Operating Systems and Networking Sampler Internet
Timothy R. Brown Department of Mathematical Sciences State University of New York College at Oneonta Oneonta, NY 13820 BrowTR59@Oneonta.Edu 607-436-4708 Advisor: Dr. James Ryder, Computer Science Faculty RyderJ@Oneonta.Edu ABSTRACT College exposes computer science students to various computer ideas and concepts but often once has little chance to experiment with these ideas on a variety of operating systems and networking configurations. In many other courses, such as chemistry, students perform many lab experiments to supplement ideas they are exposed to. In computer science, however, students are often not allowed complete access to computer systems on campus because many people, including non-computer science majors, intend the systems for general use. The systems must be secure and manageable in bulk. Therefore, very little experimentation is allowed. I decided, along with my advisor, to build an “Operating Systems and Networking Sampler Internet”. This internet consists of a variety of differing operating systems and computer hardware. It includes HTTP, DNS, FTP, and Telnet servers, simple hubs, routers (wireless and standard with and without firewalls), Microsoft Windows [xx] based machines (NT 4.0, 95, Win2K), and Linux based machines (RedHat [xx], Mandrake [xx]). This internet of local area networks (LAN) is scalable and an attempt was made to have variety. The sampler internet enables students and faculty to work on operating systems and networking projects, as well as class assignments, without having to worry about campus-wide restrictions. Practically, exposure to these many different computing environments also prepares students well for entry into the competitive job market. In future semesters, faculty members will use this unrestricted internet for operating systems and networking courses. The advisor for this project currently plans to use the network for client/server programming assignments in his networking course and Linux kernel modification projects in his operating systems course. Networking is a very complex
area of computer science. The need for a way for students to see why and how networks function and to experiment with the parts involved greatly aids the learning process. This can be accomplished both through network administration and protocol programming projects. The sampler internet can also be used for network security projects. The environment allows students the ability to legally take on the role of “hacker”. This type of activity would not only be discouraged but could certainly lead to academic dismissal from college if it were attempted on the computers in the general-purpose labs. It is however a very valid assignment in an internet data assurance course. To understand how to prevent attacks, one must first understand how attacks are launched. Today, this sampler internet consists of three Ethernet LANs, two simple four-port hubs, and a four-port router with a built-in firewall. The firewall router is a host on the campus network. One laptop computer is a host on a fourth Ethernet LAN that is attached to the campus network by a wireless access point hub. The wired LANs are inside the firewall and consist of four hosts each. One host on each LAN acts as the gateway to the next LAN in a serial fashion. Each internal LAN has been given the name of an administrator at SUNY Oneonta. The President Donovan LAN is located the farthest away from the campus network followed by the Provost Larkin LAN, one step closer. Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center (TLTC) Director Greenberg is the firewall router LAN connected to the campus network. The Donovan Linux [xx] LAN consists of two RedHat [xx] and two Mandrake [xx] hosts. Larkin contains three Windows [xx] computers and a RedHat [xx] gateway to the Donovan LAN. The Greenberg LAN is a mixture of RedHat [xx], Mandrake [xx], and Windows [xx] machines. The gateway host to the Larkin LAN is a Windows 2000 [xx] host. The firewall router is a LinkSys [xx] four-port router. The computers and simple hubs were surprisingly easy to obtain. All computers are 200 MHz to 500 MHz Intel [xx] personal computers. As the college replaces hardware these types of systems tend to pile up in department closets. We asked a few people for some computers finished with more offers than we originally accepted. Since the network is entirely scalable, we are sure it will grow in the future. Our academic computing services department was very helpful by donating much needed cabling and power cords. This sampler internet provides computer science students and faculty with a great playground for learning and general experimentation. Using our approach of taking older computers and hardware, any computer science group create their own sampler internet. Possibilities for projects are essentially unlimited. Although the internet can be used to learn more about networking and operating systems, it can also be a great place to test distributed software prototypes of any kind, including those that are essentially not networking related at all. During
the Spring 2002 semester, a student will use the network to test his XML and Java research prototype for portability over many different client environments. Bringing this sampler internet to fruition has been a very enjoyable growth activity for me. I am more well-rounded in computer science and some of the magic of many classroom concepts has disappeared. REFERENCE: [1] M. Kiesel, http://www.evation.com/software/winamp.html