Lab Manual for Computer Networks

1. Explain different types of Network cables and Practically implement the cross-wired cable and straight
through cable.

Coaxial Cables: This cable was invented at late 1880’s, which is used to connect the television sets to
home antennas. This cable is used to transfer the information in 10 mbps. The cable is divided into
thin.net and thicknet cables. These cables have a copper wire inside and insulation is covered on the top
of the copper wire to provide protection to the cable. These cables are very difficult to install and
maintain, because they are too big to carry and replace. The coaxial cable got its name by the word
“coax”. Nowadays coaxial cables are also used for dish TV where the setup box and the television is
connected using the coaxial cable only. Some of the cable names are Media Bridge 50-feet Coaxial cable,
Amazon basics CL2-Rated Coaxial cables, etc.

2. Twisted Pair Cables: It is type of cable with two or more insulated wires twisted together. It started
with the speed of 10 mbps (10BASE-T cable is used). Then the cable is improved ” and the speed was
higher and went to 100 mbps and the cable-was renamed as 100BASE-TX. Then finally the cable
improved more made to 10 gbps and named as 10GBASE-T. Ths twisted cable has 8 wires which are
twisted to ignore electromagnetic interference. Also the eight wires cannot be placed in a single unit
there could be a difficult in spacious, so it is twisted to make as one wire. There are two types of twisted
pair cables, Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) and Shielded Twisted pair (STP). The UTP is used nowadays as
modem cables for Internet and they are lower in cost and installation and maintenance is easy
compared to the coaxial cables. STP is similar to UTP, but it is covered by an additional jackets to protect
the wires from External interference.

3. Fiber Optics: This cable is different from the other two cables. The other two cables had an insulating
material at the outside and the conducting material like copper inside. But in this cable it is of strands of
glass and pulse of light is used to send the information. They are mainly used in Wide Area Network
(WAN). The WAN is a network that extends to very large distance to connect the computers. One
example of WAN is Internet. These cables are placed in deep underground to avoid any damage to the
cables. The optic cable uses light to transmit the information from one place to another. There are two
types of fiber optic cables available, One is single-mode (lOOBaseBx) another one is Multimode
(lOOBaseSX). Single-mode cables are used for long distance transmission and at a high cost whereas the
multimode cables are used for short distance transmission at a very low cost. The optic cables are easy
to maintain and install.

4. USB Cables: The Universal Serial Bus are used to connect keyboard, mouse and other peripheral
devices. But there are some special network devices used to connect the Internet through the USB
called dongles. The dongle is a small peripheral device which has a compatible of mobile broadband with
a sim slot in it and connects the Internet and acts as a modem to the computer.
5. Serial and Parallel cables: Before In the year of 1980s to 1990s the Ethernet and the USB were not
developed. Then the Serial and Parallel interface cables are used to connect the Internet to the system.
They were sometime used for PC to PC networking. Before the USB emerged, the system will have both
serial port and parallel port. The serial port will send 1 bit at one time whereas the parallel port will send
8 bit at one time. The parallel cables are used to connect to the printer and other disk drivers. RS232 is
one type of serial cable, also known as Null modem cable.

6. Ethernet Cables: Ethernet cable is the most common type of network cable mainly used for
connecting the computers or devices at home or office. This cable connects wired devices within the
local area network (LAN) for sharing the resources and accessing Internet.Read more on Sarthaks.com -
https://www.sarthaks.com/1011405/explain-the-types-of-network-cables

2. Describe Network Devices in Detail.

Hub
Hubs connect multiple computer networking devices together. A hub also acts as a
repeater in that it amplifies signals that deteriorate after traveling long distances
over connecting cables. A hub is the simplest in the family of network connecting
devices because it connects LAN components with identical protocols.

A hub can be used with both digital and analog data, provided its settings have
been configured to prepare for the formatting of the incoming data. For example, if
the incoming data is in digital format, the hub must pass it on as packets; however,
if the incoming data is analog, then the hub passes it on in signal form.

