are supposed to get
that data
-> Most famous protocol = TCP
-> Another protocol = UDP

5) Application Layer : Applications

Cables : connect different devices and allow the transfer of data through them

2 types :
1) Copper 2) Fiber

Most common form of copper twisted-pair cables used in networking are Cat5, Cat5e
and Cat6 cables

Crosstalk : It occurs when the electrical pulse in one wire is accidentally

detected by another wire ( Cat5 )

Cat6 is fastest in terms of data transfer but the maximum length because of it’s
winding is less comparatively

Fibre cables consists of small hair like cables of fibre which transfer data with
the pulses of light. They work more efficiently in regions where there are much
electromagnetic pulse. But the problem is they are very fragile and expensive

HUBS AND SWITCHES : the primary devices used to connect computers on a single
network, usually referred to as a LAN

HUB : A physical layer device that allows for connections from many computers at
once

Collision domain : A network segment where only one device can communicate at a
time

Network switch/ switching hub :

Difference : A hub is a physical layer device while switch is a data-link layer
device.

Switch determines the system/node to which the data needs to be transferred and
thus though it reduces the collision domain but it also reduces the overall
throughput

ROUTERS : device that knows how to forward data between independent networks
-> It’s a layer 3 device

-> Just like switch can inspect ethernet data, the router can determine the
internet data

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Routers share data with each other via this protocol, which lets them learn about
the most optimal paths to forward traffic

Servers and clients

The physical Layer :

Bit : Smallest representation of data

Modulation : A way of varying the voltage of this charge moving across the cable

-> In computer networking terms it is called Line coding

TWISTER PAIR CABLES : (copper) The twisted nature prevents the electromagnetic
interference and crosstalk from neighbouring wires

CAT6 - 8 wires and 4 twisted pairs

-> It allows duplex communication

Duplex communication : The concept that information can flow in both directions
across the cable

Simplex communication : It’s unidirectional

Full Duplex : both side communication takes place simultaneously

Half Duplex : communication takes place in turns

RJ45 plugs
Network ports are generally directly attached to the devices that make up a
computer network

Link Light -> proper connection

Activity light -> proper data transfer

Patch panel = container with many network ports

Data Link Layer :

Ethernet/Wi-Fi

CSMA/CD : Used to determine when the communications channels are clear and when a
device is free to transmit data

MAC(MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL ) ADRESS

A globally unique identifier attached to an individual network interface

-> It’s a 48 bit number normally represented by 6 groupings of two hexadecimal

numbers

OCTET : In computer networking, any number that can be represented by 8 bits

2 sections of MAC address :

1) OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier)
The first 3 octets of a MAC address
-> use to identify the manufacturer

2) Last 3 octets can be used as per the manufacture

Unicast, multicast and broadcast

-> A unicast transmission is always meant for just one receiving address
-> If the least significant bit in the first octet of a destination address is set
to zero, it means that ethernet frame is intended for only the destination address

-> If the least significant bit in the first octet of a destination address is set
to one, it means you’re dealing with a multicast frame

Ethernet Broadcast Address : It’s all F

FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

Disecting the Ethernet Frame

Data packet : An all-encompassing term that represents any single set of binary
data being sent across a network link

Data packets at the ethernet/data link level is called the ethernet frame. It’s a
highly structured collection of information presented in a specific order.

Preamble : (8bytes) split into 2 sections

7-bytes = first 7 bytes acts as buffer between frames and can also be used by
network interfaces to synchronise the clock they use to regulate the speed of
sending data.

1 byte = SFD(Start Frame Delimiter) signals to a receiving device that the preamble
is over and that the actual frame contents will now follow

Destination MAC address : Hardware address of the intended recipient(6 bytes)

Source MAC address : 6bytes

Ether type field : 16 bits long and used to describe the protocol of the contents
of the frame

VLAN Tag : 4bytes It indicated that the frame itself is a vlan frame. If a VLAN
header is present, the Ether Type field follows it.

