ITECH1002/5002 Networking Assignment
Semester 1 - 2014
This assignment has three major aims:
1. Help students gain good understanding of all ITECH1002/5002 theoretical and practical material
2. To encourage students to use summaries to help prepare for invigilated assessments like theory tests, laboratory tests and examinations.
3. To encourage students to conduct independent investigation into networking related topics.
Engagement with this assignment should help students to prepare for the week 7 theory test and the end of semester examination.
The assignment requires students to:
1. Summarize the lecture material of weeks 1-9
2. Answer questions and carry out investigations relating to the material covered in lectures and labs.
The material covered in ITECH1002/5002 is practically based and as such students will benefit from putting their theoretical knowledge into practice. To this end all students are advised to make use of the lab computers to experiment with Linux and XP. Keen students may also like to set up VirtualBox with associated virtual images so they have their own copy of the operating systems being studied. The Moodle site has instructions to assist students to set up VirtualBox in a similar way to lab machines.
Submission requirements
All submissions must be submitted electronically via the associated Moodle link.
All submissions will be vetted by TurnItIn to detect for plagiarism.
Part 1 – Topics 1 - 5
Part 1 must be submitted to Moodle by 10pm Wednesday of week 6.
Part 1 is worth 8 marks
Part 2 – Topics 6 - 9
Part 2 must be submitted to Moodle by 10pm Wednesday of week 11.
Part 2 is worth 7 marks
See your course description for actual submission dates.
Topic summary requirements
Each topics summary should meet the following minimum standards:
A minimum of 3 A4 pages of material (text, screen shots, tables, diagrams etc.) that summarises the topics lecture material.
Optionally students may add extra material associated with that particular topics content. For instance a student could add content they have discovered through experimentation, or from books or the Internet. Although adding optional material will not attract extra marks on the assignment, it may help you to better understand the course content and therefore lead to a better final grade.
A wealth of information on all topics we cover is available on the Internet. For instance there is a multitude of Linux tutorials and YouTube videos that cover introductory Linux. Engaging with such material will have positive effects on your understanding of the course material.
As with all academic reports the material you submit must be your own work and definitely not copied and pasted material from the lecture slides, notes pages or elsewhere.
Other requirements
Students are also required to answer questions and carry out practical tasks as detailed in the assignment requirements below. Some tasks may require you to take screen captures for inclusion and discussion in your reports
Part 1 of the assignment covers the following areas:
• IP networking
• Number system
• File systems
• Linux
Part 2 of the assignment covers the following areas:
• Windows
• File sharing
• Remote access

Topic 1 : Introduction
Task 1.1 – Topic 1 lecture slides summary
The topic 1 summary should describe the main areas covered in the week 1 lecture, in particular your summary should cover the following area:
• Virtualization
o Describe what virtualization is
o How virtualization solves many driver issues
o The differences between the Host operating system (OS) & the Guest OS
o You may like to look up virtualization on the Internet to discover the different virtualization packages available and other useful information about virtualization.
• Number Systems
o Describe the structure of the main number systems we investigated in the lecture/lab, in particular Decimal, Binary, Hexadecimal & Octal. In your discussion you should point out the main attributes of all number systems; that is the number systems base, valid digits, weighting of successive digits etc.
o Describe how to convert from any of the above number systems to any other.
• IP Addressing
o Describe the two types of IP addressing discussed in lectures
o Discuss how they differ
o Discuss the main components (network/node) of an IP address
The summary you produce must be entirely your own work and written using your own sentence structure. This will ensure your work meets all plagiarism guidelines. Summarizing the ideas presented in the lecture material into your own language will also help you to consolidate deep understanding of the material.
Topic 1 questions:
Task 1.2
Using pen and paper complete the following table. Once completed you may use a calculator (Windows calc for instance) to check that your answers are correct. Note – In the theory test and exam you will not be permitted to use a calculator.
Decimal Binary Octal Hexadecimal
15 1111 017 0xF
207 0xCF
04762
3573
10101101
0xE5B
Task 1.3
Describe the concepts of snapshotting and failover as applied to virtualization.
Task 1.4
Describe how to tell if two machines are on the same IP network from their IP address and their subnet mask or their CIDR value.
Task 1.5
Create a table that shows the maximum number of networks and nodes associated with class A, class B and class C IPv4 addresses. Also show in your table the associated CIDR notation of each class type.
Task 1.6
Some of the following are not valid IPv6 values. What is wrong with each incorrect value?
FE80:0:0:ABAB:A00H:1212:2341:0
2001::1212:ab13
FE80::1231::1121
FE80:0:1212:AB13
Topic 2 : Configuring IP in Windows & Linux
Task 2.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the “Topic summary requirements” guidelines on page 2 above.
Topic 2 questions:
Task 2.2
Describe the roles of the following:
• An IP address
• A default gateway
• A DHCP server
• A DNS server