Switch
Switches generally have a more intelligent role than hubs. A switch is a multiport
device that improves network efficiency. The switch maintains limited routing
information about nodes in the internal network, and it allows connections to
systems like hubs or routers. Strands of LANs are usually connected using switches.
Generally, switches can read the hardware addresses of incoming packets to
transmit them to the appropriate destination.
Using switches improves network efficiency over hubs or routers because of the
virtual circuit capability. Switches also improve network security because the virtual
circuits are more difficult to examine with network monitors. You can think of a
switch as a device that has some of the best capabilities of routers and hubs
combined. A switch can work at either the Data Link layer or the Network layer of
the OSI model. A multilayer switch is one that can operate at both layers, which
means that it can operate as both a switch and a router. A multilayer switch is a
high-performance device that supports the same routing protocols as routers.

Router
Routers help transmit packets to their destinations by charting a path through the
sea of interconnected networking devices using different network topologies.
Routers are intelligent devices, and they store information about the networks
they’re connected to. Most routers can be configured to operate as packet-filtering
firewalls and use access control lists (ACLs). Routers, in conjunction with a channel
service unit/data service unit (CSU/DSU), are also used to translate from LAN
framing to WAN framing. This is needed because LANs and WANs use different
network protocols. Such routers are known as border routers. They serve as the
outside connection of a LAN to a WAN, and they operate at the border of your
network.

Bridge
Bridges are used to connect two or more hosts or network segments together. The
basic role of bridges in network architecture is storing and forwarding frames
between the different segments that the bridge connects. They use hardware
Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for transferring frames. By looking at the
MAC address of the devices connected to each segment, bridges can forward the
data or block it from crossing. Bridges can also be used to connect two physical
LANs into a larger logical LAN.

Bridges work only at the Physical and Data Link layers of the OSI model. Bridges are
used to divide larger networks into smaller sections by sitting between two physical
network segments and managing the flow of data between the two
Gateway
Gateways normally work at the Transport and Session layers of the OSI model. At
the Transport layer and above, there are numerous protocols and standards from
different vendors; gateways are used to deal with them. Gateways provide
translation between networking technologies such as Open System Interconnection
(OSI) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Because of this,
gateways connect two or more autonomous networks, each with its own routing
algorithms, protocols, topology, domain name service, and network administration
procedures and policies.

Gateways perform all of the functions of routers and more. In fact, a router with
added translation functionality is a gateway. The function that does the translation
between different network technologies is called a protocol converter.

Modem
Modems (modulators-demodulators) are used to transmit digital signals over
analog telephone lines. Thus, digital signals are converted by the modem into
analog signals of different frequencies and transmitted to a modem at the receiving
location. The receiving modem performs the reverse transformation and provides a
digital output to a device connected to a modem, usually a computer. The digital
data is usually transferred to or from the modem over a serial line through an
industry standard interface, RS-232. Many telephone companies offer DSL services,
and many cable operators  use modems as end terminals for identification and
recognition of home and personal users. Modems work on both the Physical and
Data Link layers.

Repeater
A repeater is an electronic device that amplifies the signal it receives. You can think
of repeater as a device which receives a signal and retransmits it at a higher level or
higher power so that the signal can cover longer distances, more than 100 meters
for standard LAN cables. Repeaters work on the Physical layer.
Access Point
While an access point (AP) can technically involve either a wired or wireless
connection, it commonly means a wireless device. An AP works at the second OSI
layer, the Data Link layer, and it can operate either as a bridge connecting a
standard wired network to wireless devices or as a router passing data
transmissions from one access point to another.

3. Connect the computers in Local Area Network.

4. Write basic network command and Network configuration commands.

The IPCONFIG network command provides a comprehensive view of information

regarding the IP address configuration of the device we are currently working on.

The IPConfig command also provides us with some variation in the primary command
that targets specific system settings or data, which are:

 IPConfig/all - Provides primary output with additional information about

network adapters.

