W02 Computer Networks and the Internet

Computer Networks and the

Internet
COIT20246 Networking and Cyber Security

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What will you learn?

• What is a computer network and the Internet
• Use of abstraction to visualise computer networks
• Models used to simplify explanation of:
• Communications across a link
• Communications across a set of links, i.e. network
• Important measures of network performance
• History of the Internet
• Structure of the NBN in Australia
• Important address formats used in network communications

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Example Computer Networks

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Computer Networks and The Internet

• Computer networks allow multiple computers to communicate to
deliver application
• Over time, organisations across the world have built computer
networks using a variety of technologies to deliver many different
applications
• Aim: allow any computer to communicate with any other computer, including
across organisations, and independent of the underlying technologies the
computer networks use
• Solution: all computer speak the same common ‘language’, i.e. the Internet
Protocol (IP)
• The collection of computer networks that join together using IP is
referred to as the Internet
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Example Computer Network: Home

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Here is a common example of a home network. At the centre is a WiFi router (with two
antennas). There may be multiple computers (laptops, phones) connected wireless to
the router, and multiple computers (desktops, TVs) connected via wires to the router.
Together they form a computer network within the home.

While the home network allows the internal devices to communicate with each other
(e.g. phone to TV, desktop to laptop), the real benefits to users come when those
computers can also communicate with computers in other networks, i.e. in the Internet.
In this example the WiFI router also connects to a modem that in turn connects via a
telephone line to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). That ISP then has connections to
other ISPs. We’ll see the details later.

This example shows computers with addresses next to them. These addresses are used
to identify computers within a computer network, and within the Internet. The format of
the addresses isn’t important yet.

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Example Computer Network: Campus

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Here is another example you may encounter: a simplified university campus network.
You don’t need to know all the details (e.g. difference between switch, router, AP). Note
however that within the campus there are multiple networks connected together. E.g. a
network in each computer lab, a network for the servers, ad network for the office
space on each floor. These networks are then connected together. Finally, for Internet
access, the campus connects to an ISP (in this example, as is common in Australian
universities, the ISP is AARnet).

Note that this figure uses a different style than the previous one. We haven’t shown
photos of actual devices, but represented computers with rectangles. It doesn’t matter
what brand or type of computer. We also hide some of the wired links (otherwise the
figure become too messy).

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Abstract View of a Computer Network

Real View Abstract View

Host: any end‐user computing device on network, e.g. desktop, phone, server, TV, security camera

Sometimes we don’t care about the wired/wireless connections in the network, nor the intermediate network
devices connecting the computers. We hide the details and just show hosts on a network (using a cloud, oval or
rectangle shape).
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On the left is a example simple network with several computers connected together via
wired links and intermediate network devices called switches. When we are talking
about networks and the Internet we often don’t care about the detailed connections.
We simple refer to the “network”, and assume the computer devices are connected
using some underlying technology (it could be wired or wireless). Hence to simplify
diagrams, we will often omit the detailed connections and draw a cloud shape (or
sometimes oval or rectangle) to represent the connections.

We also often don’t care about what type of computer is connected, e.g. a desktop
computer, a laptop, Raspberry Pi, mobile phone, network security camera, TV, server,
supercomputer or … . From the networks perspective, it is just a computer. We will often
use the term ‘host’ to refer to such a computer. This is a term from the early days of the
Internet, and represents a computer on a network that may run one or more end‐user
applications.

On the right is an abstract view of the real network on the left. There are five hosts,
labelled H1 to H5. The network is drawn as a cloud shape. For later convenience, we
may give the network a name, e.g. “Network A”.

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Abstract View of the Internet

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The Internet is a collection of computer networks connected together. This figure

illustrates the idea of the Internet from a networking perspective. Our example Network
A is on the top left. It has five hosts (and the underlying network technology is hidden).
However it is also connected to Network B via another network device called a router
(identified as router Ra).

Network B is connected to other networks via routers Rb and Rc. Network C has three
hosts.

You can imagine that Network E is connected to further networks via router Rd.

