86 Chapter 4 ■ Footprinting and Reconnaissance
E XE RC I S E 4 .1Finding the IP Address of a WebsiteThis exercise shows you how to obtain information about a website by using ping and tra-
cert.- On a Windows system, open the command prompt and enter the following command:
ping http://www.wiley.com- Note the IP address that is returned, along with any other statistics such as packets lost
and approximate round-trip time. This information will give you an idea of the connec-
tion’s performance and quality. - Determine the frame size on the network by entering this command:
ping http://www.wiley.com –f –l 1300- Note the response to the command. If the command indicates that the packet was frag-
mented, then decrease the 1300-value gradually until the results indicate otherwise.
Once you get a valid value, note the number. - At the command prompt, enter the following command,
tracert <ip address>where <ip address> is the one you recorded in step 1.- The results reveal information about the path that traffic is taking from the local host
to the remote host. Note the response times and the locations that may have dropped
packets.
Operating System Information
The operating system is one of the most important areas you must gain information about.
When sorting through the wealth of information that typically is available about a target,
keep an eye out for anything that provides technical details:
■ User and group information and names
■ Banner grabbing
■ Routing tables
■ SNMP
■ System architecture
■ Remote system data
■ System names
■ Passwords