ICS 351 organization, Fall 2016

Instructor: Edo Biagioni, esb@hawaii.edu. See here for office hours.

The lectures for this class are MW 10:30-11:45am in Holmes 247.

There is also a lab for this class, in Keller 304A. The lab is either from 1pm to 4pm on Mondays (section 1) or 1pm to 4pm on Wednesdays (section 2).

Goals and Learning Objectives

In this course, students will:

design and build networks using routers and switches
manage, monitor, and find problems with networks
learn elements of the TCP/IP protocol suite
become familiar with network configuration of routers and hosts
learn about routing protocols in use in the Internet
learn elements of network security, including firewalls and NAT
write significant (at least 500 words each) lab reports describing what they have learned
incorporate feedback from the instructor to improve their technical writing skills

The departmental student learning objectives satisfied by this course are listed here.

Textbook

The textbook is "Mastering Networks -- An Internet Lab Manual 5.0", by Jörg Liebeherr and Magda el Zarki, 2004. The textbook is required. The student page for this textbook is at http://tcpiplab.net/ (as it says on the page, "All links to tcpip-lab.net in the textbook must be replaced by tcpiplab.net").

Because things change rapidly in this field, this 2004 textbook is already behind in several details. The most important change is that we will be using the wireshark network monitoring software, instead of ethereal.

Organization and Grading

This course is graded based on performance as follows.

the labs, which are assignments (about 12) the students complete and turn in (60% of the grade). Each lab report must be at least 500 words long. The instructor will give feedback on each lab report, and students must use the feedback (as appropriate) to improve their technical writing skills on successive lab reports.
1/2 hour quizzes (about 5-10) given in class (30% of the grade)
the scheduled final exam (10% of the grade)

Attendance is mandatory (but not graded). In particular, participation in the lab sessions is necessary in order to successfully do the lab reports.

Lab reports are due on time, with a loss of 20% of the points for every day they are late. Quizzes and exams must be taken early or on time, unless there are well-documented extenuating circumstances, in which case the same 20% per day rule will apply (and only if student makes special arrangements with the instructor to take the quiz late).

Lab reports should be emailed in plain text format (you may attach images separately where needed). This is for the instructor's convenience. If you do not turn in plain text, the instructor will work with you to make sure you are able to do so.

Each student must bring to each lab all of the following:

completed pre-lab (unless emailed in advance)
personal USB drive for saving results (physically narrow USB drives work best on the computers in the lab). The USB drive should be a dedicated drive used only for this lab.

Bringing food or drinks to the lab is prohibited, since it could result in damage to the equipment which would affect the entire class. There will be no eating or drinking, and no open food or drinks in the lab.

Collaboration in this class is not allowed for quizzes or exams. Collaboration is necessary in the lab, and is encouraged for labs reports unless otherwise stated. In particular,

the pre-labs must be completed individually
whenever a lab report is the result of a collaboration, all collaborators must be listed as the authors
whenever something turned in is taken in part from an external resource, the source must be credited (except for the textbook).
if you get your answer from the Internet, and you don't mark it as such, and I notice, you will get 0 points for that question. I am only interested in grading what you yourself write, not what you can find elsewhere. I believe that what you write reflects your own understanding much better than what you can find.

Since network administration is a popular subject on the web, many of the answers to the questions may appear to be found on the web. However, simply cutting and pasting from web sites (1) often fails to answer the question that is asked, (2) is often detected by the instructor, (3) will result in loss of credit, and most seriously, (4) does not help you learn the material.

All answers should be in your own words from you own knowledge. You are of course welcome to consult external web sites, but you may not simply copy the information when answering questions.

Cheating

In this course, cheating consists simply of turning in, as the student's own work, material taken from other sources. For example, although collaboration on most labs is encouraged, simply copying the results of another student's work is considered cheating. Collaboration requires active, approximately equal collaboration from all participants, and must be explicitly documented.

In general, cheating means presenting the work of somebody else as one's own, or providing one's work to somebody else to help them cheat.

No Cheating Policy: any cheating will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment or exam the first time it is detected, and a grade of F for the course for any subsequent instance. Any instance of cheating will also be recorded in the student's ICS department file, and may be reported to the office of the Dean of Students, possibly resulting in disciplinary action against the student. The Student Conduct Code may provide more information.

If you have any questions, please contact the instructor.

Disabilities

Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability is invited to contact me privately. I would be happy to work with you, and the KOKUA Program (Office for Students with Disabilities) to ensure reasonable accommodations in my course. KOKUA can be reached at (808) 956-7511 or (808) 956-7612 (voice/text) in room 013 of the Queen Lili'uokalani Center for Student Services.

Improvements

This is the seventh time I am teaching this course. Any suggestions for improving these web pages or the course as a whole should be sent to the instructor.