In summary, our abstract view of the Internet is it is a collection of networks containing

hosts and connected together via routers. We introduced this simplified, abstract view
now so we can make some sense of the Internet information you see in the tutorials. As
we progress through this unit, you will see the Internet is much more complicated than
what is shown here, and you will learn about the methods for communicating across the
Internet.

Finally some terminology: as the Internet is a network of networks, sometimes the

component networks (the smaller ones) are called subnetworks or subnets. For
example, “Network A” could also be referred to as “Subnet A”. We will usually refer to it

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as Network A, but be aware if we said Subnet A it would mean the same thing.

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Link and Network Communications

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Data Communication Across a Link

Computer A Computer B

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The red LAN cable is the “link” between computer A and computer B.

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Model for Communication Across a Link

• A simple model of link
communications
Application Application
• Application on A generates binary data
and sends it via the OS to the NIC
OS OS • NIC transmits (Tx) the bits as a signal
onto the link (LAN cable)
• NIC on B receives (Rx) signal and
converts to bits
• OS passes binary data up to application
on B

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This figure is an example of a simple model of communications across a link. First note, a
“link” is a connection between two network devices, in this case, two computers.

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Link Performance Metrics

• Data Rate [bits per second, b/s]
• Maximum rate at which data is transmitted to receiver
• Depends on: link material, signal transmission technique, interference
• Delay [seconds, s]
• Time for message to travel from transmitter to receiver
• Round Trip Time (RTT): delay from transmit to receiver and then back to original transmitter
• Depends on: data rate (transmission time), signal propagation time
• Distance (or range) [metres, m]
• Maximum distance successfully link transmitter and receiver
• Often a “soft” limit
• Depends on: link material, interference, signal frequency

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Here we list key performance metrics for links. While there are others, these are
sufficient for our coverage of links so far. (One other metric not listed is error rate).

“Depends on” lists the main factors that impact that metric, however there may be
others.

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A Simple Local Area Network

C D

A switch B

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This is an example of a Local Area Network (LAN). There is a switch in the centre
with the four computers connected to the switch with green and blue cables.

There are four links in this scenario: from each computer to the switch.

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Model for Communication via Intermediate Device

Application Application

OS Intermediate device OS

Rx Tx

Path from A to B via two links

The intermediate device does not “understand” the application; it just receives data on one link and then
transmits that data onto the next link

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From the previous example, the switch is the intermediate device.

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Network Performance Metrics

• Throughput [bits per second, b/s]
• Rate at which data is delivered to destination device
• Cannot exceed minimum of data rates of each link
• Intermediate devices, errors may also impact throughput
• Use of links by others has large impact (congestion)
• Delay [seconds, s]
• Time for message to travel from source device to destination device
• Depends on: delay across each link + delay in intermediate devices
• Predicting performance in network is hard
• Difficult to know performance of each link on path
• Performance at intermediate devices may vary significantly
• Network performance often variable

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Be careful: there are different perspectives of throughput, and sometimes goodput is

another term used. If you study networking further you may learn about the differences,
but for now, this general definition is sufficient.

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Speedtest https://www.speedtest.net/

4:50pm 4:55pm

Download = Throughput from Server to Laptop

Upload = Throughput from Laptop to Server
Ping = RTT (when no large data transfer, when downloading, when uploading)

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Here are two results of a speed test from a laptop on CQU campus (in Cairns) to a server
in Brisbane. The right test was performed 5 minutes after the left test. Note the
significant difference in download throughput at the different times.

Network throughput depends on many factors, especially how the network is used by
others at the same time. The significant download throughput difference could be
explained by various factors:
‐ Other users start doing something at 4:55pm, causing congestion in the network,
slowing down my messages (likely).
‐ A different path was used in the 4:55pm test, and that path had links with
significantly lower performance (unlikely, but possible)
‐ Significant processing on the source laptop or destination server caused delays in
processing messages (unlikely, but possible)

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A Simple Internet
Satellite

PC1 Ground station 1 Ground station 2

PC2 Switch 1 Router B

PC3 Router E
Router C

Router A Router H
Switch 2
Router F
Router D
Switch 3
Laptop 1

AP 1 AP 2 Router F
Web Email File
Laptop 2 Server Server Server

Laptop 3

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This is an example of an internet, with multiple LANs connected together, sometimes via
Wide Area Networks (WANs). The clouds represent LANs/WANs with the details of the
internal network structure hidden.

