Today’s work consisted of connecting our layer 2 switches to our larger overall network. I appreciated Lyle’s thoroughness at the board in explaining the ins and outs of our network. The bulk of the morning was spent on a pinging exercise. The point of this exercise was to make connections between 2 machines. It was also meant to bolster our understandings of network communications.
Some of the groups (including ours) ran into some difficulties during the pinging exercises. Most of these problems were attributed to the non-standardized equipment we were using. IE, different laptops running different operating systems with various levels of protection and firewall settings.
Once our layer 2 switch was configured it was time to access the switch using a graphical interface. This was done by connecting to the switch through a web browser. We connected the switch through RJ45 connection IE blue line and then typed in our IP address.
I am still struggling a bit with the masking. I understand that masking creates larger networks and increases the efficiency of the router because the router does not have to look at all the numbers in the IP address. However I am struggling because I do not yet know all the rules involved with the masking. For example, do the subnet masks have to be identical for 2 separate networks to talk to each other? My understanding says yes, networks that have the same subnet masks will be able to communicate with each other. However this may not always be the case. In the table that Lyle presented to us computer 1 and computer 2 will not always be able to talk to each other. There is a certain set of rules that govern that. I am struggling with understanding the rules. An experienced network administrator would be able to simply look at the masks and determine whether or not the machines would be able to communicate.
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