Virtual Lan is a technique that lets you have multiple logical LANs operating on
the same physical equipment

Payload : In networking terms, is the actual data being transported, which is

everything that isn’t a header

-> Any frame that have a vlan tag is relayed specifically by a switch interface
that is specially configured for that tag.

Payload contains all data from all the layers.

Frame Check Sequence : A 4 byte number that represents a checksum value for the
entire frame. This checksum value is calculated by performing what’s known as
“cyclical redundancy check” against the frame.
CRC = An important concept for data integrity and is used all over computing, not
just network transmissions

Ethernet performs checks for data integrity, it doesn’t perform data recovery.

NETWORK LAYERS

(IP protocol)

Ip adresses : 32 bits numbers with 4 octets

-> uses dotted decimal notation

Ip adresses belong to networks, not to the devices attached to those networks

Same Mac-address all the same but different IP address every time.

Getting the ip address.(DHCP-dynamic host configuration protocol)

-> IP address assigned by dhcp is called dynamic IP address

-> Static address are configured manually : in most cases, static IP addresses are
reserved for servers and network devices while dynamic IP addresses are reserved
for clients.

IP DATAGRAMS AND ENCAPSULATION

DATA PACKETS at network level is called IP DATAGRAM. A highly structured series of

fields that are strictly defined.

Disection of IP DATAGRAM - header :

1) VERSION (4 BITS) : Version of the Internet protocol i.e IPv4 or IPv6

2) Header length (4 bits) : declares the length of the header. Almost always 20
bytes in length when dealing with IPv4

3) Service types : These 8 bits can be used to specify details about the quality of
service, or QoS, technologies. For eg : it helps the routers to decide which IP
datagrams are more important

4) Total length : 16 bits -> Indicated the total length of the IP datagram it’s
attached to

5) Identification field : A 16-bit number that’s used to group messages together

Note : The maximum size of a single datagram is the largest number you can
represent with 16 bits. If the size of the total amount of data that needs to be
sent is larger than what can fit in a single datagram, the IP layer needs to split
this data up into many individual packets. In this case the end/receiving node
knows that the packets are part of the same transmission.

6) Flag field : Used to indicate if a datagram is allowed to be fragmented, or to

indicate that the datagram has already been fragmented.

7) Fragementation : Splitting a single IP datagram into several small datagrams.

Fragmentation offset is used by the receiving end to take all the packets of the
fragmented packet and bind together. Fragmentation occurs when the datagrams are
needed to move from a network where larger size datagrams are allowed compared to
the other network.

7) TTL(TIME TO LIVE) : An 8-bit field that indicated how many router hops a
datagram can traverse before it’s thrown away.

-> It helps to break to infinite loops. For example the problems in the re-routing
configuration. Simply put if one router A thinks B is the next target and B thinks
A is the next target.

8) Protocol field : Another 8-bit field that contains data about what transport
layer protocol is being used. Common examples : TCP & UDP

9) Header checksum field : A checksum of the contents fo the entire IP datagram

header

-> since the TTL value changes at every router the checksum value too.

10) source IP address

11) Destination IP address

12) IP Options field : An optional field and is used to set special characteristics
for datagrams primarily used for testing purposes.

13) padding : A series of zeros used to ensure the header is the correct total size

IP address can be split into network id and the host id.

Network id = 1st octet ( 9 for IBM)

Host id = 2,3 and 4th octet

Address class system : A way of defining how the global IP address space is split
up

1) Class A : network - 1 ; host - 2,3,4

2) Class B : network -1,2 ; host - 3,4
3) Class C : network - 1,2,3 ; host - 4

IDENTIFICATION OF CLASS WITH IP address :

-> If the first bit is 0 the It’s Class A.

-> If the first bits are 10 then it’s Class B.
-> If the first bits are 110 then it’s Class C.

