The Network · Workshop 03 · Foundation
Every Device Has a Name
Five steps. About 25 minutes. Up to 7 stars. The constellation you're building is called First Address.
The Network · Workshop 03 · Foundation
Five steps. About 25 minutes. Up to 7 stars. The constellation you're building is called First Address.
When you send a message across a network, it has an envelope with an address on it. Sometimes two addresses. Sometimes three. Each one does a different job.
Your phone has a MAC address — a hardware ID burned into the chip when it was manufactured. It's like the serial number on the back. It never changes.
Your phone also has an IP address — a temporary address given by the network you're on. At home you have one IP address. On school WiFi you have a different one. It's like a hotel room number that changes when you check in somewhere new.
And every program on your phone uses ports — channel numbers that tell the operating system which app should receive a piece of incoming data.
That's the warm-up. When you've actually read it — not skimmed — tap below.
Pick all that are true.
Click an address type, then the analogy.
Ask your grown-up to help you find your phone or computer's IP address (it usually looks like 192.168.x.x at home). Write what you found and what you noticed.
Stuck? On a phone: Settings → WiFi → tap the network you're on → IP Address. On a computer: open a terminal/command prompt and type 'ipconfig' (Windows) or 'ifconfig' (Mac/Linux).
One sentence.