|
Douglas E. Comer
Computer Science Department
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
webmaster: W. David Laverell
Companion
Topics
Home
Book
Information
Purpose
of Site
Getting
Started
Students
Faculty
"What's
New"
"Coming
Attractions"
"C Pointers"
Acknowledgements
|
|
HON: Faculty Notes to Chapter 1
Home > Faculty > Chapter Notes > Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Chinese proverb quoted in 1.1 explains a lot
about Hands-On Networking. Professor Comer
has written some very good books, and you can learn
a great deal from them, but his point is that
you have to learn-by-doing if you "Really Want To
Understand Computer Networking".
HON experiments cover a wide range of facilities.
I always thought Calvin had the ideal situation, a
lab with Sun workstations behind a firewall. Although
that configuration will take you a long way, it is
too static, you cannot play around with routing tables,
you cannot get at the protocol stack, you cannot be
allowed to do anything that would disrupt the stability
of the lab for other computer science courses. Our
solution (to be implemented next year) is to take advantage
of the fact that the college leases PC's on a three-year
cycle. We have arranged to get 25 three-year old machines
every year. Joel Adams has discovered a way to run
Linux on top of Linux enabling students to get at the
kernel. This is a very low cost approach, something like
$200 per machine plus $100 for the license for the software.
When it comes to setting up and running a networks lab,
the cooperation of your computer center is very important.
Realize that in the worst case scenario, your network
administrators may fear what you are doing. If you are just
starting out, you need to get them on board. The first time I
taught a Networks course I got one of them to team-teach it
with me! It worked out very well.
This site is maintained by W. David Laverell
of the Computer Science Department
at Calvin College. For assistance or corrections,
please contact him at . |
|