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Model for Communications in the Internet

Intermediate devices: switch, router, AP, modem, repeater, …

Source/destination device: any computing device running an Internet application
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Here we generalise the model of communications to cover multiple links. A source

generates data, sends it via multiple intermediate devices until it is delivered to the
destination (which uses the data).

This is a very abstract model of communications in the Internet. We still need to learn
many details, including:
‐ How do intermediate devices receive/send data?
‐ How to select which intermediate device to send via?
‐ What happens if failures within intermediate devices?
‐ How to create applications without knowing details of underlying network and
technologies?

This will be learnt in later topics (and units).

Intermediate devices sometimes called intermediate systems.

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Structure of the Internet

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Pre- and Early Internet

• Public telephone networks since 1880’s
• 1960’s: many large computers at universities and government
• ARPANET (US)
• First communication between two universities in 1969
• 1973: about 2,000 users including satellite links to UK and Norway
• Used TCP/IP protocol suite
• 1970’s and 1980’s:
• CSNet (US): computer science departments
• EARN (Europe): used OSI protocol suite
• JANET (UK): used OSI protocol suite
• Australia: CSIRONET, ACSNet, SPEARnet
• Companies built own networks using own protocol suite (IBM, DEC)
• 1986: NSFNet, replaced ARPANET and primary service in US (TCP/IP)
• 1990: AARNet connecting Australian universities
• Supported TCP/IP, OSI and DECNet
• TCP/IP soon become dominant traffic

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For some of the history of the formation of the Internet, including the definitions of
names, see: AARNet – 20 Years of the Internet in Australia:
https://www.aarnet.edu.au/history (free 130 page book).

For historical perspectives from different countries/regions see:

‐ There are quite technical articles on history of networking in different countries

available from IEEE Communication Society:
https://www.comsoc.org/about/committees/standing‐committees/communications‐
history/communications‐history/history‐articles. It includes: Korea, Canada, UK,
France, Japan and others.
‐ Asia Internet History Project
(https://sites.google.com/site/internethistoryasia/home). Free PDFs covering
multiple decades of Internet history in China, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and many
more countries.

If you want to delve further into the history of computer communications, the Computer
History Museum (https://www.computerhistory.org/) has the “James L. Pelkey
Collection: History of Computer Communications”
(https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/), which is a s set of 81 interviews with
people involved between 1968 and 1988. The transcripts of the interviews are available

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online (scroll down to the “Related Records” and follow link to each person.
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746648

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ARPANET Over Time

Credit: Computer History Museum, ARPAnet geographical maps, 102646702.

Sep 1971
Dec 1969

Nov 1982
Sep 1973

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The Computer History Museum has various resources on ARPNET history including:
‐ Geographical maps of the network over time (1969 – 1986):
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102646702
‐ Logical maps of the network over time (1969 – 1979):
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102646704
‐ Logical maps of the network over time (1980 – 1987):
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102646705

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The Internet Today: Australia

• National Broadband Network (NBN)
• Owns and operates physical network across Australia
• Optical Fibre (FTTN, FTTC, FTTB, FTTH)
• Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC)
• Fixed Wireless
• Satellite (Sky Muster)
• Retail Service Providers use NBN to offer services to customers
• About 12 million Australia homes and business able to connect to NBN; 8.5
million are connected

Generally in performance: optical fibre > coaxial cable > copper cables
fixed wireless > satellite

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For details on NBN technologies, see: https://www.nbnco.com.au/learn/network‐

technology

‐ FTTx are explained in the next slide

‐ HFC uses existing (old Telstra/Optus) cable or Pay TV networks, which already had
optical fibre to a node, and then coaxial cable to the home. These generally provide
higher data rates than traditional copper cables, and are sufficient for the NBN
desired rates.

