Discussion Questions
Why is DNS important? How is it used to resolve names?
The domain name system is important when using the internet as it resolves the host name without needing to use an IP address. For example if I wanted to a visit a website, without DNS I would have to know the IP address to retrieve the page. Just like a cell phone address book stores names and phone numbers of your contacts to be easily retrieved, DNS does this with the IP addresses of all computers on the internet. You type in a URL in the search box and the DNS server converts this to the IP that matches the hostname and you retrieve the page requested.
Explain the ARP process in full. Provide a specific context in which the process is used and explain how you would apply it and troubleshoot to determine IP address problems.
Address Resolution Protocol finds the hardware address of a host from a known IP address. When an IP has a datagram to send, it must inform a Network Access Protocol, such as Ethernet or wireless, of the destination’s hardware address on the local network. If IP doesn’t find the destination host’s hardware address in the ARP cache it uses ARP to find this information.
If my computer is connected to a network with the known IP of 1.1.1.1 and I need another computer’s MAC address, I would send out a request for the hardware address by supplying an IP address. If the hardware address I am requesting is not saved in the cache then it must use address resolution to find it. Then I will receive the hardware address from the destination IP.
The ARP cache can be used in troubleshooting