Task 2.3
Complete the following table.
IPv4 /CIDR networks and equivalent subnet masks
CIDR notation Equivalent
subnet mask
(Binary) Equivalent subnet mask
(decimal notation)
/16 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 255.255.0.0
/18
/19
/20
/21
/22
Task 2.4
Describe why IPv6 tunnels are required at this point in history.
Task 2.5
Briefly describe the infrastructure and operation of worlds IPv4 DNS infrastructure and explain why it is critical to the operation of the Internet.
Topic 3 : Introducing Linux
Task 3.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines on page 2 above.
Topic 3 questions:
Task 3.2
Linux was developed by a person from Finland. What is this person’s name and briefly describe (few paragraphs only) points of interest about Linux development. This could be current day development or development of the initial Linux kernel.
What is the name of the Penguin mascot of Linux?
Task 3.3
In topic 3 we briefly discussed numerous Linux commands.
Create a table with all Linux commands encountered in topic 3 and give a short description of the function of each command.
Task 3.4
Choose any one of the above commands and fully document it. (One A4 page maximum). Your documentation should provide a low skilled PC user the information necessary for him/her to successfully use the command.
[This exercise should demonstrate the benefits to be had from writing your own documentation for complicated commands/concepts etc.]
Task 3.5
Fully document how to use the chmod command to change permissions using octal notation.
Task 3.6
Fully document how to use the chmod command to change permissions using symbolic notation.
Task 3.7
When you apply permissions to Linux directories they have a different effect to when they are applied to files. Explain why.
Topic 4 : File Systems
Task 4.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.
Topic 4 questions:
Task 4.2
There is a significant difference in structure between the Linux file system and the file system in a Windows based machine.
Explain the differences.
Task 4.3
Linux uses a process called mounting to establish a complete file system.
Describe what happens in a Linux mount and fully document the mount command along with all its arguments.
Task 4.4
Describe with examples the difference between Absolute and Relative Linux file system paths.
Task 4.5
Copying files from one directory to another is a task all Linux users must be fully proficient.
Describe (with examples) the following:
• How to copy a single file from anywhere to anywhere (absolute paths)
• How to copy multiple files from anywhere to anywhere (absolute paths)
• How the wildcard ? and * can be used in copy commands
• How the . and .. notations are used in copy commands
Note – The above methods are used in many Linux commands.
Topic 5 : Linux Internals
Task 5.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.
Topic 5 questions:
Task 5.2
Shell scrips are used in Linux to automate complicated and repetitive tasks. Such scripts often use variables, pipes, parameters and grep to achieve the desired outcome.
Your task is to create an example script for each of the above (in bold text) that demonstrates how it works.
Your 4 examples must be fully documented so that someone unfamiliar to Linux scripting could understand how each script works and therefore comprehend each of the 4 scripting concepts you have described.
Topic 6 : Securing Windows
Task 6.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.
Topic 6 questions:
Task 6.2
Pre-emptive multitasking underpins all modern Operating Systems. Describe how pre-emptive multitasking operates and discuss why it is so important to operating systems like Windows and Linux.
Task 6.3
Describe the differences between Local, Roaming and Mandatory profiles.
Describe situations under which you would choose mandatory profiles over roaming profiles.
Task 6.4
There are similarities between the file system permissions used in Linux and Windows NTFS file permissions. Discuss.
Topic 7 : Windows Internals
Task 7.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.
Topic 7 questions:
Task 7.2
There are many common elements between Linux shell scripting and Windows batch file scripting.
List five (5) such similarities describing common characteristics as well as any differences. Include at least 1 example in each case.
Topic 8 : File Sharing
Task 8.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.
Topic 8 questions:
Task 8.2
Samba servers perform the same role as a Windows servers; that is they both allow the sharing of foldersdirectories and their contained files to Windows clients.
1. Describe how to setup a shared folder on a Windows XP machine to share a folder with your student ID as the share name.
The share should be writable; it should use user security and only allow access to two specified users.
2. Configure the same setup using Samba.
Your write-up of this exercise should include a screen capture of the Windows share dialog, and a printout of the smb.conf file.
Task 8.3
Discuss with appropriate screen captures at least 3 ways to establish a connection from a Windows client to a Windows or Samba server.
Topic 9 : Remote Access
Task 9.1 – Weekly summary of lecture slides
Complete a summary of the week’s lecture material as per the guidelines above.

Topic 9 questions:
Task 9.2
The Remote Access lab session details how to:
1. Administer (via command line) a Linux machine from a Linux machine via an ssh connection
2. Run GUI applications across the ssh link
3. Copy file between machines using scp
4. Administer a remote Linux machine from XP (command line only)
5. Connect to a remote XP machine using Remote Desktop
Detail with appropriate screenshots the procedures required to accomplish each of the above networking tasks.
Your descriptions should help you consolidate some of the procedures that can be used to access remote machine via a network connection.
Topic 10 : Various topics
No summary or questions are required for topic 10.
Assessment Criteria
Marks will be allocated as follows:
1. Topic summaries (60% of marks)
Your summaries must be complete, that is cover all of the lecture material and be written in language that would allow a wide section of the population to comprehend.
Your summaries must be technically correct.
High standards of presentation are expected.
2. Topic questions (40% of marks]
You must answer all topic question.
Your answers must be technically correct.
High standards of presentation are expected.