Networking is usually taught with textbook pictures: here is a switch, here is a router, here is a table. Packet Path shows the same thing in motion — you build the network yourself, press «Send packet», and watch it travel from node to node.
The log narrates every step in plain words: why the PC first shouts «who has this address» to the whole network, why the switch remembered which port you sit behind, why the packet's TTL keeps dropping, and where a frame goes when there is no route for it. Failures are explained too: a packet never vanishes silently — it stops in a specific place for a specific reason.
17 levels across three chapters: wires and addresses, routing, names and DNS. The kit has PCs, servers, switches, hubs, bridges, routers and DNS servers. There is a sandbox with no goal: build your own network, break it, and see what happens. Your networks are saved and can be reopened any time.
Russian and English, played with mouse and keyboard.
How to play
The goal is written at the top of the screen: usually you need to make a packet reach another node.
Played with the mouse. Clicking a node opens its settings on the right: address with mask, default gateway, routing table, DNS server address — exactly which ones depends on the device. Values are typed in and applied with Enter or when you leave the field. Dragging moves a node around the map.
The «Link» button connects two nodes with a cable: press it, then click one node and the other. «Remove» deletes a node or a cable. The «Add» row holds new devices.
«Send packet» starts the walkthrough: the packet travels the map while the log on the right explains every step. Speed is switchable, and any flight in the log expands on click.
Stuck? «Hint» sits next to the goal. «Reset map» puts the level back to its starting state.