Your own network, mapped, measured and audited

The situation

Start with a drawing of where your WhatsApp message goes and end with a real audit of your own network: private and public addresses found and explained, a ten-person office designed on paper, ping and traceroute run and read on Wi-Fi and on mobile data, the router's admin password changed, and every connected device identified. Then apply the five-step troubleshooting sequence to one real problem.

What you'll be able to show

• Explain private versus public addresses from your own devices
• Design a small office network and justify each cabling choice
• Read ping and traceroute output and label a real path
• Audit a home router and troubleshoot one real fault in order

What you need

• Your phone, a laptop, your home router's admin page
• ipconfig (Windows) or a terminal app on Android
• Paper for two drawings

Tasks

1. 1The message's journey
   Draw the path of a WhatsApp message from your phone to a friend's phone in another city as boxes and arrows: phone, router or tower, ISP, internet routers, submarine cable, WhatsApp's server, and back down. Keep it — you will label it later.
   A correct result: A photographed drawing with at least seven boxes.
2. 2Private and public
   Find your phone's private IP in Wi-Fi settings, a laptop's private IP with ipconfig, and your network's public IP from a what-is-my-IP search from both devices. Explain in two sentences why the private ones differ and the public one is the same.
   A correct result: Three addresses and the two-sentence explanation.
3. 3The ten-person office
   Design on paper: one internet connection, six desktops, a shared printer, a CCTV recorder, staff phones on Wi-Fi. Draw the router, a switch and access point(s). Decide cabled or wireless for each device with a one-line reason.
   A correct result: A diagram and a cabled/wireless decision per device with reasons.
4. 4Ping and traceroute
   Run ping and traceroute (tracert) to a public site. Record the average ping, identify your own router's hop and the hop where latency visibly jumps. Repeat on mobile data. Label your task 1 drawing with the real addresses.
   A correct result: Two ping averages, two traceroutes annotated, and the labelled drawing.
5. 5The router audit
   Log into the router's admin page and change the default admin password (note where you saved it). Confirm Wi-Fi is WPA2 or WPA3. List every device in the client list and identify each; investigate any you cannot.
   A correct result: Password changed, security mode confirmed, a full device list with every entry identified.
6. 6One real fault, in order
   Write the five-step troubleshooting sequence on a card in your own words. Apply it to one real problem this week (yours, a relative's, a neighbour's). Write up: symptom, which step found it, the fix, how long it took.
   A correct result: The card and a written-up real fix.

What to hand in

The two drawings, the three addresses with explanation, the annotated traceroutes, the router audit results, the card and the fix write-up.

How it is marked