ICMP and Ping: A Comprehensive Analysis of Network Communication

MITS 4004
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Screenshot of the command prompt after ping request..............................................3
Figure 2: ICMP Echo Request message.....................................................................................4
Figure 3: ICMP Echo reply message.........................................................................................4
Figure 4: Command prompt window while using tracert..........................................................5
Figure 5: ICMP echo request packet..........................................................................................6
Figure 6: ICMP Error Packet.....................................................................................................6
Figure 7: Last ICMP reply packets............................................................................................7
Figure 8:CMD window when using traceroute..........................................................................7
Figure 9: Using pingplotter to send packets to host...................................................................8
Figure 10: Altering the data packet size.....................................................................................8
Figure 11: Using pingplotter......................................................................................................9
Figure 12: traceroute result......................................................................................................10
Figure 13: IPv4 Fragmentation................................................................................................12
Figure 14: Analysis of the packet.............................................................................................12
Figure 15: Packet analysis........................................................................................................13
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ICMP and Ping
1. What is the IP address of your host? What is the IP address of the destination host?
The IP address of my host is 192.168.0.131. The IP address of destination host is
216.58.199.164.
2. Why is it that an ICMP packet does not have source and destination port numbers?
There are no destination & source port numbers for the ICMP packet as it was intended
to transmit network layer data between hosts as well as routers, and not among
application layer procedures. Every packet of ICMP contains a "type" & a "code." The
specific messages which are being received get identified by the type / code combination.
Because all ICMP-messages are interpreted by the network software itself, there is no
requirement of port numbers to direct the ICMP message to an application layer.
3. Examine one of the ping request packets sent by your host. What are the ICMP type and
code numbers? What other fields does this ICMP packet have? How many bytes are the
checksum, sequence number and identifier fields?
The type of ICMP is 8 and the code number for the same is 0. The ICMP packet also
contains an identifier, data fields, a sequence number & checksum. Checksum, identifier
fields and sequence number each are of two bytes.
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Figure 1: Screenshot of the command prompt after ping request

Figure 2: ICMP Echo Request message
Figure 3: ICMP Echo reply message
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