Statistics about connection to NBN from NBN Dashboard at November 2022:

https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate‐information/about‐nbn‐co/updates/dashboard‐
november‐2022

Note the performance rule of thumb is saying optical fibre is faster than coaxial cable in
a similar environment, and coaxial cable is faster than copper cables. Fixed wireless may
compare to coaxial cable (i.e. slower than optical fibre) but is faster than satellite. There
are many exceptions to this rule (e.g. depending on distance, type of cable, frequencies,
interference), but is a good starting point if needing to quickly compare technologies.

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Fibre to the … Node, Curb, Building, Home

Credit: By Riick ‐ Own work, on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‐SA 3.0

• Telephone networks provided metallic

(copper) cables to buildings/homes
• Replacing all metallic cables optical fibre is
expensive
• Reduce cost by running optical fibre for
one segment, then use existing metallic
cables (telephone network) for remaining
segment
• But metallic cables offer lower performance

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NBN Products and Performance

• Home (download/upload Mb/s) • Business Ethernet
• Basic: 12/1 • Standard: 50/20
• Standard: 25/10 • Fast: 100/40
• Fast: 100/20 • Superfast: 250/100
• Superfast: 250/25 • Ultrafast: 1000/400
• Ultrafast: 1000/50 • Enterprise Ethernet – direct fibre
• Fixed Wireless: up to 25 Mb/s connection
• Satellite: up to 25 Mb/s • Business Satellite

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Note that the actual plans vary over time, and different RSPs may offer slight variations.
However this gives an idea of the types of speed available for NBN.

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NBN Fixed Wireless

Credit: NBN, https://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/the‐nbn‐project/nbn‐technology‐101‐what‐is‐fixed‐wireless

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Fixed wireless typically has towers connected to the wired NBN (although it could be
wirelessly to other towers), and then customers have a wireless link from their home to
that tower. The range of the wireless signal from towers is kilometres (it depends on the
environment, max is 14 km and typical is 5‐6 km).

4G and 5G technologies are used for the wireless link.

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NBN SkyMuster
• 2 x geostationary satellites covering Australia
• SkyMuster 1 (launched Sep 2015) and SkyMuster 2 (Oct 2016)
Satellite

Ground station

Home dish
PC1
Home router NBN

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Geostationary satellites are in an orbit about 36,000 km above Earth such that they
appear stationary over Earth (that is, as the Earth rotates, so does the satellite so that
the satellite is always above the same location, which is Australia for SkyMuster).

There are 2 SkyMuster satellites. They weight about 3,500 kg and combined provided
135 Gb/s of bandwidth.

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Credit: SatBeams, https://www.satbeams.com/footprints?beam=8549

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NBN Sky Muster 1 satellite has many spot beams that point down to Australia and
region. In this image, from SatBeams (https://www.satbeams.com/), the spot beam
covering Brisbane is selected. There are about 100 spot beams used to cover the region,
with narrower beams (smaller coverage) over higher population density areas, and
wider beams (larger coverage) over lower population density areas.

You can read more technical details about Sky Muster 1 at

https://birrraus.com/2016/06/05/what‐are‐sky‐muster‐spot‐beams/

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International Connections

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See https://www.submarinecablemap.com/ for details. Click on the cables in the map to

see details.

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Real View of the Internet

• Difficult to visualize as so large and complex
• Asia Pacific region (https://rex.apnic.net/)
• 20,000 registered organisations with 40,000 unique networks
• AARnet is the ISP for Australian universities
• National map: https://www.aarnet.edu.au/national-network
• International map: https://www.aarnet.edu.au/international-network
• International links
• Hurricane Electric (very large ISP): https://he.net/3d-map/
• Submarine Cable Map https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

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Visit the links to see further information, and some images of network diagrams.

Asia Pacific region:

‐ The “registered organisations” are Autonomous Systems (AS). This roughly is
equivalent to ISPs.
‐ The “unique networks” are IPv4 or IPv6 network addresses.
‐ This does NOT equate to actual networks – there will be many more actual networks.
This is because there are many private networks.

