Computer Networking Fundamentals Lab Portfolio

A self-curated portfolio built from hands-on Wireshark and networking labs. The pages below translate packet captures and lab findings into practical case studies focused on packet flow, addressing, name resolution, transport behavior, application traffic, and troubleshooting concepts.

Portfolio Topics

ARP / Ethernet Analysis Local delivery, MAC addressing, ARP resolution, and Ethernet frame structure. DHCP Analysis Address assignment, Discover/Offer/Request/ACK behavior, lease details, and broadcast traffic. NAT Traffic Analysis Inside and outside captures showing translated headers while application data remains intact. TCP Analysis Connection setup, sequencing, acknowledgments, payload delivery, and flow behavior. HTTP Analysis Request/response behavior, cache validation, status codes, and HTTP running over TCP.

Why This Matters for IT Support and Troubleshooting

Network issues often appear to users as simple symptoms: a device cannot get online, a web page loads slowly, a server is unreachable, or an application times out. Packet-level analysis helps separate local addressing problems from IP configuration issues, TCP behavior, NAT translation, and application-layer responses.

This portfolio demonstrates foundational troubleshooting habits: identify the layer involved, inspect the relevant headers, compare expected behavior with observed traffic, and explain what the packet capture shows in practical terms.

Scope

The portfolio uses selected screenshots and findings from course lab materials. The original lab PDFs and assignment prompts were not included in the final output.