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The Revoluti0n

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IP addressing and DNS by assassin007

The term IP stands for Internet Protocol. On the Internet,
systems are connected to networks, which are further divided into sub-networks.
Every system on such network will have a unique IP address.
An IP address is composed of four segments known as octets.
Each octet is an 8-bit field and can have a value ranging from 0 to 255.

A typical IP address looks something like 203.197.254.249

The IP addresses are divided into five classes, which are Class A through Class E.
Depending on the size of the network, different types of classes are used
for addressing machines on the network.

Class A networks are the largest and can hold up to 16 million systems on 127 networks.
In this class, the first octet is the network prefix number and the other
three octets represent the host number. A Class A network address block
looks like the following:

Class A: 1.XXX.XXX.XXX to 126.XXX.XXX.XXX (NNN.HHH.HHH.HHH)

Class A networks can use up to three octets for addressing machines.
These are used for very large organizations and collections of related networks.
Also, many educational institutions are grouped under a Class A address.

Class B networks are next to Class A networks. The Class B networks use
first two octets for network number and next two octets for host number.
A Class B network can address up to 65000 hosts on each of 16000 networks.
A Class B network address block looks like the following:

Class B: 128.0.XXX.XXX to 191.255.XXX.XXX (NNN.NNN.HHH.HHH)

In a Class B network only two octets can be used for addressing machines.
So, from a single block of Class A addresses, 255 Class B networks can be made.

Class C networks comes the next, normally used by many smaller networks
and your local ISP may also be using this Class of addressing.
A Class C address block can hold up to 255 machines on each of two million networks.

Class C: 192.0.0.XXX to 223.255.255.XXX (NNN.NNN.NNN.HHH)

Class C networks can use only a single octet for addressing machines.
So we can make 255 Class C networks out of a single block of Class B addresses.

Class D addresses are reserved for IP Multicasting, and Class E addresses are
reserved for "experimental purposes".

IP addresses are designed in such a way to create small networks out of larger networks.
The process of creating smaller sub-networks from a single larger network is called subnetting.

You might have already noticed that IP addresses starting 127 doesn't fall
either into Class A or Class B. Well 127.X.X.X is reserved for special purposes.
127.0.0.1 represents the IP address of the local host i.e., your own system.

IP addresses are classified into static and dynamic IP addresses.

If you are connecting to the internet through dial-up networking,
every time you dial your ISP for a connection your system will be dynamically
assigned an IP address. Every time you dial a connection you will be
dynamically given an IP address.

But if you are connected through a DSL connection or have a permanent
LAN connection your IP address will not change. This type of IP address
is called static IP address. Remember static IP addresses are more prone to attacks.
So if you have a static IP address don't forget to install a firewall
and an Anti-virus software.

To find your system's IP address click Run and then type command.
You will see the DOS prompt now. Type IPconfig to find out your IP address.

Subnetting:

Subnetting is the process of deriving smaller networks from larger networks.
Subnetting is done for various reasons, like to save address space and
to increase the security of the network.

In this topic we will be coming across the term "subnet mask". Well the subnet mask
is used to split-up the existing network IP address into "sub-networks" or "subnets".
The masks used by different classes of IP are:

Class A: 255.0.0.0
Class B: 255.255.0.0
Class C: 255.255.255.0

To understand the subnetting better you must have the knowledge of binary number form.
Let's consider the IP address 192.168.0.1. In binary octet form it looks like
11000000.10101000.00000000.00000001.

192 (decimal) = 11000000 (binary)
168 (decimal) = 10101000 (binary)
0 (decimal) = 00000000(binary)
1 (decimal) = 00000001 (binary)

The subnet mask of an IP address is what tells the computer or router which part
of your IP address belongs to your network and which part belongs to the hosts.
Thus, a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 tells your computer that the first three octets
of your IP address belong to the network, and all of your hosts will be referenced
with the last octet. This gives us a standard subnet mask of 255.255.255.0,
with a possibility of 254 hosts in our network.

You are required to have a base network address and a broadcast address for every subnet.
Normally for the base network address the last octet will be 0 and for the broadcast address
the last octet will be 255.

