AP Networking Lab 4: Capture and Trace (Browser Tracert Lab)

Capture and Trace

Follow traffic across a wide-area path and read what it tells you. 8 class periods, 8 checkpoints.

What you need: a browser. Nothing to install, no admin rights, no networking hardware. It runs on a Chromebook. The network below is simulated, so you can break it, fix it, and break it again without touching anything real.

The situation

A store's point-of-sale system goes down at the worst possible time. The network team can see the store, and the store can see the network team, and nothing in between admits to being the problem. You will trace the path, read a capture, find where it fails, and write the incident report.

Run the lab

Work the terminal on the left. ipconfig, ping, tracert, arp -a, nslookup, speedtest all answer from the simulated network, so the evidence you gather is consistent and repeatable. Answer the checkpoints as you go and submit when you are done: your score saves to your gradebook, and the reasoning for each checkpoint appears after you submit.

How the 8 periods are used

Session Focus What you should be able to do after it
1 The path Read a trace as a sequence of devices, not a wall of numbers.
2 Where latency comes from Separate distance from congestion.
3 Protocols and ports Identify traffic from a capture table.
4 The models Place each observation at the right layer.
5 Find the failure Locate the failure point from trace and capture together.
6 Monitoring Decide what should have alerted before a person noticed.
7 Resilience Design the change that makes the next one survivable.
8 The incident report Produce the Unit 4 performance task artifact.
This is a model, not a capture. The devices, addresses and command output are authored for this lab. Real equipment behaves in messier ways: timeouts vary, cables are intermittent, and output differs between operating systems. What transfers is the reasoning, which is the part that is graded here and on the exam.

Questions students ask

Do I need to install anything?

No. Everything runs in this page. If you can read this, you can run the lab.

Can I redo it?

You can work the lab as many times as you like. Whether a retake replaces your recorded score depends on the retry setting your teacher chose for your class.

Will these exact commands work on a real machine?

The commands are real and the output format follows the real tools closely. tracert is the Windows spelling; macOS and Linux use traceroute. Run them on a real network when you have one, and expect more noise than you see here.

Back to Unit 4: Managing Our Global Connections AP Networking course guide

Objectives practised: 4.1.A, 4.2.A, 4.3.A, 4.4.A, 4.4.B, 4.5.A, 4.5.B, 4.6.A. Skills: 1.C, 3.A, 3.C.

AP is a trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this resource.

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