-> Class D for multicasting and Class E address are used for testing purpose

-> Class system is replaced by CIDR

ARP (ADDRESS RESOLUTION PROTOCOL)

It’s a protocol to find out the certain hardware address of a node with the IP
address.

ARP table : A list of IP addresses and the MAC addresses associated with them

-> ARP broadcast and the ARP responses.

ARP table entries generally expire after a short amount of time to ensure changes
in the network are accounted for.

SUBNETTING : The process of taking a large network and splitting it up into many
individual and smaller subnetworks, or subnets.

-> achieved with gateway routers.

Subnet ID : calculated via subnet mask. Subnet mask is a 32 bit number that are
normally written out as four octets in decimal

* In subnet mask the places with 1 says the places which we can ignore to calculate
the host id. And the places 0 says the places that we need to consider to calculate
the host id.

The total number of hosts allowed is 2 less than the total number permitted because
0 is generally not used ( why?) and 255 is used for broadcasting purpose.

255.255.255.224 = 9.100.100.100/27 ( for the number of 1s)

Basic binary math

CIDR(CLASSLESS INTER DOMAIN ROUTING )

More flexible than traditional subnet mask.

Demarcation point : To describe where one network or system ends and another one
begins.

In the old system we used network id , subnet id and the host id to deliver the
datagram to the required location but with CIDR the network id and the subnet id
are combined into one. ( slash notation also called CIDR notation)

CIDR ignores the class making for the networks.

-> before CIDR the network size were static but CIDR was able to provide the
dynamicity.

* we always lose 2 host ids for any networks

Routing : A router is a network device that forwards traffic depending on the

destination address of that traffic.

Basic routing steps :

1) Receive data packet
2) Examines destination IP.
3) Looks up IP destination network in routing table
4) Forwards traffic to destination


IP address belongs to network no the individual nodes of the network

Note : You can see the lecture to understand the routing mechanisms more. It’s
explained here pretty great.

Routing Tables : Routing tables basically contains 4 columns :

1) Destination network : contains a row for each of the network that the router
knows about. Can be done using IP address and the subnet mask separately or the
CIDR notation

2) Next hop : next router’s address for the destination to be reached or state that
the destination is directly connected to the network

3) Total hops : uses to find out the best possible path available or that is gonna
available later on.

4) Interface : the router also has to know which of it’s interfaces it has to
forward data packets to .

INTERIOR GATEWAY PROTOCOLS

Magic of updating the routing tables

Routing protocols fall into two main categories : Interior gateway protocols and
exterior gateway protocols

Interior gateway protocols are further split into 2 categories : Link state routing
protocols and distance-vector protocols

Interior gateway protocols :

Used by routers to share information within a single autonomous system

Autonomous System : A collection of networks that all fall under the control of a
single network operator.

DVP is older format of the routing protocol. It has a list of known networks and
the distance of the networks in terms of hops. The router using this protocol sends
this list to all the router it knows i.e directly connected .

* see the video .

Problem with this protocol : the routers don’t know much about the system other
than there immediate neighbours but these systems are very slow to adapt to any
changes that occur at the far side of the network

Here comes the link state protocol

The state of the links of the interfaces of the router is send to every other
router of the system. This way each and every router knows about the state of each
of the router present in the autonomous system.

* This requires more memory and more processing power.

EXTERIOR GATEWAY PROTOCOLS

Requires for communication in between the routers that represents the edges of an
autonomous system.
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) : A non-profit organisation that helps
manage things like IP address allocation
-> It’s also responsible for ASN i.e autonomous system number allocation

ASN are also 32 bits but without octets.

Non routable address space : RFC(REQUEST FOR COMMENTS)

NAT (NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION)

RFC-1918 : defined 3 ranges of IP addresses which won’t gonna be routed by other

routers. They can be used by anyone and everyone for their internal networks.
Non-routable addresses->
1) 10.0.0.0/8
2) 172.16.0.0./12
3) 192.168.0.0/16

Approrpriate for IGP but not for the EGP.

