EEB 4063 Data & Computer Network

September 2022

Lab 3: Network Diagnostic

Name: Tan Chiu Shyen

Student ID: 18000810
Course coordinator: Dr Huzein Fahmi B Hawari
Programme: Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Date: 27th October 2022
INTRODUCTION

The Network Diagnostic method is used to identify the network configurations of a computer
and diagnose Internet issues. A network diagnostic will typically assist in identifying the root
cause of connection issues if a computer cannot connect to the Internet or if the Internet
connection is particularly slow. Usually, hardware or software network diagnostic tools are
used for network diagnostic processes. For resolving network connection issues with the
Internet, certain operating systems come with built-in utilities.

While software applications and tools known as "network diagnostics tools" give us the
ability to recognise network problems and their likely causes. It enables us to carry out a variety
of network activities, including switch, server, and network performance monitoring. These
software tools provide information about the network, such as hostnames and latency values.
When we have many Wi-Fi network connections, many of these applications can also assist in
locating routing problems.

METHODOLOGY
Objectives

1. To understand and investigate the “ping” diagnostic tools.

2. To understand and analyse “ipconfig” diagnostic tools on getting details of host PC and
other functions.
3. To understand and investigate the function of “arp” function.

Method

Experiment 1 – Ping

1. Any of the Lab’s PC is pinged, and 172.17.103.8 is pinged in this experiment.

2. UTP Proxy (utp.edu.my) is pinged.
3. Then, Google Webpage is pinged and the Google Webpage IP is get from the “ping”
command.
4. TTL (Time to Live) value is changed, and the Lab’s PC is pinged again.
5. Next, Lab’s PC is pinged infinitely by using “ping -t 172.17.103.8” command in
command prompt.
 6. Another IP address is pinged by executing “ping 127.0.0.1” command.
7. “ping -n <value> <172.17.103.8> is pinged by inserting a certain amount of requests.
8. The IP of the Lab’s PC is pinged after the networking adapter of the Lab’s PC is
unplugged. The output is observed.
9. The Lab’s PC is pinged infinitely again, then the network adapter is unplugged while
sending and receiving echoes and replies. The output is then observed.
10. After that, the IP of the Lab’s PC is pinged again after logging off the PC and the output
is observed.
11. Lastly, the IP of the Lab’s PC is pinged after shutting down the Lab’s PC. The output
is then observed again.

Experiment 2 – Ipconfig

1. The IP of the PC is get using ipconfig command by executing “ipconfig”.

2. The MAC address is get using ipconfig command by executing “ipconfig/all” in the
command prompt.
3. The computer name is get using ipconfig command by executing “ipconfig/all” in the
command prompt.
4. Then, “ipconfig/displaydns” is executed to display the window IP configurations and
the output is observed.
5. Next, “ipconfig/flushdns” is executed to flush all the cached DNS entries and the results
are observed.
6. The “ipconfig/displaydns” command is executed again to display the window IP
configurations after step 5. The output results are observed.
7. The difference between the results in step 4 and step 6 are compared.
8. Lastly, “ipconfig/all” command is executed to know the current full TCP configurations
for the host PC.

Experiment 3 – ARP

1. The IP of the Lab’s PC is pinged by “ping 172.17.103.8” command.

2. “arp -a” command is run to display current ARP cache entry.
3. “arp -d 172.17.103.8” command is run to delete an entry with the IP address.
4. “arp -a” is run again to display current ARP cache entry after step 3.
5. The difference between the results of step 2 and step 4 are compared and investigated.
6. “arp -d 172.17.103.8” is run again to delete an entry with the IP address.
7. Then, “arp -s 172.17.103.8 fe-fc-fe-10-14-7C” command is run to add a static entry to
the ARP cache that resolves the IP address InetAddr to the physical address EtherAddr.
8. “arp -a” command is run to display current ARP cached entry after step 6 and 7.
9. The difference between the results of step 4 and step 8 are compared and investigated.
10. “arp -d” command is executed to delete all the arp entries.
11. Command prompt is exited.
RESULTS

Experiment 1 - Ping

1. Can we ping any of the Lab’s PCs? How?

Yes. We can ping any of the Lab’s PC through “ping 172.17.103.8” command.

