IS 333 Network Administration

Invitation:

In this class, I invite you to learn how we can connect and configure computers to allow them to be able to communicate with each other in a computer network. Computer communication is a complex, multi-layer system, with many intricacies and difficulties, so this isn’t an easy task. But, by studying the individual layers and how they relate to the whole, you can learn the theory and practical steps to create and customize a network, and debug many networking problems.

Course Outcomes: Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate that they can:

• Connect PCs together in a network.
• Configure PCs running Linux so that they receive IP addresses, have default routes, can resolve host names, and so on. (And similarly for Windows, if time permits.)
• Apply knowledge of the TCP/IP layering model to intelligently debug networking problems.
• Use Linux commands to understand how a PC is configured.
• Differentiate between different LAN-based forwarding devices so that they can make thoughtful suggestions on how to build a network.

Course Practices: We will use these practices in this course to engage with the material

• Weekly reading assignments, including Reading Responses, submitted on-line.
• Q and A "lectures" in which the instructor answers your questions from your reading responses.
• Investigative activities, in which we collaboratively investigate problems that the next chapter explains have been solved by the folks that designed networking hardware and Internetworking protocols.
• Weekly labs, in which we configure Linux and Windows boxes, monitor network protocols, build small networks, install networking software, etc.
• Tests

• Course Policies
• Course Schedule, including labs and projects
• Resources