---------------------------- Week 01-02 Notes for NET2003 ---------------------------- -Ian! D. Allen - idallen@idallen.ca Remember - knowing how to find out an answer is more important than memorizing the answer. Learn to fish! RTFM! (Read The Fine Manual) To be done in Week 1-2: 1. Find the Winter 2006 NET2003 course home page via Blackboard or via: http://teaching.idallen.com/net2003/06w/ (Make sure you find the page for this term, not last term! Bookmark it.) 2. Read the course home page. All of it. Including the parts about plagiarism and course notes. Note the important dates. Write down *on paper* the location of the Alternate Web Notes. Read the Course Outline, including the parts about tests and lab attendance. Ensure that you are registered in both the lecture section of the course (010) and only one of the two Lab sections (011 or 012). Find and look at my Timetable. Know how to set up an office appointment with me by email. Review the Course Outline: net2003-06w.pdf 3. Purchase the course textbook (see the course home page). 4. Forward your Algonquin email (see the link on the course home page). Test to make sure that your forwarded Algonquin email works! Send yourself a test message. You must have a working Algonquin EMail address for this course (that you can forward elsewhere). 5. Obtain the course Knoppix CD from your instructor and know how to boot it. Read this file under the Notes button on the Course Home Page: knoppix_booting.txt Using the Knoppix Linux CDROM You must transfer your CD to a proper CD case. If you carry the CD in a paper envelope, it will get scratched and stop working. You are responsible for obtaining your own replacement CDs. 6. Check that you can login via SSH to the NET2003 Course Linux Server. Read this file under the Class Notes button on the Course Home Page: course_linux_server.txt The Course Linux Server Your initial password was given in your first lab. Change it. I control this server - see me to have your password reset. Do *NOT* consult Algonquin ITS about the Course Linux Server. They don't know anything about it. See me for all problems. 7. You will need to know how to use the VIM text editor to modify files under Unix/Linux. Login to Knoppix or to the Course Linux Server and complete the VIM tutorial mentioned in this Notes file: vi_basics.txt The VI (VIM) Editor - Basics * At the shell prompt type: vimtutor See file vi_basics.txt in the course notes for details. See the vi_refcard reference card in the course notes. You must complete the tutorial to do the upcoming lab exercises. 8. Complete NET2330 Exercise #1 (practice) by the due date. 9. Post and cancel a test article via the algonquinc.test News Group. (A link to this group is under the News How-To button.) Make sure you can post and cancel from home using the given userid and password (which are also found in the How-To section). Post test messages to the Test news group "algonquinc.test". Do not post test messages to the Course news groups. 10. Do these Class Notes readings to prepare for Week #1-2 lab work: knoppix_booting.txt Using the Knoppix Linux CDROM course_linux_server.txt The Course Linux Server man_page_RTFM.txt Searching for items in the Unix manual pages vi_basics.txt The VI (VIM) Editor - Basics terminal.txt Using Telnet/Ssh terminal emulators internet_basics.html Internet Networking Basics, URLs, etc. caddy.txt Drive caddy jumper issues - /dev/hda /dev/hdb netsubmit.txt Using the netsubmit command vi_refcard_front.pdf, vi_refcard_back.pdf - VIM reference 11. Do these readings to prepare for upcoming lab work: shell_basics.txt The Unix Shell miscellaneous.txt Miscellaneous Unix Facts pathnames.txt Unix/Linux Pathnames startup_files.txt Setting up Startup Files: .profile and .bashrc file_transfer.txt File transfer between machines home_and_HOME.txt Directories: current, HOME, and /home shell_prompt.txt Setting the BASH shell prompt arguments_and_options.txt Options and Arguments on Unix Command Lines permissions.txt Unix Permissions redirection.txt Unix Shell I/O Redirection 11. Complete and submit Exercise #2 before the due date. ----------------- Additional notes: ----------------- Unix and the Internet: - WWW slashes are "forward" slashes because the WWW grew up on Unix machines. DOS/Windows came much later. - Be aware of the history and importance of Open Source in the development of the Internet and its protocols (e.g. RFC). - Open Source Motto: "Rough consensus and running code." Knoppix Linux GUI tour: - basic X cut-and-paste with mouse: - left button drags and selects into clipboard (no need for "copy") - double click to drag-select words; triple click for lines - middle button (often under the scroll wheel) pastes clipboard - right button extends clipboard selection - don't use Konqueror browser except for Usenet News; use FireFox instead - FireFox opens text pages directly, which is nicer