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Practical labs

Finding IP addresses in a real network

Examine one ordinary home-network computer and its Home Gateway. Compare the local address, gateway, router WAN address and an explicit neighbour-cache observation, then decide what must be established before interpreting an IP address from an online service.

Start Finding IP addresses in a real network →

Use these browser-only exercises to practise examining realistic digital material without touching a real service, device or network.

Available exercises

The Domestic Network

Explore a simulated home router, find useful information and work out what it tells you. The final optional stage lets you practise a specific forwarding change in a browser-local working copy.

  • Structure: nine core stages and one optional configuration stage
  • No live targets: every router control, address, endpoint and reachability result is simulated

Before starting, review what DHCP, router and Wi-Fi records can show about a local device and what to do when you encounter a router or network appliance.

Firewall and Forwarding

Continue in the same Home Gateway after completing The Domestic Network. Predict and apply a bounded forwarding change, compare configuration with activity evidence, and interpret a separately supplied generic firewall-log exhibit.

  • Structure: seven applied stages using the familiar Router/Task workspace
  • Safe working copy: changes stay in this browser and reset to the observed baseline
  • Log fidelity: the downloadable exhibit is explicitly not an export from the simulated gateway

Start with The Domestic Network if you have not yet used the simulated router.

Looking Inside an Email

Open a simulated mailbox, look behind a sender’s display name, compare From and Reply-To, inspect a link destination and view selected message headers.

  • Duration: 20–30 minutes
  • Format: seven guided steps in a single Task panel
  • Safe simulation: all scenario addresses and links are inert fictional examples

The exercise links to deeper lessons about From, Reply-To and Return-Path, examining links and email headers as those concepts appear.

Which MAC Address Belongs to This iPhone?

Inspect a bounded iPhone-style Settings simulation, distinguish its hardware Wi-Fi and Bluetooth addresses, and compare network-specific private Wi-Fi addresses with a fictional router record.

  • Structure: six guided steps in a Phone/Task workspace
  • Current behaviour: uses the current iOS 18-or-later Off, Fixed and Rotating labels supported by the source lesson
  • Safe simulation: no real device, Wi-Fi network or router is contacted

Before starting, review how MAC and private Wi-Fi addresses differ. The activity links to the supporting mobile-identifier and local-network-record lessons where they become useful.