Project · Computer Networking (CCNA level)
Project: IP plan and network for a CA firm
The brief
A chartered accountancy firm in Ahmedabad is moving into a new office with three rooms: partners and staff, the articled assistants, and the front desk. Plan its addresses with VLSM in Python and fix an addressing policy, then build the network in Packet Tracer with one router, three switches and a PC per room, and prove that every room can reach the others.
Why it matters
This is the everyday job of a network or IT support engineer at a small business: turn "how many people sit where" into an IP plan, configure the router to match, and hand over a document that the next person can follow. CA firms, clinics and coaching centres across India hire local engineers for exactly this during GST season and office moves.
Skills you practise
- VLSM planning
- an addressing policy (gateway, PCs, printer)
- router interface configuration
- show ip interface brief
- show running-config
- PC IP settings and ping
- network documentation
You need
- Cisco Packet Tracer (free with a Cisco Networking Academy account)
- One 2911 router, three 2960 switches and at least three PCs, joined with copper straight-through cables
What you will have at the end
ca-firm.pkt (a working three-room network), plan.py that produces the IP plan, and ip-plan.md: the hand-over document for the firm.
How it is marked (rubric, 100 points)
| Correct IP planThe VLSM subnets do not overlap, fit the hosts with room to grow, and follow the addressing policy. | 30 |
|---|---|
| Working networkAll router ports are up/up with the right masks, every PC has the right gateway, and rooms can reach each other. | 35 |
| Documentationip-plan.md and the labelled topology let someone else find any device's address without asking. | 25 |
| Can explainYou can say why largest-first VLSM avoids overlaps and why the TTL dropped to 127. | 10 |
0/7 steps done
Step 1 of 7
Hosts to prefix length
prefix_for(hosts) returns the longest prefix whose subnet still has enough usable hosts: prefix_for(50) == 26.
A subnet with h host bits has 2 ** h - 2 usable addresses (the network and broadcast addresses cannot be given to a device). Start at h = 2 and add one bit until there is enough room. The prefix length is 32 - h. The firm already added room to grow to each count in data.py, so use the numbers as they are.
Run shows what your code prints. Check runs the step's tests. Ctrl+Enter checks too.