Warriors of the Net

This is an entertaining resource to help you visualize networking concepts. It is an animated movie “Warriors of the Net” by TNG Media Lab. It is there somewhere in the Cisco Academy learning materials, but maybe most of student didn’t notice.

Before viewing the video, there are a few things to consider. First, in terms of concepts, think about when in the video you are on the LAN, on WAN, on intranet, on Internet; and what are end devices versus intermediate devices; how the OSI and TCP/IP models apply; what protocols are involved.

Second, some terms are mentioned in the video which may not be familiar. The types of packets mentioned refers to the type of upper level data (TCP, UDP, ICMP Ping, PING of death) that is encapsulated in the IP Packets (everything is eventually converted into IP Packets). The devices the packet encounters on its journey are Router, proxy server, router switch, corporate intranet, the proxy, URL, firewall, bandwidth, hosts, web server.

Third, while port numbers 21, 23, 25, 53, and 80 are referred to explicitly in the video, IP addresses are referred to only implicitly.

Finally, though all animations often have simplifications in them, there is one outright error in the video. About 5 minutes in, the statement is made “What happens when Mr. IP doesn’t receive an acknowledgement, he simply sends a replacement packet.” As you will find out, this is not a function of the Layer 3 Internet Protocol, which is an “unreliable”, best effort delivery protocol, but rather a function of the Transport Layer TCP Protocol.

Here are the links:

1. Trailer:  Site A, Site B
2. Movie: Site A, Site B

Available also in other language.

Enjoy.

Source: Cisco Networking Academy, Exploration 1