Chapter 11: Analyzing IPv4 and IPv6

Anyone involved in networking will need to understand the Internet Protocol (IP), a network layer protocol that is responsible for delivering data over a network. In this chapter, we'll begin by reviewing the network layer, and more specifically, the purpose of IP as a predominant network protocol. We'll then take a closer look at IPv4 and IPv6, which are responsible for two key roles: addressing and routing data. Wireshark provides exceptional support for both IPv4 and IPv6. To strengthen your analytical skills, we'll start with a thorough overview of both versions and examine the header format of each protocol.

You'll begin to understand how the field values in each of the versions compare and contrast, and be able to recognize the significance of each of the fields. Since addressing is an important concept, we'll examine the use of special and private IPv4 addressing. In addition, we'll outline the different address...