than using KWrite - FireFox and Konqueror have tabbed browsing: - middle button click on a link opens a link in a tab - Konqueror opens the tab in the foreground (new tab has focus) - FireFox opens the link in the backgound (current window keeps focus) - middle button will paste a URL to open - Konqueror (and Mozilla) can open Usenet News links news://news.idallen.com/ - FireFox cannot open Usenet News links (Mozilla Thunderbird can) Knoppix Linux command line interface (CLI) tour: - up-arrow repeats previous commands in shell - pagination comands: more, less - space bar goes down by pages; return goes down by lines - in more or less, type h or ? at the prompt to get a help screen - the Konsole terminal has tabs (on the bottom) for multiple shells - SHIFT+RightArrow moves between sessions without using the mouse (a full list of shortcuts is under Settings | Configure Shortcuts) Unix file system notes (see Notes file pathnames.txt): - Unix pathnames use slashes not backslashes - slashes *separate* pathname components - the first directory to the left of the leftmost slash is the ROOT directory that has no name (often incorrectly called "/") - "absolute" pathnames start with a slash (preceded by the empty ROOT) - "relative" pathnames do not start with a slash - but note that a leading tilde "~" contains a hidden slash, e.g. ~idallen ! - there are no "drive letters" in Unix - hardware can be mounted anywhere in the file system tree Other notes: - make sure you can post and cancel news articles (try in algonqinc.test) - post discussion articles for all your NET2003 course questions - please do not send me *personal* email about NET2003 course content - know how to get out of Unix programs - see Notes file miscellaneous.txt Attendance Attendance is critical to course success. (If you know the material and don't need to come to classes, ask for a Prior Learning Assessment. If you paid to be here, please be here.) Lab attendance is recorded - make sure you're signed in each week. Taking Notes You will need to take notes in class. Not everything I say ends up in these online files. If you have a question about course content, the first thing I will ask is to see your notes, to see what you wrote down about the topic. (Often the answer is there!) Textbook I will assign exercises that use the textbook. You need it. Workload The overall term workload sometimes overwhelms students who try to leave everything to the last minute. You need to put in approximately an extra hour per day, per course, to keep up. There aren't enough hours in a day to catch up in mid-term. Timeliness Late assignments are penalized, usually resulting in a mark of zero. The due date for an assignment is given in the assignment. Read each assignment to know the due date. Preparation Lab time is precious. Most lab exercises are time-limited and will require you to have done advance preparation. If you haven't read the material and done the preparation, you won't finish on time. Standards Like any company, this course has standards for its documents. Assignments must adhere to the published standards. See the course web page for the Standards document. Linux Working Environment The scripting taught and used in this course is intended to be portable; you can use most any Linux machine to write and test your code. The final test run must be on the machine given in the assignment specification. This might be one of the Course Linux servers, or it might be a different machine. Off-hours Lab Access You are encouraged to use the lab outside of lab hours. The hours of operation are posted on the door. You may ask other instructors if you may work quietly at the back of their classes. Remote Access The "ssh" protocol is available in such programs as "ewan" and "PuTTY", which you can download for free from the Internet. Do a Google search for: putty Running Linux at Home You may download and install most any Linux distribution at home for free. Most any distribution will be support the writing and running of the portable shell scripts taught in this course. Many Linux distributions (e.g. Knoppix, Mandrake Live) will boot directly from a CDROM and run entirely in memory, bypassing the need to do any disk installation at all. Be aware that when you shut down such an in-memory system, everything is lost - save any important files on real disk first. Linux User Groups See the Ottawa Canada Linux User Group (OCLUG): http://www.oclug.on.ca/ They meet on the first Tuesday of every month. Plagiarism http://www.cbc.ca/story/sports/national/2004/11/24/Sports/taylor041124 "The lead sports columnist of the Winnipeg Free Press has resigned after he was accused of plagiarizing parts of an article published earlier this month." You must attribute the source of material you use that isn't yours. You earn marks for the new material that you write, not code that comes from other sources.