2. Can we ping the UTP Proxy (utp.edu.my)? How?

Yes, we can ping the UTP proxy through utp.ed.my by “ping utp.edu.my” command.
3. Can we Ping Google Webpage? How? Can we get the Google webpage IP from the Ping
Command? How?
Yes, we can ping Google webpage by google.com through “ping google.com” command.
We can also get the Google webpage IP from the command which is 216.58.199.238

4. What is TTL? And can we change its value with ping command? How? What will happen
if you change the TTL value to 10?
TTL is time to live which refers to the amount of time or “hops” that a packet is set to exist
inside a network before being discarded by a router. TTL is also used in other contexts
including CDN caching and DNS caching. We can change its value with ping command
with “ping -i <value> <PC IP>”. If the TTL value is changed to 10, then the packet send
from own PC is having TTL value equal to 10 in Wireshark software.
5. Which command we have to use to ping a PC infinitely? Give a scenario in which we
need to use the infinite ping.
We have to use “ping -t” command to ping a PC infinitely. Infinite ping is a common
debugging method to check network devices are reachable. With the infinite ping, the
connection between computers can be tested in an infinite loop.
6. What would the following syntax do? What does the pinged IP mean?
Ping 127.0.0.1

The command “ping 127.0.0.1” means that our PC will send a packet to the device
which is having this IP address. Pinged IP also allows us to test and verify if a particular
destination IP address exist and can accept requests in computer network administration.

7. What would the following syntax do?

Ping –n <Next PC IP>

“Ping –n <Next PC IP>” syntax allows users to set the numbers of packets that they
like to send. When a negative value has been set, such as “ping -n -1 172.17.103.8”, the
ping function loop infinitely. While a positive value has been set, such as “ping -n 5
172.17.103.8”, thus 5 packets are sent and 5 reply packets are received.
8. Ping the PC next to you with 7 requests command. What would be the reply?
If ping the PC next to me with 7 requests command, 7 reply packets will be received
from the PC next to me correspond to the 7 packets sent.
9. Unplug the Networking Adapter from the PC next to you then ping its IP. What would
be the output?
The output results show that the PC still able to send and receive replies.

10. Ping the PC next to you infinitely. While it’s sending and receiving echoes and replies,
unplug the network adapter. What would be the output?
The output results shows that the PC does not affect and keep sending and receiving
echoes and replies.
11. Log off the PC next to you then ping its IP. What would be the output?
The output results show that the PC still able to send and receive replies.

12. Shutdown the PC next to you then ping its IP. What would be the output?
The ping has requested time out shows that the destination host is unreachable after the
PC next to me is shut down.
Experiment 2 – Ipconfig

1. Can we get the IP of your PC using ipconfig command? How?

Yes, we can get the IP of the PC using ipconfig command by typing “ipconfig” in the
command prompt.

2. Can we get the MAC Address using ipconfig command? How?

Yes, we can get the MAC address using ipconfig command by typing “ ipconfig/all” in
the command prompt.
3. Can we get the computer Name using ipconfig command? How?
Yes, we can get the computer name using ipconfig command by typing “ipconfig/all”
in the command prompt. The host name is “Win10-EE0023”.

4. If we want to know the MAC address of a remote PC, can we get it using ipconfig
command? How?
No, we can’t know the MAC address of a remote PC using ipconfig command. This is
because ipconfig can only display information of own PC as the answer for Question 2.

5. If we want to know the Computer Name of a remote PC, can we get it using ipconfig
command ONLY? How?
No, we can’t know the Computer Name of a remote PC using ipconfig command. This
is because ipconfig can only display the information of own PC as the answer for
Question 3.
6. What does the following syntex do (Explain the results):
i. Run Ipconfig /displaydns observe the result.
The Windows IP configuration has been shown after executing
“ipconfig/displaydns”.

ii. Run Ipconfig /flushdns observe the result.

“Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache” has been shown after executing
“ipconfig /flushdns” in the command prompt.
 iii. Run Ipconfig /displaydns observe the result.
All the DNS records on the PC has been flushed after executing “ipconfig/flushdns”.
Therefore, when executing “ipconfig/displaydns”, the Windows IP configurations is
empty. This is because, flushing DNS clear any IP address or other DNS record from
the cache.

iv. What is the difference between the two results (Step i and iii)?
In the results in Step (i), the Windows IP configuration still can be observed while
in step (iii) the Windows IP configuration is blank. This is because the details in the
Windows IP configuration have been deleted when executing “ipconfig/flushdns” as
this command purges the cached DNS entries on the PC.

