Week	Date	Topic	Reading	Assignment
1	1/13	Course introduction; overview of computer networks;  introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web  HTML documents and simple forms	Cassel/Austing Chapter 1  Cassel/Austing Chapter 2	Web search exercise. Begin design of your own web page
2	1/20	HTML forms processing. Fundamentals of networked applications. The OSI seven-layer model.	Comer Chapers 1-3  (relax; it is about 36 pages of concepts and terminology)	Web Form Exercise
3	1/27	Abstract Syntax Notation The Application Layer and Common Services: ACSE, ROSE, RTSE, CCR Needs of remote execution	Cassel/Austing Chapter 3  Cassel/Austing Chapter 4	Begin thinking about a client/server application you wish to develop
4	2/3	Beginning cross platform applications	Comer Chapters 4-7.	Web page due
5	2/10	Web Server Configuration	Apache documentation	Survey exercise due
6	2/17	Email and File transfer applications	Cassel/Austing Chapters 5 and 7  (distributed in hard copy on 2/10) See also Comer Chapter 23, 24 for specific attention to NFS, Mount	Client/server application #1: discussion of requirements, suggestions of projects. By next week, put together a description of your project.  Work in teams? Discuss in class.
7	2/24	Server side of cross-platform applications Directory Services	Comer Chapters 8 - 10 Cassel/Austing Chapter 8
Break	3/3
8	3/10	Encryption, Compression Presentation Layer and XDR; RPC	Cassel/Austing Chapters 9-10 Comer Chapters 19-20
9	3/17	Transport Layer	Cassel/Austing Chapter 11
10	3/24	No class -- Work on projects		Client server Application #1 due Begin second application or research paper (Possible extension of first application or paper related to it. Otherwise, new project)
11	3/31	Network Layer	Cassel/Austing Chapter 12
12	4/7	Medium Access Control, Network Connectivity	Cassel/Austing Chapters 13-14
13	4/14	Project/paper presentations
14	4/21	Project/paper presentations
15	4/28	Project/paper presentations

Basic expectations of the Web page assignment:

• A Title, suitably displayed.
• An address section at the bottom identifying you as the author and providing access to you if the reader wants to send feedback.
• A good background image.  Be careful that the text is still legible when displayed on the background you choose.
• At least one image.
• Links of the following kinds:
• to another place in the page,
• to another file in the same filespace as the web page,
• to another file that is not on the same computer system as the web page itself.
• A table or frames to organize the space of the page.

Web pages created by class members:

Texts

Cassel, Lillian N. And Richard H. Austing.  Computer Networks. Manuscript.

 Comer, Douglas et al. Internetworking with TCP/IP. Volume III Client-server programming and applications.  Windows API version.

The relationship between the books:  Computer Networks is a very large topic.  We will have to choose the areas in which to focus during this course.  However, as
for all computing topics, there are several aspects of the subject that we will have to balance.  On the one hand, we need to understand principles, the foundation
elements of this topic area that will allow us to pursue further study or to understand how to approach problems.  On the other hand, we need the practical
knowledge of how to do network-based application development.  In this class, we will attempt to balance these requirements.  Between the manuscript and the
Comer book, I hope we will meet these goals.  The Comer book is very specific on how to write code to run in a networked computing system.  There is a lot of
sample code that can be used as the basis of applications you develop.  The manuscript takes a higher level view of networks and the environment in which these
applications will run.

You will need regular access to the class web page and bulletin board. You will need access to a computer system where you can prepare web materials and make
them accessible to the rest of the class. You will also need to be able to write programs that use network resources and allow others in the class to have access to
your programs. You will have an account on the department computers for this purpose. You may use other computers as long as the access requirements are met.
 
 

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Grading
Your performance will be assessed based on regular, active participation in and contribution to the class discussions; a project that you will design and implement; several class presentations of varying length. I prefer not to have examinations unless it seems necessary for the integrity of the course. Let's talk about it.

Here is a starting point for a grading plan:
Grades available are A, B, C and F, with + / - options on the A, B, C grades.

1.  Do everything that is required for the course (submit every assignment on time, complete and correct), attend every class and participate actively.
        ===> B
2.  Do less than what is required, grade goes down.  The amount depends on how much is neglected.
3.  Do more than what is required, the grade goes up.  Again, the amount of increase depends on the degree of excellence of the work.

        Examples of extra effort (others are possible):

1. More web pages than required
2. More reviews than required
3. Contribute to the class beyond being present and participating.  For example, initiate discussions, followup on questions that come up and report back later, etc.
4. Do more than the basic requirement in each project.  For example, include additional functionality that enhances the project.  Please note, extra features do not count if the basic requirements are not met. Including features that reflect your understanding of theory aspects of the course is another example of a strong project that would earn credit beyond the basic score.   If you do a paper as one of the projects, you could have an exceptional list of references, push against the upper limit of paper length, do a particularly good exposition or analysis of your topic.

Class Projects

Class Projects links: