Time Schedule:
Robert E. Larson
LIS 541
Seattle Campus
Overview of Internet technologies including networking hardware, the TCP/IP protocol suite, addressing, packets and routing, the client/server model. End-user applications for communication and collaboration such as telnet, FTP, email, conferencing, and streaming media. Website creation, development, and management. Credit/no-credit only.
Class description
This course will explore how the network, database and Internet technologies work. While not requiring a high level of computer experience, the course assumes students have a basic familiarity with the Internet—that students have browsed the Web and used electronic mail.
In this course, we will begin by looking at some fundamentals of how data moves around on the Internet. We’ll discuss what computer networks are, look at packets, talk a about protocols like TCP/IP, and look at Internet (IP) addressing and how the Domain Name Service (DNS) works.
In addition to the basic technologies used to move data through the Internet, we’ll engage in a broad overview of the many different applications, or services, available. These applications include electronic mail, instant messaging (IM), search engines, file transfer, remote host access, video/audio conferencing, streaming media, database basics and of course, Web browsing. We will not limit our focus to just end-user tools; instead we will take a look behind the scenes to get an overview of how these tools and services work.
For instance, when we look at the Web, we look beyond using a Web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, to what a Web server is, talk about the protocols used to deliver Web pages from a server to a browser. We’ll look at technologies like HTML, Java, JavaScript, CGI, or PHP and how they are used. When we talk about e-mail, the focus won’t be on how to use a program like Pine or Outlook, but instead on the protocols behind the scenes that allow e-mail to be delivered and managed (such as SMTP, IMAP, and POP)—if nothing else it will help you understand why you may not be able to access your email from certain remote sites.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