 IPConfig/renew - Used to renew the system’s IP address.

 IPConfig/release - Removes the system’s current IP address.

Command to enter in Prompt - ipconfig

The Ping command is one of the most widely used commands in the prompt tool, as it
allows the user to check the connectivity of our system to another host.

This command sends four experimental packets to the destination host to check
whether it receives them successfully, if so, then, we can communicate with the
destination host. But in case the packets have not been received, that means, no
communication can be established with the destination host.
Command to enter in Prompt - ping www.destination_host_name.com

5. Write down steps to perform an Initial Hub Configuration.

   First, add three computer equipment

     1. Follow the steps 1 and 2, and perform the 2 steps three times. Drag and drop the PC on
the way. You can also hold down the Ctrl key and click the three blank spaces during the 2 steps to
place the three computers.

   Second. Add a hub to the picture

    1, follow the steps 1, 2, and 3, add a hub to the device

   Third. Connect the PC device to the hub

     1. Connect the hub and PC0 as in 1, 2, 3, and 4, repeat steps 3 and 4 to connect PC1 and
PC2 to the hub.

   Fourth, set the IP address of the PC

     1. Click PC0, and a dialog box will pop up. For example, set the IP to 192.168.1.1. You can
select the IP segment according to your own situation.

    2. Follow the steps to set the IP address and subnet mask of PC1 and PC2 as follows:

   Fifth. Test that the three PCs can communicate with each other

     Here we use the ping command to test the communication between PCs. It can also be
tested by simulation.

     select any one of the PCs, we assume that PC1 computer is selected here.

     1. Click the icon, and a dialog box will pop up. The operation is as follows, and then
command the terminal too early.

    2, enter in the pop-up terminal:

      Ping 192.168.1.2 and wait for the data packet to return the result
      Ping 192.168.1.3 and wait for the data packet to return the result

      If the result appears, it means that the communication is normal.

6. Write down steps to perform an Initial Switch Configuration

Steps to Configure the Switch: 

Step 1. Open the packet tracer desktop and take a switch (PT-Switch) from the
devices.
Step 2: Configure the Host name of the swicth0.
 Click on switch0 and go to Command Line Interface.
 Then change the hostname to “sh”
Step 3: Set a message of the day (MOTD) banner for the users.
 Then, enter MOTD and end it with ‘$’ to exit.
Step 4: Set up line control password and enable secret password.

Step 5: Verify the password

 When you try to log in first, it will ask for the line control password.
 Then, to configure the terminal it will ask to enable a secret
password.
To save the configuration use the below command:
sh#copy run startup-config

7.Write down steps to perform an Initial Router Configuration

Step-1(Configuring Router1):
1. Select the router and Open CLI.
2. Press ENTER to start configuring Router1.
3. Type enable to activate the privileged mode.
4. Type config t(configure terminal) to access the configuration menu.
5. Configure interfaces of Router1:
 6. Type no shutdown to finish.

Step-2(Configuring PCs):
1. Assign IP Addresses to every PC in the network.
2. Select the PC, Go to the desktop and select IP Configuration and
assign an IP address, Default gateway, Subnet Mask
3. Assign the default gateway of PC0 as 192.168.10.1.
4. Assign the default gateway of PC1 as 192.168.20.1.
Step-3(Connecting PCs with Router):
1. Connect FastEthernet0 port of PC0 with FastEthernet0/0 port of
Router1 using a copper straight-through cable.
2. Connect FastEthernet0 port of PC1 with FastEthernet0/1 port of
Router1 using a copper straight-through cable.

Router Configuration Table:

Device IP address IP Address
Name FastEthernet0/0 Subnet Mask FastEthernet0/1 Subnet Mask

   Router1          192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0          192.168.20.1 255.255.255.0

PC Configuration Table:
Device Name IP address  Subnet Mask Gateway

192.168.10.
      PC 0 2 255.255.255.0 192.168.10.1

192.168.20.
      PC 1 2 255.255.255.0 192.168.20.1