COMP3331 Notices

Final mark and statistics

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 13 May 2022, 05:04:30 PM.

We have ported the final exam marks from Inspera and computed your final course mark. You should find these through WebCMS. A reminder that you need to score at least 16 marks on the final to pass the course.

Final exam statistics and shout outs to students who did exceedingly well in the course are available in the slides here .

Well done everyone.

If you have any final comments or feedback, feel free to add them to this anonymous form .

Final Exam Marks Released in Inspera

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 09 May 2022, 05:36:18 PM, last modified Monday 09 May 2022, 05:58:38 PM.

The final exam marks and your answers are now visible in Inspera. You can access it through the exam link on the Moodle course page.

Within Inspera, on the main page, you can click on "View without downloading" to see the questions and your answers. The correct answers are visible at the bottom of each page under "Feedback".

On the main Inspera page, you will also see a candidate report ("View Report"). This would include answers to all questions as general feedback (same as in the above view) and specific feedback from your maker for the manually marked questions if marks were deducted. At the bottom of the report, you can see a detailed view of the marks received for each question and the total mark.

Important Note (please read carefully):

• We will port the exam marks to WebCMS and compute your final mark on Friday. We will not be scaling the final exam marks, so you can compute your final mark by simply adding the following four components: FinalExam from Inspera (out of 40) + MidtermExam (out of 20) + Assignment (out of 20) + LabTotal (out of 20). To pass this course your final mark should be at least 50 AND your final exam mark should be at least 16 . If Inspera shows you a Pass or Fail grade, please ignore it.
• There are NO partial marks for the auto-marked questions. Please do not ask.
• For the question that required entering MAC addresses, I have manually overridden auto marking and awarded marks for some obvious typos, e.g., FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF instead of ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff or where you may have misread an "e" for a "c", etc.
• If you have questions about the manually marked questions, you can contact the following markers directly:
  • Routing: Ayda Orang - a.valinezhadorang@unsw.edu.au
  • WiFi: Rui Liu - rui.li@unsw.edu.au
  • Security: Wei Song - wei.song1@unsw.edu.au
• I will announce the honour roll of students who did well in the course and class statistics for the final exam on Friday.

Well done everyone. I have enjoyed teaching this course and we hope you found it useful. I wish you the best for the remainder of your studies and your next adventure if you are graduating. If you are on campus in Term 2, stop by and say hi.

Good luck for the final exam

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 04 May 2022, 05:10:37 PM.

Good luck everyone. I don't mean to be Captain Obvious but some advice:

• The exam link will be visible on the course Moodle page - HERE . You should navigate to the bottom of the page and find the Final Exam activity. The exam runs from 09:45 to 12:00 Sydney time tomorrow (Thursday, 5th May)
• If you have technical issues with Inspera, reach out to the Exams support team. Their information is noted on the Moodle page. If you have questions about the exam, you can join THIS Zoom link and ask your question in the chat. DO NOT TURN ON YOUR MICROPHONE.
• Get a good night's sleep.
• Have some food prior to the start of the exam.
• Keep a water bottle handy.
• Find a quiet and comfortable room where you are unlikely to be interrupted for the duration of the exam.
• Make sure your computer is charged and connect it to a power outlet.
• If you are on a shared network then make sure others using the network will not engage in heavy usage.
• Download all lecture notes and homework questions/answers to your computer to avoid potential bottlenecks with the WebCMS server.
• Don't panic if you cannot answer a question, move on and come back to it later.
• Remember to answer all questions.
• Remember to breathe !!
• May the Fourth be with you all !!

Important Final Exam Information

Posted by Salil Kanhere Tuesday 03 May 2022, 01:43:05 PM.

The final exam will be held on Thursday , 5th May 2022 from 09 :45 am to 12:00 noon (Sydney time)

The Inspera exam link will be available through the course Moodle page - HERE . You should navigate to the bottom of the page and find the Final Exam activity.

If you are registered with Equitable Learning Services (ELS), your exam time will be adjusted as per your approved conditions. Your exam will start at 09:45 but run for longer. The extra time will be visible on the Dashboard.

If you have technical issues with Inspera, then you can reach out to the Exams Unit. Details are HERE (also linked from the course Moodle page).