TRANSPORT AND APPLICATION LAYERS

Transport layer : Allows traffic to be directed to specific network applications

Application layer : Allows these applications to communicate in a way they

understand.

Transport layer has the ability to multiplex and demultiplex through ports.

Port = A 16-bit number that’s used to direct traffic to specific services running
on a networked computer

Port 80 : HTTP
10.0.0.1:80 - socket address

Port 21 : FTP

Disection of TCP segment

Ip datagram encapsulates the TCP segment

TCP SEGMENT - tcp header and the data segment

1) Destination Port : Port of the service the traffic is intended for.

2) Source Port : A high numbered port chosen from a special section of ports known
as ephemeral ports.

3) Sequence number : A 32-bit number that’s used to keep track of where in sequence
of TCP segments this one is expected to be.

4) Acknowledgement number : The number of the next expected segment

5) Data offset field : A 4-bit number that communicated how long the TCP header for
this segment is .

6) Control flags : 6 bits

7) Window : 16 bits : specifies a range of sequence numbers that might be sent
before an acknowledgement is required. To make sure that the servers aren’t sending
data which are not being received.

8)TCP Checksum : 16 bits : similar to lower level checksums

9) Urgent pointer field : Used in conjunction with one of the TCP control flags to
point out particular segments that might be more important than others.

10) Options field : sometimes used for more complicated flow control protocols.

9 and 10 rarely used in modern networks

11) Padding : same as before

12) Data payload : data by the applications

TCP control flags and the 3-way handshake

6 control flags :

1) URG(URGENT) : A value of one here indicated that the segment is considered

urgent and that the urgent pointer field has more data about this

2) ACK(ACKNOWLEDGEMENT) : A value of one here means that the acknowledgement number

field should be examined.

3) PSH(PUSH) : The transmitting device wants the receiving device to push

currently-buffered data to the application on the receiving end as soon as possible

4) RST(RESET) : one of the sides in a TCP connection hasn’t been able to properly
recover from a series of missing or malformed segments

5) SYN(SYNCHRONIZE) : It’s used when first establishing a TCP connection and makes
sure the receiving end knows to examine the sequence number field

6) FIN(FINISH) : when this flag is set to one, it means that the transmitting
computer doesn’t have any more data to send and the connection can be closed

HANDSHAKE : A way for 2 devices to ensure that they’re speaking the same protocol
and will be able to understand each other

Duplex mode closing

Tcp socket states :

Socket : The instantiation of an end-point in a potential TCP connection

Instantiation : The actual implementation of something defined elsewhere

* You can send any request at any port but to get response there must be some
socket open at that particular port.
States :

1) LISTEN : A TCP socket is ready and listening for incoming connections. Seen in
there server side only

2) SYN_SENT : A synchronisation request has been sent, but the connection hasn’t
been established yet. Seen in the client side only

3) SYN-RECEIVED : A Socket previously in a LISTEN state has received a

synchronisation request and sent a SYN/ACK back. Seen in the server side only

4) ESTABLISHED : The TCP connection is in working order and both sides are free to
send each other data. Both sides.

5) FIN_WAIT : A FIN has been sent, but the corresponding ACK from the other end
hasn’t been received yet.

6) CLOSE_WAIT : the connection has been closed at the TCP layer, but that the
application that opened the socket hasn’t released its hold on the socket yet

7) CLOSED : Connection is fully terminated

Socket state definitions are dependent

On the operating systems definitions

CONNECTION ORIENTED AND CONNECTIONLESS PROTOCOLS

Connection oriented protocol : establishes a connection, and uses this to ensure

that all data has been properly transmitted

Transport layer protocols determine when to resend the discarder data packets.

Since TCP make 3 way handshakes for all the data packets. Hence it waits for the
ACK for each and every packet and thus data resending can be done.

