Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Objectives
Part 1: Observe the DNS Conversion of a URL to an IP Address
Part 2: Observe DNS Lookup Using the nslookup Command on a Web Site
Part 3: Observe DNS Lookup Using the nslookup Command on Mail Servers

Background / Scenario
The Domain Name System (DNS) is invoked when you type a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), such as
http://www.cisco.com​, into a web browser. The first part of the URL describes which protocol is used.
Common protocols are Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket
Layer (HTTPS), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
DNS uses the second part of the URL, which in this example is www.cisco.com. DNS translates the domain
name (www.cisco.com) to an IP address to allow the source host to reach the destination server. In this lab,
you will observe DNS in action and use the ​nslookup​ (name server lookup) command to obtain additional
DNS information.

Required Resources
1 PC (Windows with internet and command prompt access)

Part 1: Observe the DNS Conversion of a URL to an IP Address

a. Open a Windows command prompt.

Open a Windows command prompt.

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​1​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

b. At the command prompt, ping the URL for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) at ​www.icann.org​. ICANN coordinates the DNS, IP addresses, top-level domain name system
management, and root server system management functions. The computer must translate
www.icann.org into an IP address to know where to send the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
packets.
The first line of the output displays ​www.icann.org​ converted to an IP address by DNS. You should be
able to see the effect of DNS, even if your institution has a firewall that prevents pinging, or if the
destination server has prevented you from pinging its web server.
Note​: If the domain name is resolved to an IPv6 address, use the command ​ping -4 www.icann.org​ to
translate into an IPv4 address if desired.
Record the IP addresses for ​www.icann.org​.

Type your answers here.

Close the Windows command prompt

c. Type the IPv4 addresses from step b into a web browser, instead of the URL. Enter ​https://192.0.32.7 in
the web browser. If your computer has an IPv6 address you can enter the ​IPv6 address.
https://[2620:0:2d0:200::7]​ in the web browser.

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​2​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

d. Notice that the ICANN home web page is displayed without using DNS.

Most humans find it easier to remember words, rather than numbers. If you tell someone to go to
www.icann.org​, they can probably remember that. If you told them to go to 192.0.32.7, they would have
a difficult time remembering an IP address. Computers process in numbers. DNS is the process of
translating words into numbers. Additionally, there is a second translation that takes place. Humans think
in Base 10 numbers. Computers process in Base 2 numbers. The Base 10 IP address 192.0.32.7 in Base
2 numbers is 11000000.00000000.00100000.00000111. What happens if you cut and paste these Base 2
numbers into a browser?
The web site does not display. The software code used in web browsers recognizes Base 10
numbers. It does not recognize Base 2 numbers.

Typour aw

ers here.

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​3​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

e. At a command prompt, ​ping ​www.cisco.com​.

Note​: If the domain name is resolved to an IPv6 address, use the command ​ping -4 www.cisco.com​ to
translate into an IPv4 address if desired.
Open a windows command prompt

C:\> ​ping www.cisco.com

C:\> ​ping -4 www.cisco.com
Questions:

When you ping www.cisco.com, do you get the same IP address as the example? Explain.
Cisco hosts its web content on a series of mirror servers. This means that Cisco uploads the
exact same content to geographically diverse (spread out all over the world) servers. When
someone tries to reach www.cisco.com, the traffic is directed to the closest mirror server.

Type the IP address that you obtained when you pinged www.cisco.com into a browser. Does the web
site display? Explain.
The cisco.com web site does not display. There are at least two possible explanations for this: 1.
Some web servers are configured to accept IP addresses sent from a browser and some are not.
2. It may be a firewall rule in the Cisco security system that prohibits an IP address from being
sent via a browser.

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​4​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Part 2: Observe DNS Lookup Using the nslookup Command on a Web Site
a. At the command prompt, type the ​nslookup c​ ommand. Your result will be different than the example.
Open a windows command prompt

C:\> ​nslookup

Question:

What is the default DNS server used?

Type your answers here.
b. Notice how the command prompt changed to a greater than (>) symbol. This is the ​nslookup​ prompt.
From this prompt, you can enter commands related to DNS.
At the prompt, type ​?​ to see a list of all the available commands that you can use in ​nslookup​ mode.
c. At the nslookup prompt, type ​www.cisco.com

.
> ​www.cisco.com
Default Server: one.one.one.one
Address: 1.1.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: e2867.dsca.akamaiedge.net
Addresses: 2600:1404:a:395::b33
2600:1404:a:38e:::b33
172.230.155.162
Aliases: www.cisco.com
www.cisco.com.akadns.net
wwwds.cisco.com.edgekey.net
wwwds.cisco.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​5​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Questions:

What is the translated IPv4 address?

2600:1404:a:38e:::b33
Type your answers here.
Note​: The IP address from your location will most likely be different because Cisco uses mirrored servers
in various locations around the world.
Is it the same as the IP address shown with the ​ping​ command?
Yes
Type your answers here.

Under addresses, in addition to the 172.230.155.162 IP address, there are the following numbers:
2600:1404:a:395::b33 and 2600:1404:a:38e:::b33. What are these?
IPv6 (IP version 6) IP addresses at which the web site is reachable.
Type your answers here.
d. At the nslookup prompt, type the IP address of the Cisco web server that you just found. You can use
nslookup​ to get the domain name of an IP address if you do not know the URL.
> ​172.230.155.162
Default Server: one.one.one.one
Address: 1.1.1.1

Name: a172-230-155-162.deploy.static.akamaitechnologies.com
Address: 172.230.155.162
You can use the ​nslookup​ tool to translate domain names into IP addresses. You can also use it to
translate IP addresses into domain names.
Question:

Using the ​nslookup​ tool, record the IP addresses associated with ​www.google.com​.

The ip address is 172.217.31.36

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​6​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Part 3: Observe DNS Lookup Using the nslookup Command on Mail Servers
a. At the nslookup prompt, type ​set type=mx ​to use ​nslookup​ to identify mail servers.
> ​set type=mx

b. At the nslookup prompt, type ​cisco.com​.

> ​cisco.com
Server: one.one.one.one
Address: 1.1.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
cisco.com MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = rcdn-mx-01.cisco.com
cisco.com MX preference = 30, mail exchanger = aer-mx-01.cisco.com
cisco.com MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = alln-mx-01.cisco.com
A fundamental principle of network design is redundancy (more than one mail server is configured). In this
way, if one of the mail servers is unreachable, then the computer making the query tries the second mail
server. Email administrators determine which mail server is contacted first by using ​MX preference​. The
mail server with the lowest ​MX preference​ is contacted first. Based upon the output above, which mail
server will be contacted first when the email is sent to cisco.com?
Type your answers here.
c. At the nslookup prompt, type ​exit​ to return to the regular PC command prompt.
d. At the PC command prompt, type ​ipconfig /all​.

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​7​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Question:

Write the IP addresses of all the DNS servers that your school uses.
Type your answers here.
Close the windows command prompt

Reflection Question
What is the fundamental purpose of DNS?

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​8​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com
Lab - Observe DNS Resolution

Type your answers here.

End of document

© 2013 - 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public Page ​9​ of 9
​ www.netacad.com