Network Configuration and Routing Analysis Report for Coursework

This report provides a detailed analysis of network configuration and routing, focusing on an IPv4 setup. It begins by outlining the network requirements, including the number of devices and subnets needed for different branches. The report then delves into the IPv4 configuration, explaining subnetting calculations and IP address allocation. The core of the report involves analyzing the 'show ip route' command results, illustrating how routing is configured for different network segments. Furthermore, it examines the results of ping commands, explaining why different pings produce varying outcomes based on routing configurations and default gateways. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of appropriate IP routing for successful network communication, referencing relevant academic sources throughout.

Running head: NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
Network Configuration and Routing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
Summary
This purpose of the study is to look into the underlying requirements of the network, to
explain the IP and routing configurations along with discussing about the various commands
used. The IPv4 configuration of the network is discussed at lengths and calculations for the
different subnets and configurations are provided. Following which the report explains in
detail what is achieved using the command ‘show ip route’. Thereafter the study makes a
thorough analysis of the command prompt results generated by the different set of ping
commands and provides reasoning for the different outcomes. To conclude, this report begins
by summarizing all the requirements of the network after which the IPv4 configuration of the
network is explained along with required calculations involved mainly in breaking down the
major network into seven different subnets. Then the IP routing process is elaborated by
mentioning the purpose and the kinds of communications that can exist among the different
branches. Lastly the varying results for the different set of ping commands are analysed and it
is found that the varying outputs have resulted from inappropriate IP routing.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Network Requirements...........................................................................................................4
a) IPv4 Setup..........................................................................................................................4
b) IP Routing..........................................................................................................................6
c) Reason why two pings give different results.....................................................................7
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
Introduction
This report talks about the underlying requirements of the network and lists down the
IP and routing configurations along with explaining various command. The IPv4
configuration of the network is discussed at lengths and calculations for the different subnets
and configurations are provided. Following which the report explains in detail what is
achieved using the command ‘show ip route’ (Škoberne et al. 2014). Thereafter the study
makes a thorough analysis of the command prompt results generated by the different set of
ping commands and provides reasoning for the different outcomes (Adiono et al. 2017). To
do this, the report begins by mentioning in detail the full requirements of the network in a
tabular format along with suggest the total connections that are to be needed for all the
devices of the concerned network (Kuzlu, Pipattanasomporn and Rahman 2014). After that,
the report ends by providing concluding notes which suggests that the routing of the network
is not meant allow communications attempted by the second set of ping commands.

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
Discussion
Network Requirements
Branch Subnet Devices Number of
devices
NET1 199.120.5.0/27 PCs 30
NET2 199.120.5.32/27 PCs 30
NET3 199.120.5.64/27 PCs 30
NET4 199.120.5.96/28 Laptops 12
NET5 199.120.5.112/2
9
Servers 4
NET6 199.120.5.248/3
0
Router 2
NET7 199.120.5.252/3
0
Router 2
Total 148
Requirements Table
For the complete network, the major network 199.120.5.0/24 is used to create a total of five
subnets (Shang, Droms and Zhang 2016). The seven subnets in combination facilitate the
network access to the branches NET1, NET2, NET3, NET4, NET5, NET6 and NET7.
a) IPv4 Setup
When CIDR = 24,

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
IP address range is 199.120.5.0/24 and corresponding subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 (Trossen
et al. 2015).
Total networks available – 20 = 1 (0 – number of borrowed bits)
Total IP addresses available per network – (28 - 2) = 254 (8 - remaining host bits)
Total number of network connections required for each of the branches NET1, NET2 and
NET3 is 30.
So with CIDR = 27, a total of (254-224) = 30 connections can be allocated per network
(Thomas et al. 2014).
Subnet mask - 255.255.255.224, after borrowing 3 bits from host (27+ 26+ 25 = 224)
Total number of network connections required for the branch NET4 is 12.
So with CIDR = 28, a total of (254-240) = 14 connections can be allocated per network
Subnet mask - 255.255.255.240, after borrowing 3 bits from host (27+ 26+ 25 +24 = 240)
Total number of network connections required for the branch NET5 is 4.
When CIDR = 29, a total of (254-248) = 6 connections can be allocated per network
Subnet mask - 255.255.255.248, after borrowing 3 bits from host (27+ 26+ 25 +24 + 23 = 240)
Total number of network connections required for each of the branches NET6 and NET7 is 2.
With CIDR = 30, resulting subnet mask is 255.255.255.252 where 6 bits are borrowed (27 +
26 + 25 + 24 + 23 + 22 = 252)
The complete illustration of the network is given below

