Network Lab Assignment: Wireshark, ICMP, Pingplotter Analysis Report

This report details a network lab assignment focused on packet capture and analysis using Wireshark and Pingplotter. The assignment begins with pinging a website hosted in Europe from Asia and capturing the associated ICMP packets. It then performs a trace route to the same website using the Windows command prompt and analyzes the captured packets. Subsequently, the report traces a website using Pingplotter with varying packet sizes (56, 2000, and 3500 bytes), capturing and analyzing the ICMP packets in each case. The analysis includes identifying IP addresses, examining ICMP packet fields (type, code, checksum, sequence number, identifier), and investigating the impact of packet size on fragmentation. The report also explores the differences between ICMP echo request and error packets, as well as the changes in identification and TTL fields across different datagrams. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the successful completion of the packet capture of different websites through pinging and tracing methods and the detailed analysis of the captured data.

Running head: NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
Network Lab Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
Summary
The purpose of this report is to carry out packet capture of different websites through pinging
and tracing methods. The ping process involves communication with a website hosted in a
different continent. Since the trace route is conducted from Asia, www.inria.fr is chosen from
the European continent. Then the report conducts trace route of a website hosted in Europe
using the native trace route function of windows through command prompt. Thereafter the
website gaia.cs.umass.edu is traced using a more advanced tracing software called Pingplotter
for three different packet sizes 56, 2000 and 3500 bytes respectively. In all these activities,
the packets were captured with the help of the protocol analyser called Wireshark and the
ICMP packets get analysed in detail. Thereafter the lab report ends with observations in
concluding notes.

2NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
The following report carries out packet capture of different websites through pinging
and tracing methods. The report begins by conducting the ping process which involves
communication with a website hosted in a different continent. Since the trace route is
conducted from Asia, www.inria.fr is chosen from the European continent. Then the report
conducts trace route of the same website from Europe using the native trace route function of
windows through command prompt. Thereafter the website gaia.cs.umass.edu is traced using
a more advanced tracing software called Pingplotter for three different packet sizes 56, 2000
and 3500 bytes respectively. In all these activities, the packets were captured with the help of
the protocol analyser called Wireshark and the ICMP packets get analysed in detail.
Thereafter the lab report ends with observations in concluding notes.

3NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
Research
1. ICMP and Ping: Website of different continent
Wireshark is launched and the recording of the Ethernet network is started.

4NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
The ping is being made from Asia so a website from a different continent is used
which is www.inria.fr hosted on Europe in France.

5NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
The pinging activity is recorded with wireshark which captures all the associated
communication packets.

6NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
1. IP address of source and destination
Among the packets captured by wireshark the ICMP packets are shortlisted by
applying the filter for sorting ICMP packets and the first ICMP packet is selected.
The source IP address is identified to be 10.10.63.7 and the destination IP address is
found to be 128.93.162.84.

7NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
2. Why ICMP packets do not have port numbers for source and destination
ICMP packets do not have port numbers for the source and destination because it is
designed for communicating with network layer information between the routers and hosts
instead of among processes of application layer.
3. Examination of ping request packets sent by host: ICMP type and code
number, other fields contained by the packet, checksum; sequence number;
identifier in bytes

8NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
Next, in the window for packet contents, the ICMP protocol section gets expanded for
displaying further information. The other fields are the sequence number, the checksum, and
the identifiers. Type of the ICMP request packet is 8 (Echo (ping) request), the code number
is 0. Size in bytes: checksum – 2, sequence number – 2, identifiers – 2.
3. Examination of ping reply packet ICMP type and code number, other fields
contained by the packet, checksum; sequence number; identifier in bytes
Then, the corresponding ICMP packet for reply is selected. Type number of this
packet is 8 (Echo (ping) reply), the code number is 0. The other fields are the sequence

9NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
number, the checksum, and the identifiers. Size in bytes: checksum – 2, sequence number – 2,
identifiers – 2
2. ICMP and Trace route: Tracing website of different continent
Wireshark is launched and recording is started on the Ethernet.

10NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
The website www.inria.fr is this time traced through the native trace route function of
window as can be seen from the command prompt screen capture above.

11NETWORK LAB ASSIGNMENT
The trace route activity gets recorded by Wireshark and the packets of communication
is captured.