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Addressing Basics

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Addresses are needed for computers to identify the source (sender) and destination
(receiver) of messages sent in networks. There are different types of addresses used in
the Internet, with the historical development of computer networks playing a large part
in the structure and popularity of different formats.

Here we are going to quickly overview three formats of addresses. You have most likely
seen them many times before. We will explain the details for the formats – they will
come later in the unit if needed.

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Why do we need addresses?

• Intermediate devices need to know where to send messages
• Messages often include Destination (Dst) Address
• Receiving devices need to know if message is destined to them
• Some links/networks deliver a copy to everyone
• Receiver checks if Destination Address matches their own address
• Receiving devices need to know where to reply to
• Messages often include Source (Src) Address
• Addresses often identify single device
• But some addresses identify multiple devices (see next slide)
• Example formats:
• MAC, IP, domain name

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Data Delivery in Networks

Association between address and device
1‐to‐1 1‐to‐many
Most common form of delivery Many = every device on network
Easy, but can be inefficient
Use: network management

1‐to‐many 1‐to‐many
Many = selected group of devices Many = any device in a group
Requires techniques to determine Similar to multicast but packet
devices in multicast group delivered to only (any) one
Use: Multimedia and Use: DNS, CDN
collaborative apps

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Before we talk about specific address formats, we first explain methods in which data is
delivered in networks.

By default, we will assume unicast is used when we talk about data delivery in a
network: one device sends to one other device. The other forms of data delivery are not
as common, but important. We will see examples of broadcast soon (but may not see
many examples of multicast or anycast in this unit).

For unicast, one destination address is associated with exactly one device. So if a device
sends a packet to that [unicast] destination address, the packet should be delivered only
to that device.

For broadcast, multicast and anycast, there is one destination address but it is
associated with multiple devices. If a device sends a packet to a [broadcast/multicast]
destination address, then the packet should be delivered to all devices associated with
that address. For anycast, if a device sends a packet to a [anycast] destination address,
then the packet should be delivered to one, but any one, of the devices in the anycast
group. So while anycast is 1‐to‐many with association between address and devices, it is
1‐to‐1 in terms of sender to receiving devices.

Multicast example: IP TV service where subscribers to the service watching the same

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channel are in the same multicast group. The TV service provider sends an IP stream to all
in that group.

Anycast example: A Content Delivery Network which has multiple servers across the
globe hosting the same content. A client wants to access the content: anycast routing
directs their packets to any of the servers hosting the content (usually the closest server).

For now, you don’t need to know how they are achieved (especially broadcast, multicast
and anycast), but just what the idea of each is.

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MAC Addresses Identify Devices in a Network

• Devices in the same network use
the same underlying technology to
communicate
• MAC addresses identify the
device uniquely in that network
• MAC = Media Access Control
• Scope: single network
• Different networks may use different
format MAC addresses
• May not be unique across multiple
networks
Example EUI‐48: CC‐48‐3A‐3F‐92‐45
• Common formats:
• IEEE EUI-48 and EUI-64
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Within a single network all devices will typically use the same underyling network
technology, e.g. Ethernet or WiFi or Bluetooth. That underlying network technology
would specify the format of addresses to be used. These addresses are commonly
referred to as a MAC addresses (and also “hardware address”, “physical address”)., To
communicate to another device in the same network, a MAC address will be used. In the
past there were various different formats, but today the most common format is the
IEEE 48‐bit MAC address, or Extended Unique Identifier EUI‐48. A new format with 64‐
bits is EUI‐64.

