LO2: Install and configure Internet

Infrastructure and services

TCP/IP services 2

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) 3

Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) 6

Domain Name Service (DNS) 8

Installing and configuring TCP/IP 11

Manual configuration 11
Automatic configuration 12
TCP/IP tools 13

Summary 15
Check your progress 15

1
TCP/IP services

TCP/IP is the basic protocol of the Internet and is comprised of other

protocols including UDP, ARP and ICMP. The TCP/IP protocol suite also
provides a number of useful services, which include:
 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
 Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS)
 Domain Name Service (DNS)
 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

With all the new Windows operating systems TCP/IP is automatically

installed during the installation of the operating system. You can choose to
configure your computer with an IP address during the installation or wait
until after the installation has been completed.

2 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) enables the assignment of
dynamic TCP/IP network addresses on a first come, first served basis, based
on a specified pool of available addresses. An organisation may only have a
limited number of IP addresses to be shared among the client computers. By
configuring the DHCP server with a pool of IP addresses, these addresses
can then be shared by the users within the organisation, thus simplifying IP
address administration.

The client computer is configured to obtain an IP address automatically

from a DHCP server. When the client machine starts up, the DHCP service
assigns the next available TCP/IP address for the period of the lease, as
configured on the server. The DHCP server can also be configured to assign
the same IP address to a particular machine every time it starts up. The
DHCP server service is installed and configured on a server computer.

Figure 1 below shows the configuration of an IP address scope on a DHCP

server. Any computer starting up on this network will be allocated an IP
address from the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.100.

Figure 1: IP address scope on a DHCP server

3
 For a client computer to be allocated an IP address, you will need to check
the option ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’ from the TCP/IP
Properties window as can be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2 below shows an example of how TCP/IP properties are configured

for automatic assignment of an IP address on a client computer. To get to
this screen on a Windows 2000 or XP computer, you will need to go to:
My Network Places / Local Area Connection, Properties / TCP/IP
Properties.

Figure 2: Configuration for automatic assignment of an IP address on a client

computer

Once you have chosen to obtain an IP address automatically, the Advanced

TCP/IP Setting option will display that DHCP has been enabled on the
client computer, as can be seen from Figure 3 below.

4 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Figure 3: Advanced TCP/IP Settings show that DHCP has been enabled

5
Windows Internet Naming Service
(WINS)

Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) enables the resolution of

computer names to IP addresses. When an operating system is first installed
on a computer one of the tasks is to configure the computer with a unique
name known as the NetBIOS name. The NetBIOS name can contain up to
15 characters, for example, ACCOUNTS1, or LEGAL or PHILLIP. The
computer name must be unique and no two computers on the network can
have the same name.

By having a unique name for each computer, an administrator or user on the

network does not need to remember the IP address of the client computer.
To communicate with another computer on the network you need only enter
the name of the computer — the operating system does the rest.

WINS maintains a database on the server that accepts requests from

Windows or DOS clients to register with a particular NetBIOS name. The
server keeps track of which NetBIOS names are linked to which IP
addresses. Because WINS manages the mappings between IP addresses and
NetBIOS names, clients do not have to broadcast their NetBIOS names to
the rest of the network. The elimination of this broadcast traffic improves
network performance.

The WINS Server service is installed on a server computer; however, both a

Windows server computer and a workstation can use the WINS server to
resolve network names.

Figure 4 below shows how a user adds the IP address of the WINS server in
the Advanced TCP/IP Settings window from the WINS tab.

6 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Figure 4: IP address of WINS server added in the TCP/IP properties on the client
computer

7
Domain Name Service (DNS)

The Domain Name Service (DNS) was introduced in 1984 when the Internet
was a relatively small network established by the US Defence Department
for research. DNS lets us use hierarchical, friendly names to easily locate
computers and other resources on a TCP/IP network that contains data
similar to the Yellow Pages.

DNS is a database that contains mappings of DNS domain names, such as

‘legal.forth.com’ to an IP address. DNS is a:
 mechanism for querying and updating the database
 mechanism for replicating information in the database among servers
 schema for the database.

The DNS is implemented as a hierarchical system including host names and

domain names. The names in a DNS database form a hierarchical tree
structure called the domain name space. Domain names have individual
labels separated by stops or dots (.) for example: legal.forth.com.

A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) uniquely identifies where the host
is located within the DNS hierarchical tree by specifying a list of names
separated by dots on the path from the referenced host to the root server.

Figure 5 below shows an example of a DNS tree with a host called ‘legal’
within the ‘forth.com.’ domain. The FQDN for the host would be
legal.forth.com.

.Root

.com .edu .net .gov .xx

(country)

.forth

.legal
FQDN: legal.forth.com

Figure 5: An example of a DNS tree

8 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
The DNS service resolves computer names to IP addresses, such as
resolving the computer name ‘legal.forth.com’ to the IP address 203.70.1.2.

Domain names must be registered with an Internet naming authority that

works on behalf of the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers). ICANN has established conventions for the Top Level
Domains (TLDs) that apply to every type of organisation that uses the
Internet, an example of which can be seen in Table 1 below. Existing
abbreviations are reserved for use by organisations, as well as two- and
three-letter abbreviations used for countries.

