Giving a Host an Address

Lesson 5 of 35 in Coddy's LAN Labs course.

An IPv4 address plus a prefix length is the whole identity of a host on a LAN: 192.168.1.10/24 says "I am .10, and everything in 192.168.1.0 to .255 is my neighborhood".

netlab ip HOST ADDR/PREFIX assigns it. The lab answers with the derived facts you would otherwise compute by hand: the mask (255.255.255.0 for /24) and the network the host now belongs to (192.168.1.0/24).

Two hosts can talk directly only when they land in the same network, so those derived lines are worth reading every time.

Challenge

Beginner

pc1 and pc2 are cabled to sw1. Give pc1 the address 192.168.1.10/24 and pc2 the address 192.168.1.20/24.

Expected output:

pc1 eth0: 192.168.1.10/24 (mask 255.255.255.0, network 192.168.1.0/24)
pc2 eth0: 192.168.1.20/24 (mask 255.255.255.0, network 192.168.1.0/24)

Try it yourself

Terminal

All lessons in LAN Labs

1Meet the Lab

Your First Lab Cables Wires Are Not Enough Recap - Build a Lab

4Routers and Gateways

Two Networks The Default Gateway Both Sides Need a Way Back Routing Tables Recap - Connect the Floors

7Growing the Office

The Plan Sales Comes Online Engineering Joins Gateways Everywhere Recap - The Printer

2Addresses on the LAN

Giving a Host an AddressThe First Ping What ARP Learned The Switch Learns Too Recap - First Conversation

5Troubleshooting I

The Unplugged Host The Missing Gateway The Typo in the Mask Recap - Two Faults

8Capstone - Fix the Branch

Survey the Damage Fix the Address Clash Masks and Gateways Recap - Prove It Works

3Masks Matter

Wrong Mask, No Reply Same Switch, Other Subnet Let check Do the Looking Recap - Diagnose the Pair

6Troubleshooting II

Two Devices, One Address The Network Address Trap Gateway on the Wrong Subnet Recap - The Silent Router

Practice on your own: Terminal playground