UDP doesn’t care about the establishment of connection and hence reduces the
bottleneck

Firewalls :
A device that blocks traffic that meets certain criteria. It can work in different
layers. Generally operate on the transportation layer.

Firewalls are now a days are devised in the host level as well, thus it can allow
connection in a particular port and stop it whenever it feels so.

APPLICATION LAYER

Most popular web servers :

1) Microsoft IIS
2) Apache
3) nginx

* for web traffic the application layer protocol is called HTTP (hypertext
transmission protocol)

THE APPLICATION LAYER AND THE OSI MODEL

OSI = Open System Interconnection

It has 7 layers - 2 addtional layers in between the transport layer and the
application layer

Session Layer : Facilitating the communication between actual applications and the
transport layer. It takes application layer data and hands it off to the
presentation layer.

Presentation Layer : Responsible for making sure that the unencapsulated

application layer data is able to be understood by the application in question.

ALL THE LAYERS WORKING IN UNISON

Note : See this part in the video twice or thrice (how much you want coz it’s
good) and highly detailed to understand the working

NETWORKING SERVICES :
Intro to networking services

Why do we need DNS ?

(Domain Name System) = A global and highly distributed network service that
resolves strings of letters into IP addresses for you.

DOMAIN NAME : Domain name is the term we use for something that can be resolved by
DNS

Many steps of Name resolution :

Things that need to be configured for a host to operate in a network.

-> IP address
-> SUBNET MASK
-> GATEWAY FOR A HOST
-> DNS server

5 primary types of DNS servers :

1) Caching name servers - generally provided by the ISP providers. It’s purpose is
to store known domain name lookups for a certain amount of time
2) Recursive name servers : perform full DNS requests
3) Root name servers
4) TLD name servers
5) Authoritative name servers

-> All domain names have a TTL(Time to live)

TTL : A value, in seconds, that can be configured by the owner of a domain name for
how long a name server is allowed to cache an entry before it should discard it and
perform a full resolution again.

There were 13 total root name servers. Earlier it was distributed as per the global
geography but now it is distributed globally via ‘any cast’.

Anycast : A technique that’s used to route traffic to different destinations

depending on factors like location, congestion, or link health.

TLD = Top level domain

For eg. in www.fb.com — .com comes under TLD name server


For DNS look up cache servers ask root servers, which is directs to TLD servers
and then the authoritative servers.

Authoritative servers maintains the last 2 parts of the domain name.

DNS AND UDP : DNS uses UDP for domain name lookups rather than TCP in the
transport layer.

Simple much less traffic because of connectionlessness.

Port 53 is the port where DNS listens on.

* DNS lookup with TCP

Between user and caching server

*3 way handshake
*1 for actual request
* 1 for ack of the request
* 1 for reply of the ip needed
* 1 for the ack of the ip got
* 4 way handshake

Between caching server and other servers

*3 way handshakes
*1 for actual request
*1 for the ack of the request
*1 for the redirection
*1 for the ack of the redirection
*4 way handshake

DNS LOOK-UP WITH UDP



If there isn’t any response during DNS LOOKUP with UDP , the server ask again.

If the data to provided for the lookup is too large using UDP datagram then the
server establishes a TCP connection for the DNS lookup.

Resource Record Types

An A record is used to point a certain domain name at a certain IPv4 IP address

* DNS round robin - for eg. some websites have a very large traffic press
www.mi.com, so in order to distribute the traffic over many servers many A-records
are maintained.
EG : www.microsoft.com and its four A-record
10.1.1.1
10.1.1.2
10.1.1.3
10.1.1.4
Whenever a Dns lookup is done for this site all the four ip’s are provided in the
configured order. In case the first one fails to connect then the rest are used to
make the connection

If the simultaneously another computer makes the request then the ordering changes.