Table 1: Criteria for domain name registration

DNS domain name Type of organisation

com Commercial organisations

edu Educational institutions
org Non-profit organisations
gov Non-military government organisations
net Networks (the backbone of the Internet)
mil Military government organisations
arpa Reverse DNS
xx Two-letter country code for example:

.au for Australia .jp for Japan .ca for Canada

Accredited registrars carry out registration, and each country has its own
controlling body. In Australia this is currently the Australian Domain
Names Authority (AuDA), which accredits local registrars such as
NetRegistry. Figure 6 below shows the IP address of the Domain Name
Server configured on the client computer.

9
 Figure 6: Domain Name Server configuration on a client computer

10 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Installing and configuring TCP/IP

With most recent Windows operating systems the TCP/IP protocol is

automatically installed during installation of the operating system. By
default, the TCP/IP settings are set to ‘Obtain an IP Address Automatically’,
that is, through a DHCP server.

If a DHCP server cannot be located by the workstation when it starts, the

workstation will automatically be assigned an address from the range
169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254. This range is set aside by the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for this purpose. The workstation
broadcasts its intended use of the randomly chosen address to ensure that no
other workstation on the same network has chosen the same address.

You will need to determine if you will be manually configuring TCP/IP on

your computer, or whether a DHCP server will assign IP addresses to all
computers on the network.

Manual configuration
If you are required to manually configure your computer with an IP address,
you will need to have the following information to hand:
 Your workstation’s IP address. This is the unique address that
identifies a particular computer on a TCP/IP network. This consists
of four numbers, separated by a dot, for example: 203.60.1.2.
 Your network’s subnet mask for each network adapter on the
network. The subnet mask is a number mathematically applied to the
IP address that determines the network that the computer belongs to.
For example, given the subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 to the above
IP address 203.60.1.2, the net ID is 203.60.1.0 and the host ID is
0.0.0.2.
 Your default gateway. The default gateway is a device that servers as
a router. If a default gateway is not specified, the computer is unable
to communicate with other devices outside its subnet, that is, outside
its own network.
 The domain name server for the network. This is a computer that
serves as an Internet host and performs translation of Fully Qualified
Domain Names (FQDNs) into IP addresses.

11
 Figure 7 shows manual configuration of an IP address, subnet mask, and
default gateway with preferred and alternate DNS servers.

Figure 7: Manual configuration of an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway

with preferred and alternate DNS servers

Automatic configuration
For automatic configuration, a user just needs to check the ‘Obtain an IP
address automatically’ option in the Internet Protocol Properties window.
The DHCP server will then configure all the information without any input
from a user. The server will assign:
 an IP address
 subnet mask.

If an organisation has been assigned a range of IP addresses for use by staff,

this range can be created as the scope for the DHCP server, accompanied by
a subnet mask, default gateway, DNS and WINS, if they have been
configured.

12 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Figure 8 below shows the TCP/IP configuration information of the
computer with a host name of G1C1. What information can you see from
this screen?

Figure 8: TCP/IP configuration of the computer named G1C1

TCP/IP tools
Once TCP/IP has been configured, there are a few tools that can be used to
check to see if TCP/IP has been configured correctly on your computer.

IPCONFIG/ALL command
As you can see from Figure 8 above, the command IPCONFIG/ALL
displays all the current local TCP/IP configuration information, including:
 the host name
 MAC address of the network adapter as well as its brand and type
 whether this interface has been configured to use DHCP
 IP address of the host
 subnet mask
 default gateway
 DHCP server
 when an IP address was leased (obtained) and is due to expire.

13
 PING
PING is a tool to determine the connectivity between two nodes. This
command is used from the command line, and as you can see from Figure 9,
you can use PING with the loopback address, 127.0.0.1 or the host’s own IP
address. You can also PING any other valid address of a host, on this or any
connected network.

Figure 9: The PING command

NSLOOKUP
NSLOOKUP is a tool to determine whether DNS has been successfully
configured.

TRACERT
TRACERT displays the route taken by the Internet Control Message
Protocol (ICMP) to a remote host.

NETSTAT
NETSTAT displays the current connectivity information such as port
number and any connected ‘foreign’ IP address.

14 Reading: Configure a network to use an IP addressing scheme

2005
Summary

TCP/IP is automatically installed during the installation of most operating

systems, by default. A Network Administrator can choose to manually
configure a computer with a TCP/IP address or have several computers on a
network assigned an IP address through a Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP) server.

A range of IP addresses are configured within the scope of the DHCP

server. The IP addresses are leased for a specific period of time.

Once TCP/IP has been configured on a computer, there are various tools
that can be used to test the TCP/IP installation and configuration such as
IPCONFIG and PING.

Check your progress

Now you should try and do the Practice activities in this topic. If you’ve
already tried them, have another go and see if you can improve your
responses.

When you feel ready, try the ‘Check your understanding’ activity in the
Preview section of this topic. This will help you decide if you’re ready for
assessment.

15