5.3.2.2 Packet Tracer – Observing Web Requests Answers
Packet Tracer – Observing Web Requests (Answers Version)
Answers Note: Red font color or gray highlights indicate text that appears in the Answers copy only.
Topology
Objectives
View the client/server traffic sent from a PC to a web server when requesting web services.
Step 1: Verify connectivity to the web server.
- Click External Client and access the Command Prompt from the Desktop tab.
- Use the ping command to reach the URL ciscolearn.web.com.
PC> ping ciscolearn.web.com
Notice the IP address included in the ping output. This address is obtained from the DNS server and resolves to the domain name ciscolearn.web.com. All traffic forwarded across a network uses source and destination IP address information. - Close the Command Prompt window, but leave the External Client desktop window open.
Step 2: Connect to the web server.
- From the Desktop window, access the Web Browser.
- In the URL block, type ciscolearn.web.com.
*Be sure to read the web page that is displayed. Leave this page open. - Minimize the External Client window but do not close it.
Step 3: View the HTML code.
- From the Logical topology, click ciscolearn.web.com server.
- Click the Services tab > HTTP tab. Then next to the index.html file click (edit).
- Compare the HTML markup code on the server that creates the Web Browser display page on the External Client. This may require that you re-maximize the External Client window if it shrunk when you opened the server window.
- Close both the External Client and web server windows.
Step 4: Observe traffic between the client and the web server.
- Enter Simulation mode by clicking the Simulation tab in the lower right-hand corner.
- Double click the Simulation Panel to unlock it from the PT window. This allows you to move the Simulation Panel to view the entire network topology.
- View traffic by creating a Complex PDU in Simulation mode.
- From the Simulation Panel, select Edit Filters.
- Click the Misc tab to verify that only the boxes for TCP and HTTP are selected.
- Add a Complex PDU by clicking the open envelope located above the Simulation mode icon.
- Click the External Client to specify it as the source. The Create Complex PDU window will appear.
- Specify the Create Complex PDU settings by changing the following within the Complex PDU window:
- Under PDU Settings, Select Application should be set to HTTP.
- Click the ciscolearn.web.com server to specify it as the destination device. Notice the IP address of the web server will appear in the destination box within the complex PDU window
- For the Starting Source Port, enter 1000.
- Under Simulation Settings, select Periodic Interval and type 120 seconds.
- Create the PDU by clicking the box Create PDU in the Create Complex PDU window.
- Observe the traffic flow by clicking Auto Capture / Play in the Simulation Panel. Speed up the animation by using the play control slider.
When the Buffer Full window appears, close the window using the x. - Scroll through the Event List. Notice the number of packets that traveled from source to destination. HTTP is a TCP protocol, which requires connection establishment and acknowledgement of receipt of packets, considerably increasing the amount of traffic overhead.
- Observe the traffic flow by clicking Auto Capture / Play in the Simulation Panel. Speed up the animation by using the play control slider.