Making the second one the first one i.e the configured order becomes :
10.1.1.2
10.1.1.3
10.1.1.4
10.1.1.1

This is the basic of how DNS round robin technique work for balancing the traffic

* AAAA- Quad A record types - for ipv6

* A CNAME record is used to redirect traffic from one domain name to another.

-> Cname assures that both microsoft.com and www.microsoft.com resolves to the same
IP

* MX RECORD - MAIL EXCHANGE RECORD

* SRV record - service record

* TXT record - text - may be used for configuration purposes.

Anatomy of the domain name

Top level domain(TLD) - last part of the domain name

ICANN administrates and defines the TLD.

Domains(2nd part of the domain name) : Used to demarcate where the control moves
From a TLD name server to an authoritative name server.

www - subdomain

FQDN ( FULLY QUALIFIED DOMAIN NAME) - when you combine subdomain, domain and TLD.

Registrar distributes the unused domain names by dealing with the ICANN

DNS can technically support up to 127 levels of domain in total for a single fully
qualified domain name.

DNS zones : allow for easier control over multiple levels of domain

ZONE FILES : simple configuration files that declare all resource records for a
particular zone. Contains the SOA

Start of Authority (SOA ) : Declares the zone and the name of the name server that
is authoritative for it.

NS records : indicate other name servers that might also be responsible for this
zone

Reverse lookup zone files : These let Dns resolvers ask for an IP and get the FQDN
associated with it returned. It contains PTR

PTR (POINTER RESOURCE RECORD) : Resolves an ip to a name.

OVERVIEW OF DHCP :
Every computer in a network must have these four important factors for it’s
identification
1) IP address
2) SUBNET MASK
3) GATEWAY
4) NAME SERVER (DNS server)

DHCP = dynamic host configuration protocol

An application layer protocol that automates the configuration process of hosts on

a network

->Static IPs are needed for the gateway devices.

DHCP dynamic allocation : A range of IP addresses is set aside for client devices
and one of these IPs is issued to these devices when they request one.

Automatic allocation : A range of IP addresses is set aside for assignment

purposes. DHCP tries to remember which IP it assigned to which device so that it
could assign the same IP again.(difference from dynamic allocation)

Fixed allocation : Requires a manually specified list of MAC address and their
corresponding IPs.

DHCP is also used for configuring NTP servers

Network time protocol(NTP) servers : Used to keep all computers on a network

synchronised in time.

DHCP in action :

DHCP discovery : The process by which a client configured to used DHCP attempts to
get network configuration information. It has four steps :
1) server discovery step :
-> DHCP server discovery message by client by broadcasting message from port 68
which is listened by port 67.

0.0.0.0:68 -> 255.255.255.255:67

-> DHCP offer : broadcast of the servers address to the entire network.

192.168.1.1:67 -> 255.255.255.255:68

->DHCP REQUEST : from client to server

-> DHCP ACK : broadcast

192.168.1.1:67 -> 255.255.255.255:68

DHCP lease from DHCP connection

NAT ( NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION) : A technology that allows a gateway, usually a

router or firewall, to rewrite the source IP of an outgoing IP datagram while
retaining the original IP in order to rewrite it into the response

* The actual working of the VPN

IP masquerading

(*One to many NAT)

NAT and the transport layer

Port preservation : A technique where the source port chosen by a client is the
same port used by the router

Port Forwarding : A technique where specific destination ports can be configured

to always be delivered to specific nodes

-> see the video for more clarity

Non routable address space

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) : they are

*AFRIC
*ARIN
*APNIC
*LACNIC
*RIPE

Wikipedia IPv4 exhaustion*** -> It’s workaround is done by NAT and the Non-routable
address space

Virtual Private Networks (VPN) : A technology that allows for the extension of a
private or local network to hosts that might not be on that local network.

