This course studies networking fundamentals including LANS, MANS, WANS, the Internet, intranets, extranets and the WWW, with the focus being the Internet. The topics covered include: hardware, software, network topologies, architecture and protocols; network and web applications; website design and construction; information architecture; standards; privacy, security, firewalls and reliability; systems integration; network monitoring and management; and professional ethics and social issues. 

At the end of this course, the student will be able to do the following:

These objectives are explained by considering possible assignment topics:

• Describe network topologies and architectures, LANS and WANS.
• Describe the TCP/IP stack and the ISO protocol suite. Compare and contrast the two.
• Describe how telnet and mail work.
• Describe the different types of web pages and how they are structured. Create web pages using HTML.
• Describe how the http protocol works. Describe cookies, proxies, server performance, caching, and state management.
• Describe mobile code, its advantages and where it can be used.
• Describe the important issues in Web design.
• Describe what standards are and why they are useful.
• Understand Web client-side and server-side programming.
• Use the above concepts to design an internet based system for use in a bank, library, etc. Explain the model and how it works.
• Understand the basic IT professional ethics and write an essay about this.

• Lab exercises
• An essay about IT professional ethics
• Website accessibility and resilience test and report
• Final exam

Thirty one-hour lectures and six two-hour tutorial/laboratory sessions.

Tanenbaum, A.S. Computer Networks, 4th edition, Prentice-Hall, 2002.

Niederst Robbins, Jennifer Web Design in a Nutshell, O'Reilly Media, Inc, 2006.

Meyer, Eric A. CSS: The Definitive Guide, O'Reilly Media, Inc.,2006.