COMPUTER NETWORKS

2024-2025 SUMMER SEMESTER

PROJECT

INTRODUCTION
For this project we intend to build a computer network. We will start by creating a webserver, then
we will create a LAN for two PCs using a switch, and afterwards we will evolve to connect our LAN
to others and create a typical corporate network.

During this project, we expect that you deliver 4 written reports that will summarize your efforts
on reaching the objective. These reports are the following:

Phase Due Date

Phase 1
Phase 2
Check dates on moodle
Phase 3
Phase 4

(25%) PHASE 1 – WEB SERVER

On this first phase, you will install a Web Server on your PC and test the connection. A free web
server is available on [Link] In order to test if it is working
you can open a web browser and point it to your own PC using the address [Link]

After testing the web server is running you can access it from a browser in another PC, tablet or
mobile phone connected to the same network. Just replace the IP address [Link] in the URL
above with the IP address of the PC running the web server.

Use Wireshark to capture the web access from another host and compare the HTTP headers sent
by the client and the server. If you have trouble connecting to the server check if the firewall is
disabled on the PC running the server.

Now, you will develop a Web client (that will replace your browser) using a programming language
of your choice where you should establish a TCP connection to the server and request the base
webpage from your previously installed webserver. You should also try using your client with a
different webserver, from the Internet. The requirements are that:

- you CANNOT use an HTTP library;

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

 - you are supposed to establish the TCP connection by yourself using the available sockets
library, send the HTTP request and receive the HTTP reply;
- the HTTP reply should then be presented to the user;
- extra points will be given if you prepare your client to proactively act to the different HTTP
replies;
- you do not need to develop a graphic application, a text-only application is enough.

Use Wireshark to capture the interaction from your application to the webserver and compare it
to the one obtained previously when using the web browser.

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON THE REPORT?

• Screenshots of your application, browser and Wireshark captures;
• Source code of your application, with line-by-line explanation;
• List of headers sent by the client (browser and application) and server, and their meanings;
• Report on what was performed to achieve the objectives for this part (includes the installation
and configuration process of web server).

INTRODUCTION TO PHASES 2, 3 AND 4

In this phase we start working on a virtual environment. Virtual environments allow us to build a
much larger network without access to physical devices. For this project, we will use Cisco Packet
Tracer as a virtual environment to build our topology and run some experiments. Cisco Packet
Tracer is a free educational simulator developed by Cisco that allows us to create network
topologies composed of different types of devices, configure them and run simple test applications.

FIGURE 1: C ISCO P ACKET TRACER INTERFACE .

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

Figure 1 shows what the network topology will look like in Cisco Packet Tracer, as well as its main
menu and controls. This network topology is already provided to you in the form of a PKA file – a
Cisco Packet Tracer Activity. You can download this file from Moodle ([Link]). This
means that you do not need to change the topology, you only need to start the devices and
configure them.

Cisco Packet Tracer is an application that runs locally on your computer. So, before using it, you
need to download it and install it. Even though the program is free, Cisco requires users to register
and enroll in one of its courses to download the installer. Start by accessing the Getting Started
with Cisco Packet Tracer course web page: [Link]
packet-tracer. You should see a page as shown in Figure 2. Click on Get Started. That should take
you to a login page where you can either use an existing Cisco Network Academy Account, sign-up
for one or login using a Google Account (choose whatever option is more convenient to you).

FIGURE 2: WEB PAGE FOR THE G ETTING STARTED WITH CISCO PACKET TRACER COURSE .

After logging-in and accepting the terms and conditions, you will be redirected to the course
material itself, as illustrated in Figure 3. While taking the course is not mandatory for this project,
it provides a nice introduction to Cisco Packet Tracer, so it might be interesting to follow it to the
end. In Section 1.0.3 of the course, you will find a link to the download page, as shown in Figure 4.
You will notice that there are versions available for Windows, Ubuntu and MacOS: choose the one
that is suitable for your computer. Also notice that there is a PDF file with additional download and
installation instructions available on this page.

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

 FIGURE 3: COURSE MATERIAL FOR THE GETTING S TARTED WITH CISCO P ACKET TRACER COURSE.

FIGURE 4: C ISCO P ACKET TRACER DOWNLOAD PAGE .

After downloading the installer, proceed with the installation and launch Cisco Packet Tracer. You
will be greeted with a window as the one shown in Figure 5. It requires you to login with either a
Cisco Network Academy or a Cisco Skills For All account to use the software. If you used the sign-
up option or logged-in with your Google Account while initially accessing the Getting Started with
Cisco Packet Tracer course web page, you should choose the Cisco Skills For All option. That will
open a tab or window in your browser for you to log-in. It is likely that at this point your browser is
still logged-in with your credentials and, therefore, the process will be automatically completed
(otherwise, just log-in again on your browser window).