7. If we want to know the current full TCP configuration for our host, what would be the
full statement to be used?
“ipconfig/all” command can be used in command prompt to know the current full TCP
configuration for our host.
Experiment 3 – ARP

1. Ping <next PC IP>

2. Run arp –a
3. Run arp –d <next PC IP>
4. Run arp –a

Step 3

Step 4

5. What is the difference between the results of step 2 and step 4?

The difference between the results of step 2 and step 4 is we can still see the IP address
that have been pinged in step 1 which is 172.17.103.8 while in step 4 the IP address
172.17.103.8 has been deleted. This is because in step 3, “arp -d 172.17.103.8”
command has been executed as this command deletes an entry with a specific IP address.
Thus, when “arp -a” command has been executed in step 4, IP address “172.17.103.8”
has been deleted.
6. Run arp –d <next PC IP>
7. Run arp –s <next PC IP><next PC MAC>
8. Run arp –a
 Step 4
Step 5

Step 6

9. What is the difference between the results of step 4 and step 8?

The difference is the IP address 172.17.103.8 has changed from dynamic to static.
10. How can we delete all the arp entries?

11. Exit command prompt.

DISCUSSION

In this lab session, there are several network diagnostic syntaxes are executed such as “ping”,
“ipconfig”, and “arp”. In experiment 1, “ping” command is executed to troubleshoot
connectivity, reachability and name resolution. It is also a very common method used to
troubleshoot accessibility of devices. It uses a series of Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) Echo messages to determine whether a remote host is active or inactive. The 2 major
pieces of information that the ping command provides are how many of those responses are
returned and how long it takes for them to return. While in this experiment 1, Lab’s PC has
been pinged to check the accessibility of the PC. Besides, UTP proxy has also been pinged and
the results are observed. To change the TTL value, “ping -i <value> <PC IP>” command has
been executed. Since the TTL value is requested to change to 10, thus “ping -i 10 172.17.103.8”
command is executed to change the TTL value. Besides, “ping -t” has also been executed in
experiment 1 to ping the Lab’s PC infinitely. When the networking adapter of the Lab’s PC is
unplugged, the output results should be “request time out” or “unreachable”. However, in this
lab session, we can still get responds from the Lab’s PC after the networking adapter has been
unplugged. This is because the settings inside the Lab’s PC is different from normal PC and
the Internet settings of the Labs have been modified by the lab’s technician. Thus, we still get
the responds even if the networking adapter of the Lab’s PC is unplugged or logged off. When
the PC is totally shut down, the ping command is executed, and the results are “request time
out” and “unreachable”. This has shown that the Lab’s PC has failed to reply to the echo request
packet send from host PC.

While in experiment 2, “ipconfig” command has been executed. Ipconfig is one of the
better-known command-line utilities available through Windows, since it is highly useful for
configuring and analysing networks. It is used to display information about the network
configuration and refresh DHCP and DNS settings. Ipconfig command also allows users to get
the IP address information of the host PC. It is very useful for network setup, configuration and
administration. In experiment 2, ipconfig command has been used to get the IP address, MAC
address, and computer name of the host PC. Moreover, ipconfig command has been modified
into “ipconfig/displaydns” to display the Window IP configuration and “ipconfig/flushdns” to
delete or purges the DNS resolver cache.

Lastly, “arp” command is used in experiment 3 which stands for “Address Resolution
Protocol”. On a local area network, it is a protocol that converts an IP address to a MAC address.
A computer system typically uses ARP to determine the MAC address of another computer
based on that computer's IP address. An ARP table or cache's details and information can be
viewed, displayed, or changed. The "arp -a" command can be used to inspect an ARP table on
a PC. The IP and MAC addresses of recent local network connections that the host computer
has made are dynamically listed in the ARP table/cache. By keeping an ARP table, the host PC
can communicate with another PC without having to submit an ARP request for the other PC's
MAC address. The ARP command is also used to switch the network type from one form to
another (static or dynamic). While the ARP programme receives dynamic entries, static ARP
entries must be manually added to the ARP cache table.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this lab has been successfully conducted as all the objectives have been achieved.
We have the chance to learn and grasp the functions performed by various network diagnostic
syntax, including "ping," "ipconfig," and "arp." We finally understand how to use the "ping"
command to test connectivity, reachability, and name resolution. While networks are
configured and analysed using the "ipconfig" command. Information about the network
settings is also displayed using it. Last but not least, the "arp" command is used to view the
ARP table/cache and switch the network's form (static to dynamic or dynamic to static). Sum
up, we now have a better understanding of the three network diagnostic syntaxes, have
practised using them in this lab, and are more familiar with how they work.