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Figure 1: Complete network diagram from Cisco Packet Tracer
Connections to branches NET1 and NET2, highlighted in pink and deep green respectively
are provided through the subnets 199.120.5.0/27 and 199.120.5.32/27 accordingly so that 30
different IP addresses can be assigned to the devices of each of the branches.
Connection to branch NET3 coloured in orange is provided directly from the OSL router (Lee
and Huang 2014). The subnet 199.120.5.64 is used and a total of 30 connections are to be
provided.
Connections to branches NET4 and NET5 highlighted in light green and yellow respectively
are provided directly from the OSL router through the subnets 199.120.5.96 and
199.120.5.112 accordingly where NET4 gets allocation of 14 connections and NET5 of 6
connections.
b) IP Routing

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION AND ROUTING
Figure 2: The ‘show IP route’ command
Upon entering the command ‘show IP route’ in the CLI tab of the OSL router in Cisco
Packet Tracer, the following results can be obtained (Dujovne et al. 2014). Here the
allocation of IP ranges are clearly specified for the respective branches of the network. The
major network is 199.120.5.0/24 which has been broken into seven different subnets with
four masks depending upon the number of devices required by the branches in particular.
199.120.5.0/27 is the subnet allotted to the branch NET1, 199.120.5.32/27 to branch NET2,
199.120.5.64/27 to branch NET3, 199.120.5.96/28 to branch NET4, 199.120.5.112/29 to
branch NET5 while 199.120.5.248/30 and 199.120.5.252/30 are directly connected to the two
routers on either side of the OSL router.
From the results, it is worth noting that the routing is specifically configured for
facilitating network communications between branches NET1 and NET2, direct
communications with NET4 and network communications between the branches NET4 and
NET5 respectively.

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c) Reason why two pings give different results
Figure 3: First set of pings
The above diagram shows the result of ping command on showing the configuration
of branch NET4 where the devices are assigned IP addresses from 199.120.5.98 to
199.120.5.110, where the connection from the router is established with the IP 199.120.5.97
while 199.120.5.96 and 199.120.5.111 are the network and broadcast addresses respectively
(Kim, Lee and Jang 2015). It can be clearly seen that the IP address 199.120.5.100 falls
within the category of IP addresses assignable for the branch NET4 and therefore valid
information can be obtained using the ‘ipconfig’ command with any of the IP addresses from
the mentioned range including 199.120.5.100.
The router which is tasked with providing network access to NET4 is also responsible
for providing connections to the branch NET5 and uses the IP address 199.120.5.252 to
obtain network access from the OSL router. The router is assigned the IP 199.120.5.113 to

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facilitate the connections for the branch NET5. It has been earlier above that in the IPv4
configuration section of this report that a total of 6 connections can be assigned to devices in
this branch. The network address and broadcast address are 199.120.5.112 and 199.120.5.119
meaning 199.120.5.115 is the IP address of the second device of the NET5. Hence when IP
address 199.120.5.115 is being pinged, message is being sent from device with IP
199.120.5.100 of NET4 and reply packets from device of NET5 with IP 199.120.5.115 is
being received (Zhang et al. 2015). The Default Gateway 199.120.5.97 validates this
observation.
Figure 4: Second set of pings
Here, the IP address 199.120.5.101 belongs to a device which is located in a different
branch. This can be easily figured out from the Default Gateway value 199.120.5.65 obtained
through the ‘ipconfig’ command (Mitchell, McBride and Jarocki 2017). This default gateway
value apply only for devices in the NET3 branch of the network being studied (Shang, Droms
and Zhang 2016). The router connecting the branch NET3 has no direct connections with

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branch NET5 while in the earlier scenario, the router for both the branches NET4 and NET5
was the same so that the internal communication could take place. For the message of the
device of NET3 to reach a server of NET5, the data needs to be externally transferred by the
router of NET3 to the router of NET5 but no such configuration has been set up. As a result
when the server IP 199.120.5.115 is pinged from the device with IP 199.120.5.101 and
Default Gateway 199.120.5.65, no communication can occur leading to requests timing out.

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Conclusion
In conclusion this report gives a comprehensive summary of all the requirements of
the network being studied. Thereafter the IPv4 configuration of the network is explained with
the help of the numerous calculations that are involved mainly in breaking down the major
network into seven different subnets as per the requirements of the respective branches.
Following which the ip routing process is elaborated by mentioning the purpose and the kinds
of communications that can exist among the different branches of the network namely NET1,
NET2, NET3, NET4, NET5, NET6 and NET7. After that the varying results for the different
set of ping commands are analysed and it is found that the varying outputs have resulted from
inappropriate IP routing or if looked the other way around the attempted communication from
the second set of ping commands are conflicting with the IP routing configuration in place.