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

 FIGURE 5: C ISCO P ACKET TRACER LOGIN WINDOW .

After all those steps, you should now see the main window on Cisco Packet Tracer with an empty
canvas. At this point, if you haven’t done it yet, download the [Link] file from
Moodle. Now, in Cisco Packet Tracer window, choose File > Open… and open the file. You should
see the topology (Logical View) loaded on the main window (as shown in Figure 1) as well as a
second window containing instructions to the activity.

For this project, you will mostly interact with the Logical View and the Device Window. You can
open the Device Window for a certain device by clicking on it on the Logical View. For instance, if
you click on router R1, you should see a window like the one on Figure 6.

FIGURE 6: D EVICE W INDOW.

This window allows you to see and change several device settings, as well as interact with it in
different ways. It is organized in tabs, such as Physical (you can see and change physical properties
of the device, such as power it on and off and add or remove hardware modules) and Config (basic
device configurations).

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

For network devices (e.g., routers and switches), there is a CLI tab, which emulates a command line
interface for that device, allowing you to enter Cisco CLI commands. You will likely need to use the
CLI for more advanced configurations.

For end-devices (PCs, laptops, servers), there is a Desktop tab. It contains different applications
that can be used on that device. The Command Prompt app is particularly useful, as it provides a
Windows-like prompt allowing you to use basic commands such as ping, tracert and
ipconfig.

Finally, for servers, there is a Services tab that lists some classical network services that can be
enabled on those hosts (e.g., DHCP, HTTP, DNS). Selecting one of those services on this tab, you
will be presented with a simplified configuration interface which can be used to change some
settings.

Note that any configuration you make to routers will be lost if you power the device off without
saving it to its NVRAM (or exporting it to a file for importing it back later).

Another feature that is important to this project is identifying the names of the interfaces
connected to each link – you will need that to know which router interface to configure for a certain
purpose. One way of doing this is by going back to the Logic View on the main window and hovering
over the line that represents the link: after a few moments, identifiers of the interfaces connected
to that physical link should be shown.

You should also keep an eye on the small icons that are shown above the links, near each device.
They show the status of the respective network interface. For instance, a green upward triangle
indicates that the interface is up, while a red downward triangle indicates that the interface is down
(maybe the interface is disabled, or the device is off).

(25%) PHASE 2 – CONNECTING DEVICES (USING LAN A AND B ONLY)

This phase is currently divided into 2 sub-phases. First, we will consider only LAN A, and then we
will consider both LANs A and B.

We will start by configuring LAN A, as illustrated in Figure 2. To connect more than 2 computers we
need to use a switch.

FIGURE 7: LAN A T OPOLOGY.

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

Since we are building our own LAN we should start by defining our own IP address range. The range
attributed to your group, for this phase and the remaining ones, is 10.0.N.0/24 where N is your
group number.

Configure Laptop0 and PC0 with IP addresses. Laptop0 should have the IP address 10.0.N.1 and
PC0 should have the IP address 10.0.N.2. For now, no gateway is going to be defined.

Now test the connectivity between the 2 computers using the command ping.

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON THE REPORT?

• Screenshots of the configuration screens;
• Outputs of the commands;
• Report on what was performed to achieve the objectives for this part, including answers to the
questions.

CONNECTING TWO LANS WITH A ROUTER

Let us continue by connecting multiple LANs (LAN A and LAN B) using a single Router. To do so we
will connect two network interfaces on the router to the switch of each LAN. Figure 3 shows the
expected topology. Note that this topology corresponds to the left part of the topology you
received in the Packet Trace Activity file. Therefore, the physical connections are already made for
you and require no changes.

FIGURE 8: T WO LANS CONNECTED .

Since now there is a second LAN, you should have a different address space allocated for it. To do
so you should subnet the address space given to your group (the 10.0.N.0/24 above). You
should also check if the previous configurations on Laptop0 and PC0 must be changed.

Aside from the hosts, for this phase, you will only need to configure router R1 (add IP addresses to
the interfaces and check that they are online).

Router interfaces should use the last available address of the subnet address range for each
interface. Do not forget to also configure the default gateway on the different hosts.

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

Test all configurations using the previously mentioned commands, testing connectivity between all
the devices in the network. Also, check the routing table on the router with the CLI command show
ip route. Explain the results.

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON THE REPORT?

• Updated screenshots of the hosts configuration screens;
• Outputs of the commands;
• Router configuration;
• What was performed to achieve the objectives for this phase, including answers to the
questions.

