BYU Learning Suite -- Restrict Exam to IP Address Range


Professors may wish to set up their exams so that they are taken through either Learning Suite, but can only be taken at a specific place, such as the Testing Center Lab. In the creation of such an exam, the delivery should be Learning Suite, not Testing Center.

Call the Testing Center (801-422-6147) to confirm what IP address range the exam should be set to. 

Learning Suite

IP addresses are often simple, but they can sometimes be really odd. A CSR can usually help the professor discover what the correct address range would be for a lab.

If they just want a specific lab, things are pretty simple. Here's an example address:

For a lab which contains computers with addresses like this: (assuming they all have an address that starts with 10.5.36 and have the same subnet)

 


The IP address range would be from 10.5.36.0 to 10.5.36.255
 
 
 
The subnet mask is very important. Subnet masks specify the range of addresses that are considered part of the network address, and what are the addresses that can be assigned to specific devices connected to the network. Each of the numbers delineated by the periods have a maximum legal value of 256 (values 0 to 255).
 
In the above case, the network address is 10.5.36.XXX. All the devices in this subnet will start with the above address. The XXX's will be the device address where the address will vary for specific devices. Two computers on the network might have addresses 10.5.36.1 and 10.5.36.254, where 1 and 254 would be the device addresses and would still be considered part of the same subnet. They would be able to see each other directly if they have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

If you see a different subnet mask than 255.255.255.0 (like 255.255.254.0 or 255.255.128.0), get the CSR involved. Things get rather odd. The network address is still static, but it looks like it changes (this is because IP addresses are in binary, but we generally denote them with Base 10 numbers).
 

If you are curious or need to help give a ballpark:

  1. Get the IP address of at least one of the computers that will be used
  2. Get the Subnet Mask of the computer
  3. Find a CIDR calculator on the internet, like this one: http://www.subnet-calculator.com/cidr.php
  4. At the bottom of the calculator, it should specify the complete range of possible addresses.
 
In this example, the network address is 10.2.12.1 with NetMask 255.255.254.0
 
The IP address range is 10.2.12.0 - 10.2.13.255. This is what it looks like in the CIDR calculator:
 
 
 
 
Another Option:  Just below the option to restrict IP address in Learning Suite is the option to require a password to take the exam. This password can be given to the students in class so the exam can only be taken in class.