CCNA :) Be a Good Network Administrator

Overview Internet Protocol (IP) is the main routed protocol of the Internet. IP addresses are used to route packets from a source to a destination through the best available path. The propagation of packets, encapsulation changes, and connection-oriented and connectionless protocols are also critical to ensure that data is properly transmitted to its destination. This module will provide an overview for each. The difference between routing and routed protocols is a common source of confusion. The two words sound similar but are quite different. Routers use routing protocols to build tables that are used to determine the best path to a host on the Internet. Not all organizations can fit into the three class system of A, B, and C addresses. Flexibility exists within the class system through subnets. Subnets allow network administrators to determine the size of the network they will work with. After they decide how to segment their networks, they can use subnet masks to determine th...

Summary This page summarizes the topics discussed in this module. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) TCP/IP reference model has four layers: the application layer, transport layer, Internet layer, and the network access layer. The application layer handles high-level protocols, issues of representation, encoding, and dialog control. The transport layer provides transport services from the source host to the destination host. The purpose of the Internet layer is to select the best path through the network for packet transmissions. The network access layer is concerned with the physical link to the network media. Although some layers of the TCP/IP reference model correspond to the seven layers of the OSI model, there are differences. The TCP/IP model combines the presentation and session layer into its application layer. The TCP/IP model combines the OSI data link and physical layers into its network access layer. Routers use the IP address to move data packets between networks...

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) 9.3.7 This page provides an explanation of how ARP works. With TCP/IP networking, a data packet must contain both a destination MAC address and a destination IP address. If the packet is missing either one, the data will not pass from Layer 3 to the upper layers. In this way, MAC addresses and IP addresses act as checks and balances for each other. After devices determine the IP addresses of the destination devices, they can add the destination MAC addresses to the data packets. Some devices will keep tables that contain MAC addresses and IP addresses of other devices that are connected to the same LAN. These are called Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) tables. ARP tables are stored in RAM memory, where the cached information is maintained automatically on each of the devices. It is very unusual for a user to have to make an ARP table entry manually. Each device on a network maintains its own ARP table. When a network device wants to send data a...

DHCP IP address management 9.3.5 This page will explain the features and benefits of DHCP. Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) is the successor to BOOTP. Unlike BOOTP, DHCP allows a host to obtain an IP address dynamically without the network administrator having to set up an individual profile for each device. All that is required when using DHCP is a defined range of IP addresses on a DHCP server. As hosts come online, they contact the DHCP server and request an address. The DHCP server chooses an address and leases it to that host. With DHCP, the entire network configuration of a computer can be obtained in one message. This includes all of the data supplied by the BOOTP message, plus a leased IP address and a subnet mask. The major advantage that DHCP has over BOOTP is that it allows users to be mobile. This mobility allows the users to freely change network connections from location to location. It is no longer required to keep a fixed profile for every device attach...

BOOTP IP address assignment 9.3.4 This page will introduce BOOTP. The bootstrap protocol (BOOTP) operates in a client-server environment and only requires a single packet exchange to obtain IP information. However, unlike RARP, BOOTP packets can include the IP address, as well as the address of a router, the address of a server, and vendor-specific information. One problem with BOOTP, however, is that it was not designed to provide dynamic address assignment. With BOOTP, a network administrator creates a configuration file that specifies the parameters for each device. The administrator must add hosts and maintain the BOOTP database. Even though the addresses are dynamically assigned, there is still a one to one relationship between the number of IP addresses and the number of hosts. This means that for every host on the network there must be a BOOTP profile with an IP address assignment in it. No two profiles can have the same IP address. Those profiles might be used at the sam...

RARP IP address assignment 9.3.3 This page will discuss RARP address assignment. Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) associates a known MAC addresses with an IP addresses. This association allows network devices to encapsulate data before sending the data out on the network. A network device, such as a diskless workstation, might know its MAC address but not its IP address. RARP allows the device to make a request to learn its IP address. Devices using RARP require that a RARP server be present on the network to answer RARP requests. Consider an example where a source device wants to send data to another device. In this example, the source device knows its own MAC address but is unable to locate its own IP address in the ARP table. The source device must include both its MAC address and IP address in order for the destination device to retrieve data, pass it to higher layers of the OSI model, and respond to the originating device. Therefore, the source initiates a process...

Obtaining an Internet address 9.3.1 This page will explain how an Internet address is obtained. A network host needs to obtain a globally unique address in order to function on the Internet. The physical or MAC address that a host has is only locally significant, identifying the host within the local area network. Since this is a Layer 2 address, the router does not use it to forward outside the LAN. IP addresses are the most commonly used addresses for Internet communications. This protocol is a hierarchical addressing scheme that allows individual addresses to be associated together and treated as groups. These groups of addresses allow efficient transfer of data across the Internet. Network administrators use two methods to assign IP addresses. These methods are static and dynamic. Later in this lesson, static addressing and three variations of dynamic addressing will be covered. Regardless of which addressing scheme is chosen, no two interfaces can have the same IP address...