The first step in implementing a subnet is determining the number of hosts in a mask.
Say if you want to have 20 hosts in a subnet then you should have a minimum of 22 hosts
including the base network address and the broadcast address.
Now consider the last octet in the IP address.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

If we want at least 22 hosts on each of our subnets, we are going to need the last
five bits in our octet quad. This will give us a total available of 16+8+4+2+1 or
31 possible hosts including the network address and broadcast address. This leaves
the first three bits of the octet for network addressing. This makes our subnet mask
for the entire network 255.255.255.224. How did I come up with this?
The positional notation values for the first three bits of our final octet,
when added together, equal 224.

Network bits | Host bits
128 64 32| 16 8 4 2 1

Lets say we have an IP address of 203.197.254.0. For our first subnet,
we have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.224. This gives us hosts from 230.197.254.1 to
30, with 203.197.254.0 as the network address and 203.197.254.31 as the broadcast address.
Our next subnet would be 203.197.254.32 with the same 31 hosts, including broadcast and network.
The subnet following that would have an IP range of 203.197.254.64-95.
The next would be 203.197.254.96-127, then 128-159, then 160-191, 192-223 and, finally, 224-255.

ANDing: It is very easy to know you network address if you know your IP address
and the subnet mask. The two addresses are bitwise AND(ed) together will give you
the network address. The following is the ANDing principle:

0+0=0
0+1=0
1+1=1

The following example shows you to find the network address:

11000000.10101000.00000000.00000001 (IP address 192.168.0.1 )
11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000 (Subnet Mask 255.255.255.224)
11000000.10101000.00000000.00000000 (Network address 192.168.0.0)

Anonymous surfing: You might have already noticed that some websites log your
IP address while browsing through that site. They can monitor your interests and
spy on you through that address. You may not believe that just having your IP address
and using some pre-packaged tools a script-kiddie can totally crash your system.
This is where anonymous proxy servers come in. Anonymous proxy servers hide your
IP address and they don't even let other know that you're a browsing from a proxy server.

To start browsing through a proxy server you must have a proxy server address
and the port number. You can find the list of latest proxies at http://www.proxymania.com.

Note down a proxy server address and the respective port number you wish to browse from.
Now you should configure your browser to start anonymous surfing.

In Internet Explorer: Go to Control Panel->Internet Settings and click the connections tab.
Click the LAN Settings... button. In the popup box, check the option Use a proxy server
for your LAN. Now enter the proxy server address and port number in the Address
and Port fields respectively.

In Netscape 4++: Go to Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Proxies and configure
the proxy address and port number there.

Now you will be surfing anonymously in the net. But note that, these proxy servers
addresses should be changed and updated from time to time to improve your browsing speeds.

Domain Name System (DNS):
IP addresses help you to connect to other systems on the network.
But it is very hard to remember the IP addresses of different systems that you want
to connect to. So, the concept of domain names was introduced.
Just you need to remember the user-friendly names such as yahoo.com known
as domain names instead of weird IP addresses like 241.56.25.155 and the DNS
will do the rest of work.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a distributed Internet directory service.
DNS is used mostly to translate between domain names and IP addresses,
and to control Internet email delivery. Most Internet services rely on DNS to work,
and if DNS fails, web sites cannot be located and email delivery stalls.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is software that runs on Port 53.
Read the following terms before you study the working of Domain Name System.

Client- User's system running the web browser
ISP's DNS server - The DNS server run by your ISP
Root server - INTERNIC's root server
Destination DNS - The destination domain's DNS server

When the client types a web address in the browser windows, the browser sends
a DNS query to the ISP's DNS server. The DNS server looks in its cache to find
the IP address for the web address. If it finds the IP address for that,
the DNS server replies the non-authoritative IP address to the client back.

If the ISP's DNS server cannot find the IP address in its cache it will send
the request to "Name servers". If IP address is found there that will be sent
to the client else the request will be forwarded to the "Root-Servers".
The Root servers search the records for the web address, if found it sends
back the client with the address. The "Name servers" and "ISPs DNS server"
are updated with the new IP address. If the DNS server cannot find the IP
address it will reply the client with DNS Error message.
The entire process can be represented in the figure below.

Well that's it for now. See you again in my next update. Till then bye and take care.

Sincerely yours
assassin007
http://hrvg.tk