Two-factor authentication : A technique where more than just a username and

password are required to authenticate

* In VPN the packets sent to the VPN server is sent with the packets in which the
payload contains an entire encrypted information of the datapackets need to be send

PROXY SERVICE : A server that acts on behalf of a client in order to access another
service

*Anonymity *security *Content-filtering *Increased performance

Reverse proxy : A service that might appear to be a single server to external

clients, but actually represents many servers living behind it.(form of load
balancing)

Simply put proxies are the intermediaries between client and the servers.

Intro to connecting to the Internet

Modem = modulator/demodulator

Dialup internet connection image below:

Conversion of digital to analog and vice-versa and the transfer the data using
POTS( Plain old Telephone Service)

Baud rate : A measurement of how many bits can be passed across a phone line in a
second

@ what is broadband?
Any connectivity technology that isn’t dial-up connection

T-carrier technology: Originally invented by AT&T in order to transmit multiple

phone calls over a single link

4 most famous broadband technologies :

1) T-carrier technologies
2) DSL (Digital subscriber lines)
3) Cable broadband
4) Fiber connections

T-carrier technologies :
T1- 24 calls in single twisted copper pairs
T3- 28 T1

DSLAM’s (digital subscriber line access multiplexers) : modems for dsl

DSL worked by performing performance on a frequency range that didn’t interfere

with the normal voice call range.
This allowed calls and internet to occur at the same time.

ADSL - ASYMMETRIC DSL - features different speeds for outbound and inbound
connections i.e faster download and slower upload speeds

SDSL - symmetric DSL - feature same outbound and inbound speeds

Both ADSL & SDSL tops at the T1 system speeds.

HDSL or High Bit-rate Digital Subscriber lines : speed above T1

Cable Broadband : The main difference is that cable is what generally knows as
“shared bandwidth technology”

Cable modem termination system(CMTS) : Connects lots of different cable connections

to an ISPs core network

Fiber connections :

FTTX - FIBER TO THE X

FTTN - fiber to the end
FTTB - fiber to the building
FTTH - finer to the home
FTTP - fiber to the premises

ONT(Optical Network Terminator) : Converts data from protocols the fiber network
can understand, to those that more traditional, twister-pair copper networks can
understand.
Wide Area Network Technologies : Acts like a single network, but spans across
multiple physical locations

Point to point VPNS :



Intro to wireless networking technologies

A way to network without wires

IEEE 802.11 standards

Frequency band : A certain section of the radio spectrum that’s been agreed upon to
be used for certain communications

802.11 protocols define the performance at the physical and the data link layers.

Wireless Access points : A device that bridges the wireless and wired portions of a
network.

Address 1 : source address

Address 2 : destination address
Address 3 : receiver address - MAC address of the access point
Address 4 : transmitter address - MAC address of who transmitter the frame

Generally 1-4 are same and 2-3 are same.

Wireless network configurations :

1) Ad-hoc networks
2) Wireless LANS
3)Mesh networks

Ad-hoc networks : eg - sharing image, videos through wifi

Wireless LANS :


MESH NETWORKS :

Wireless channels : Individual, smaller sections of the overall frequency band used
by a wireless network

For 802.11b :

Wireless security :
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) : An encryption technology that provides a very low
level of privacy. Uses 40 bits for encryption.

WPA(wifi protected access) : 128 bit key

Wpa2 : used 256 bit encryption key

MAC filtering : You configure your access points to only allow for connection from
a specific set of MAC addresses belonging to devices you trust

Cellular Networking :

Intro to Troubleshooting and the future of Networking

Error-detection : The ability for a protocol or program to determine that something

went wrong

Error-recovery : The ability for a protocol or program to attempt to fix it.

CRC is an error detection mechanism.

Verifying connectivity
Ping : Internet Control Message Protocol

Fields of the ICMP packet :

1) Type : Eg : destination unreachable

2) Code : eg- destination network unreachable or destination port unreachable
3) Checksum
4) Rest of header - optional to send more data
5) Data payload : contains entire IP header and the first 8 bytes of the offending
data packet

PING : It lets u send a special type of ICMP message called an Echo Request.

