Intro to Local Area Networks (TDC 363 901), Spring 2008 Lewis 1009, Thursdays, 5:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., April 3 - June 12, 2008 Syllabus Instructor: John Kristoff email: jtk@depaul.edu or jtk@northwestern.edu AIM: ultrajtk MSN: jtkdns Google Talk: jtkdns +1 480 804-8227 http://condor.depaul.edu/~jkristof/tdc363/ Network+ Guide to Networks, Fourth Edition, Tamara Dean Lab Manual for Network+ Guide to Networks, Fourth Edition, Tamara Dean Course Overview This course covers the principles of local area network (LAN) technologies including protocols, hardware, software and operating system issues. UNIX, Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare, structured cabling, LAN bridges (aka LAN switches) and IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards will be among some of the specific, practical technologies covered. Assigned lab exercises involving LAN configuration and troubleshooting will help reinforce various concepts. Homework Lab exercises and review questions from the reading DO NOT need to be turned in, but you WILL be responsible for that material. The biography and technical reports DO need to be turned into Course Online. See the course homepage for details about the bio and technical reports. Quizzes Expect a short quiz, 3-5 multiple choice questions on any class day except the first day, mid-term exam day and final exam day. There are NO make ups for quizzes. No exceptions. This is in essence on way to take attendance. Note, the grades for quizzes are lenient (if you show up and get them all wrong you still get some credit) and count for a very small portion of your overall grade. Exams There will be a mid-term exam and a final exam. The final exam will NOT be comprehensive. The exams will contain multiple format questions consisting of multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank, short answer and short essay questions. You will have the full class time to take the exam. There will NOT be a lecture prior to or after an exam on exam day. Make-up exams are not permitted without an extraordinary excuse. Catching up on a work project or that you have another exam the next day is not extraordinary. Grading Quizzes: 10% Technical Reports: 10% Midterm Exam: 40% Final Exam: 40% Important Note About the Book and Instructors Materials The book covers a wide array of topics relevant to this class and a bit more. The book is reasonably good on most of the topics, but there are actually quite a number of technical inaccuracies in many places. For the most part, you won't notice most of them and they will be of little consequence for our purposes. However, some are fairly serious such as the description of how the Domain Name System (DNS) works on page 184 and 185. In these cases you should notice that I will present a different and more correct version. I will strive to point out when I am contradicting the book and why I find it important to highlight it (often its a result of widespread myths that you need to know about). If however, you find that I am contradicting the book and not alerting you to the contradiction please DO point out these situations in order to avoid confusion, especially when it comes to quiz or exam time! Take good notes and ask plenty of follow-up questions, especially during the beginning and end of each class, when I will dedicate time for Q&A. I will expect that you have heard and absorbed everything I said. Otherwise I will try to follow as much as possible the material in the book so you can use it for the bulk of your study and preparation for quizzes and exams. Week 1 Topics: Introduction, LAN and Networking Basics, Standards, Physical Componenets and Connectivity, Topologies, Encoding Reading: Chapters 1, 2, 3 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Biography Homework: Technical report Week 2 Topics: Ethernet, Token Ring, LAN bridging and switching, spanning tree protocol, network hardware components Reading: Chapters 5, 6, 7 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Lab #1 Week 3 Topics: Wireless networking, wide area networking, circuit switched networking, digial subscriber line services, cable TV provider services Reading: Chapters 5, 6, 7 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Lab #2 Homework: Technical report Week 4 Topics: TCP/IP, addressing, naming, routing, ARP Reading: Chapters 4, 11 Homework: Chapter review questions Week 5 Mid-term Exam Week 6 Topics: Microsoft Windows networking, Novell NetWare networking Reading: Chapters 8, 10 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Lab #3 Week 7 Topics: UNIX networking Reading: Chapter 9 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Lab #4 Homework: Technical report Week 8 Topics: LAN and network troubleshooting, maintenance, management tools Reading: Chapters 12, 13, 15 Homework: Chapter review questions Homework: Lab #5 Homework: Technical report Week 9 Topics: LAN, network and system security Reading: Chapter 14 Homework: Chapter review questions Week 10 Final Exam $Header: syllabus.txt,v 1.1 2008/04/03 15:45:13 jkristof Exp $