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View a MAC Address with PowerShell

PS C:\Users\user> Get‐NetAdapter

Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status MacAddress LinkSpeed

‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Ethernet Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (10) I219… 25 Disconnected CC‐48‐3A‐3F‐92‐45 0 bps
VirtualBox Host‐Only Net… VirtualBox Host‐Only Ethernet Adapter 21 Up 0A‐00‐27‐00‐00‐15 1 Gbps
Ethernet 2 Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Clien… 14 Not Present 00‐05‐9A‐3C‐7A‐00 0 bps
Ethernet 3 Realtek USB GbE Family Controller 10 Up CC‐48‐3A‐86‐3F‐62 1 Gbps
Bluetooth Network Connec… Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Networ… 9 Disconnected 28‐CD‐C4‐9B‐7D‐10 3 Mbps
Wi‐Fi Qualcomm QCA61x4A 802.11ac Wireless Ad… 4 Disconnected 28‐CD‐C4‐9B‐7D‐0F 144.4 Mbps

PS C:\Users\user> Get‐NetAdapter ‐Physical

Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status MacAddress LinkSpeed

‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Ethernet Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (10) I219… 25 Disconnected CC‐48‐3A‐3F‐92‐45 0 bps
Ethernet 3 Realtek USB GbE Family Controller 10 Up CC‐48‐3A‐86‐3F‐62 1 Gbps
Wi‐Fi Qualcomm QCA61x4A 802.11ac Wireless Ad… 4 Disconnected 28‐CD‐C4‐9B‐7D‐0F 144.4 Mbps

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The first output of Get‐NetAdapter shows physical and virtual network adapters (NIC),
while with the “‐Physical” option it limits to the physical adapters. Virtual adapters
include e.g. VirtualBox, VPN, Bluetooth. This will differ across computers, but in this
example the physical adapters are:
1. Ethernet LAN port on laptop (where a LAN cable can be plugged in to). Currently
disconnected.
2. Ethernet LAN port on motherboard which is connected to USB‐C. The laptop is
plugged into a USB‐C dock, which has a LAN cable to an office network. This is
currently connected, with current link speed of 1 Gb/s.
3. Wi‐Fi port on a chip on the motherboard. Currently disconnected.

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IP Addresses Identify Devices in the Internet

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Here is our example of a portion of the Internet. All of the hosts have a single
attachment to their local network represented by the black dot/circle. This is via a
Network Interface Card (NIC). As routers connect two or more network together, each
router has two or more network attachments/NICs.

Each NIC has a MAC address for communication on the directly attached network. For
example, host H6 can communicate directly with host H7 by sending to MAC address
MAC11.

With a diverse set of underlying technologies in the Internet, there is no guarantee that
all component networks are using the same MAC addressing scheme. Historically there
were several different formats, so the addresses used on Network A may be
incompatible with the addresses used on Network C. Therefore, for communication
across multiple networks, i.e. across the Internet, each Internet accessible NIC is given a
2nd address in a common format they all understand, i.e. and IP address.

Each host has an IP address. Again, the routers have one IP address for each network
they are attached to.

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IP Addressing
• IP addresses uniquely identify hosts/routers on the Internet
• Special cases and exceptions will be discussed in later topic, e.g. private
addresses
• Two versions: IPv4 and IPv6
• IPv4 example: 10.135.64.58
• IPv6 example: 2001:4860:4860::8888
• Tricks to communicate between devices using different version
• IP addresses are hierarchical
• Part of the address identifies network in the Internet
• Part of the address identified the host/router in that network

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View IP Information with PowerShell

PS C:\Users\user> Get‐NetIPConfiguration PS C:\Users\user> Get‐NetIPAddress
‐InterfaceAlias "Ethernet 3"
InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 3
InterfaceIndex : 10 IPAddress : 10.135.64.58
InterfaceDescription : Realtek USB GbE Family … InterfaceIndex : 10
NetProfile.Name : ad.cqu.edu.au InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 3
IPv4Address : 10.135.64.58 AddressFamily : IPv4
IPv4DefaultGateway : 10.135.64.1 Type : Unicast
DNSServer : 138.77.176.10 PrefixLength : 22
138.77.180.10 PrefixOrigin : Dhcp
138.77.5.15 SuffixOrigin : Dhcp
138.77.5.19 AddressState : Preferred
10.8.0.26 ValidLifetime : 7.20:18:18
PreferredLifetime : 7.20:18:18
InterfaceAlias : VirtualBox Host‐Only … SkipAsSource : False
InterfaceIndex : 21 PolicyStore : ActiveStore
…

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These two PowerShell commands show different IP‐related information. IF you run then
with no options, you will see information for all interfaces. To select a specific interface,
use the InterfaceAlias or InterfaceIndex.