(25%) PHASE 3 – CONNECTING MULTIPLE NETWORKS

Now that you understand subnetting, it is easier to expand our network. In this phase, we will
connect our two LANs (A and B) to Server LAN using a Transit Network. LAN Transit A will be a
transit network between routers R1 and R2. From this point on, we will assume that LAN A is a
network for users of department A and LAN B for the users of department B. We also have LAN
Server which connects several servers. Moreover, router R2 is an edge router connecting our
corporate network to the rest of the Internet. Figure 9 shows an abstract overview of the network
topology.

FIGURE 9: NETWORK TOPOLOGY WITH MULTIPLE ROUTERS .

Because now you have more LANs, you will have to change, again, the subnetting. To obtain the
number of clients connected to LANs A and B you should use the following formulae:
𝑛

Clients𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐴 = max⁡(20, (∑ 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑘 ) 𝑚𝑜𝑑⁡100)

𝑘=0

Clients𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐴
Clients𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐵 =
2

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

The summation in the first formula represents the sum of the student numbers for all group
members (n represents the total number of students in your group). Then, you should take the
result of the summation modulo 100 (select only the last two digits of this value). If this number is
lower than 20, you should use the value 20. The number of clients at LAN B should be half of the
ones from LAN A.

LAN transit A should use a /30 subnet.

LAN Server should have the largest remaining contiguous block of your address space.

Additionally, to simulate the connectivity with the Internet, router R2 should be configured with
the IP address [Link]/30 on the FastEthernet1/0 interface.

Moreover, you will need to configure routing tables on the routers to ensure proper packet
forwarding. Your configuration should fulfill the following requirements:

1. all hosts must be able to reach each other;

2. hosts on LANs A and B must be able to reach any address external to the corporate
network;
3. hosts on the LAN Server must be able to reach any address external to the corporate
network; and
4. the routing tables on R1 and R2 must include the minimum number of entries required to
achieve the previous requirements.

Test the connectivity between networks and routers. If the configuration has been done properly,
you should be able to ping all the network devices from any other device, i.e. Laptop0 should be
able to ping Laptop1, PC0, PC1, R1, R2, the servers in LAN Server, and the address [Link]. The same
goes for Laptop B, and so on…

Do not forget to adjust routing tables and default gateways on the PCs, Laptops, Routers and
Servers. Test if everything is working as expected, use the previous knowledge to test everything.

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON THE REPORT?

• IP Address distribution, including max number of devices and network and broadcast addresses
per subnet;
• Command outputs in order to test connectivity and routing;
• Configuration of different devices and networks (including the address space used on each
LAN);
• What was performed to achieve the objectives for this phase.

(25%) PHASE 4 – DEPLOY SERVICES

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

In this phase we will upgrade our network to a more realistic one by using DHCP and DNS to provide
an easier experience to our users. Additionally, we will also add a webserver. Notice that the
provided Cisco Packet Tracer Activity file already has three servers connected to LAN Server with
the corresponding labels. The respective services are already enabled on those servers, but they
may require additional configuration. It is your task for this phase to perform such configurations
as well as any additional settings 1 required on the remaining network devices to achieve the
objectives stated here.

Users of LANs A and B should be able to receive a network configuration automatically (from the
DHCP server) and to access the web server by the name [Link]. Figure 10 shows the
expected network diagram. You can test the DNS using nslookup, and DHCP on the clients using
ipconfig /release or ipconfig /renew.

FIGURE 10: NETWORK WITH SERVICES .

To further test the DNS configuration, perform a ping using the correct name of the Webserver. To
test the DHCP configuration, show the outputs of ipconfig commands on the clients. To test
the Webserver, use the Web Browser app on the hosts of LAN A to try to access the URL
[Link] (an [Link] file is already available in the web server).

Additionally, perform the following experiment:

1. Go into the configuration of the DHCP server and turn its network interface off.
2. After that, turn it on again.
3. Now, open a command prompt at the DHCP server and check the status of its ARP table.
Write down the results.

1Particularly, you may need some additional configurations on some routers. The graphical configuration dialog on the routers’ Device
Windows may not be sufficient for this purpose. For some potentially useful CLI commands, please refer to
[Link]

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos

 4. After the link between the DHCP server and its switch is operational, start a ping from PC1
to the DHCP server.
5. Go back to the command prompt at the DHCP server and check again the contents of its
ARP table. Write down the results.
Now, look again at the contents of the ARP table you obtained from steps 3 and 5 above. Did the
contents change? Why? Explain what happened.

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON THE REPORT?

• Configuration of different devices and networks (including the address space used on each
LAN);
• Command outputs in order to test connectivity, routing, DNS, DHCP and Web access;
• What was performed in order to achieve the objectives for this phase.
• The contents of the ARP table of the DHCP server at steps 3 and 5 above, as well as an
explanation of what happened.

This is your last phase. By this time, you should be able to understand all the concepts and protocols
related with building a simple corporate network.

Revision 1.2 last saved on 5/20/2025 [Link] PM by Diego Passos