If the destination is up and running and able to communicate on the network, it’ll
send back an ICMP Echo Reply message type.

Traceroute : A utility that lets you discover the path between two nodes, and gives
you information about each hop along the way

-> In linux and macOS the TR sends UDP packets to very high port numbers.
-> In windows(tracers) sent default ICMP echo request

MTR(LINUX/MACOS) : works in real time

PATHPING (WINDOWS) : runs for 50 seconds and then display the aggregate data

Above both are long running trace routes.

Testing port connectivity :

1) Netcat (linux/macOS) -nc (host) (port)

-z flag - zero input/output mode
-v flag - verbose mode

2) Test-Netconnection (windows)

*read more about these tools

Name Resolution Tools :
Nslookup - simple use -


Nslookup interactive session - nslookup

Then pops the >

* learn more (with set debug)

-> An ISP almost always gives you access to a recursive name server as part of the
service it provides

Public DNS servers : Name servers specifically set up so that anyone can use them,
for free.

*LEVEL-3 communications : the public dns provided by it are :

4.2.2.1 through 6

Google public DNS -

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Most public DNS servers are available globally through any cast.

DNS registration and expiration :

Registrar : An organisation responsible for assigning individual domain names to

other organisations or individuals

Hosts files : The original way that numbered network addresses were correlated
with words was through hosts files.
A flat file that contains, on each line, a network address followed by the
host name it can be referred to as.

LOOPBACK address : A way of sending network traffic to yourself.

For IPv4 : 127.0.0.1

-> almost every hosts file in existence will, in the very least, contain a line
that reads 127.0.01 localhost, most likely followed by ::1 localhost, where ::1 is
the loopback address for IPv6

* hosts files are a popular way for computer viruses to disrupt and redirect users’
traffic

Hosts files are accessed before domain name resolution

@What is the cloud?

Cloud computing is a technological approach where computing resources are
provisioned in a shareable way, so that lots of users get what they need, when they
need it.
A new model of computing where large clusters of machines let us use the
total resources available in a better way.

Hardware virtualisation : A single physical machine, called a host could run many
individual virtual instances, called guests

Hypervisor : A piece of software that runs and manages virtual machines, while also
offering these guests a virtual operating platform that’s indistinguishable from
actual hardware


Public cloud : A large cluster of machines run by another company

Private Cloud : Used by a single large corporation and generally physically hosted
on its own premises.

Hybrid Cloud : A term used to describe situation where companies might run things
like their most sensitive proprietary technologies on a private cloud, while
entrusting their less-sensitive servers to a public cloud.

IPv6 addressing : 128 bits - There are 2 rules when it comes to shortening an IPv6
address. The first is that you can remove any leading zeroes from a group. The
second is that any number of consecutive groups composed of just zeroes can be
replaced with two colons.

IPv6 loopback address -

0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001

Condensed -> ::1

Reserved for documentation purposes :

Is 2001:0db8::
* Loopback address

FFOO:: ->used for multicast

FE80:: -> link local unicast addresses = Allow for local network segment
communications and are configured based upon a Host’s MAC address

First 64 bits are network-id and the latter is host-id

-> For subnetting IPv6 uses same CIDR notation as the IPv4

IPv6 headers :

1)version -4
2) class of traffic - 8
3) flow label - 20
4) payload length -16
5) Next header - unique concept - optional/additional headers -8
6) Hoplimit -8
7) source address - 128
8) destination address - 128

Note : If there exists any “next header”, then it exists between first header and
the data payload.

IPv4 and IPv6 harmony :

* IPv4 mapped address space

* IPv6 tunnels - servers take incoming IPv6 traffic and encapsulate it within
traditional IPv4 datagram

IPv6 tunnel broker : Companies that provide IPv6 tunnelling endpoints for you, so
you don’t have to introduce additional equipment to your network