Saturday, November 24, 2007

Networks: communicating with other PCs on the local network

You manually configure IP addresses on network computers.
Which parameter, if set incorrectly, will prevent a computer from communicating with any other computer on the local network?
1. >>Subnet mask
2. Default gateway
3. MAC address
4. Primary DNS server address

Explanation : The subnet mask, if set incorrectly, will prevent a computer from communicating with other computers on the local network. An IP address is made up of two parts, the network address that identifies the network segment on which the computer is deployed and the host address that uniquely identifies the computer on the network. The number of bits from the address assigned to each is not fixed. Instead, it is determined from the subnet mask, so both are required when specifying a static address. If the subnet mask is wrong, then the network address will be wrong and the computer will not recognize other computers even though they are physically located on the same network segment.

A primary DNS server address, if set incorrectly, will not prevent a computer from communicating with other computers on the same network. Not all networks require DNS name resolution services, so a primary DNS server address is not necessarily a configuration requirement. The computer can resolve names and address of computers on the local network through broadcasts, if necessary, or through use of a text file called the HOSTS file.

The default gateway, if set incorrectly, will not prevent a computer from communicating with other computers on the same network. The default gateway identifies the path and network packets should take when being routed to another network is a different route is not explicitly specified. The term gateway is used to refer to routers in a TCP/IP network environment. A default gateway is needed only if the computer is deployed in a routed network environment made up of connected subnetworks. Otherwise, this value can be left blank. Because routing is not required to communicate with other computers on the same local network, an incorrect value will not prevent the computer from communicating with computers on the local network.

You do not specify the Media Access Control (MAC) address when configuring an IP address. The MAC address is a unique address value that is hard-coded on the computer's network interface card, so there is no need to specify the MAC address when configuring IP addressing.
Objective: Networks