You don’t need to understand all information display. The most important part is to find
the IP address of your interface (NIC). In the above example, 10.135.64.58. Also take
note of your default gateway IP address.

If you are using Bash (Linux, MacOS) then you can find IP address information with:
‐ ifconfig
‐ ip addr show

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Test Network Connection in PowerShell (ping)

PS C:\Users\user> Test‐NetConnection 10.135.64.1 PS C:\Users\user> Test‐Connection 10.135.64.1 ‐Count 10

ComputerName : 10.135.64.1 Destination: 10.135.64.1

RemoteAddress : 10.135.64.1
InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 3 Ping Source Address Latency BufferSize Status
SourceAddress : 10.135.64.58 (ms) (B)
PingSucceeded : True ‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐
PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 1 ms 1 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 1 32 Success
2 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 8 32 Success
3 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 2 32 Success
4 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 2 32 Success
5 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 5 32 Success
6 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 2 32 Success
7 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 2 32 Success
8 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 1 32 Success
9 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 2 32 Success
10 CQU007374 10.135.64.1 13 32 Success

38 COIT20246 ‐ Computer Networks and the Internet

In the previous example we saw our own IP address, as well as the IP address of our
default gateway. A gateway is a router, so this is the default router on your local
network.

A common network diagnostic is to test for connectivity between two devices in the
Internet. This is commonly called “ping”. In PowerShell, use Test‐NetConnection.

The results show the ping succeeded and the round trip time (RTT) is 1ms.

Alternatively, for a more traditional ping, use Test‐Connection.

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Domain Names
• MAC and IP addresses are used by computers … not very human
friendly
• Domain names are a human-friendly way to identify computers in
the internet
• Especially computers running server applications
• Domain Name System (DNS) maps domain names to IP addresses

www.cqu.edu.au moodle.cqu.edu.au my.cqu.edu.au

www.google.com www.google.com.au google.com

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View DNS to IP Mappings in PowerShell

PS C:\Users\user> Resolve‐DnsName google.com.au
Name Type TTL Section IPAddress
‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
google.com.au AAAA 72 Answer 2404:6800:4006:813::2003
google.com.au A 96 Answer 142.250.71.67

PS C:\Users\user> Resolve‐DnsName moodle.cqu.edu.au

Name Type TTL Section NameHost
‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
moodle.cqu.edu.au CNAME 109 Answer p‐cqu‐he.catalyst‐au.net
p‐cqu‐he.catalyst‐au.net CNAME 109 Answer a9113b8026a9cefed.awsglobalaccelerator.com

Name : a9113b8026a9cefed.awsglobalaccelerator.com
QueryType : A
TTL : 260
Section : Answer
IP4Address : 76.223.16.163

Name : a9113b8026a9cefed.awsglobalaccelerator.com
QueryType : A
TTL : 260
Section : Answer
IP4Address : 13.248.140.41 (with more information following)

40 COIT20246 ‐ Computer Networks and the Internet

Here we lookup a mapping from domain to IP. We won’t explain all information, just the
answers of interest.

In the first example, two answers are returned, one with an IPv6 address and the other
an IPv4 address. The answer of interest is that “google.com.au has the IPv4 address
142.250.71.67”.

The second is more complicated. Aliases or nicknames are used, so actually

moodle.cqu.edu.au points to p‐cqu‐he.catalyst‐au.net, which intern points to
a9113b8026a9cefed.awsglobalaccelerator.com. Finally that has two IP addresses:
76.223.16.163 and 13.248.140.41. So the answer of interest is “moodle.cqu.edu.au has
the IPv4 address 76.223.16.163” (or 13.248.140.41).

(Information at the bottom of the 2nd command is remove due to space, but it doesn’t
help in what we are looking for).

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