If you have any questions about the exam content, you can join the following Zoom Meeting and type your questions in the chat. I will be available to answer questions. DO NOT turn on your microphone and camera.

Good luck !!

Provisional assignment marks released

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 02 May 2022, 03:04:20 PM.

The provisional assignment marks are released. Feedback is provided if marks are deducted. We are in the process of running plagiarism checks and may contact students for an explanation if their submissions are flagged by the plagiarism detection tools.

There is no need to panic if you believe the marks are not as you may have expected. You can reach out to your tutors to resolve this and the marks can always be updated if there are valid reasons. Information about your tutors is available on the Labs page.

Lab Marks + myExperience Surveys + Final Exam Preparation

Posted by Salil Kanhere Thursday 28 April 2022, 10:31:49 AM.

Could I please request those who are yet to provide feedback through the myExperience surveys to kindly do so? Only 35% of the class has responded so far. I am sure you can all help and increase this number. I would very much appreciate it if you could complete this in the next couple of days. Thanks to those who have already done so. The survey closes today - 28th April .

All lab marks are now available. You will also find a "LabTotal" field (out of 20 marks). To calculate this, we added the 5 best scores of your labs and scaled the total to 20 marks. These marks constitute the lab component of your final mark. If you have questions about your lab marks, ask your tutor. Your assignments are being marked and we are aiming to release the marks early next week.

I hope everyone has started preparing for the final exam. You are encouraged to review all information provided on the Final Exam page. The exam will be held on Thursday, 5th May from 09:45 to 12:00 noon Sydney time . I will circulate a link to the exam and the Zoom meeting to ask questions next week.

Final Exam Consultations + myExperience Survey Reminders

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 25 April 2022, 03:11:32 PM.

I hope everyone has started preparations for the final exam. Do not forget to check out the final 15 minutes of the very last lecture (Week 10, Lecture 2) where I go over the details of the final exam. The corresponding slides and other details are on the final exam page . A reminder that the final exam will be held on Thursday, 5th May from 09:45 am to 12 noon . The link to the final exam and the zoom meeting to ask questions will be circulated later.

I will be available for final exam consultation at the following times (all Sydney times):

• Wednesday, 27th April 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm, Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 85130525750 Password: 755401)
• Monday, 2nd May, 5 pm - 6 pm, Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 83463784352 Password: 612587)
• Wednesday, 4th May, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm, Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 81260318989 Password: 150272)

Thanks to those of you who have completed the myExperience Surveys . Could I please request everyone else to complete the surveys before they close on Thursday, 28th April? The link is HERE .

Final Exam Information + myExperience Surveys

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 22 April 2022, 10:03:14 AM.

The assignment deadline is just a couple of hours away. I hope everyone has managed to complete it and enjoyed the experience. It is possible to submit after the deadline subject to the late penalty outlined in the specification.

Please complete the myExperience surveys . The response rate so far is rather low. We would appreciate your feedback. Link is HERE .

The final exam will be held on Thursday, 5th May from 09:45 to 12:00 (Sydney time).

I have created a final exam information page. Please read all the information provided there carefully.

A practice final exam is now available in Inspera. The Moodle link is posted on the Final Exam page. You can only sit this exam once and it will close in 2 hours + 15 minutes after you start the attempt. Please keep this in mind before attempting the exam. You should be able to view the correct answers in Inspera after you submit your attempt. I strongly encourage you to attempt the practice exam in Inspera to ensure that you are comfortable with the Inspera platform so that there are no surprises in the final exam.

I have also posted 2 PDF versions of the exam (one with just questions, the other with both questions and answers) on the Final Exam page.

I will arrange for exam-specific consults over the next 2 weeks. Time/Date information and Zoom links to follow.

I will share the link for the final exam and the Zoom meeting to ask questions next week.

Have a good long weekend and good luck with your exam preparation.

Final Lecture + Assignment Deadline + myExperience Feedback + Final Exam

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 20 April 2022, 11:44:53 AM.

A few announcements for this final and busy week:

• Our final lecture will be held tomorrow - Thursday, 21st April. I will wrap up our coverage of network security, recap the course and discuss the final exam. Come and say goodbye !!
• The assignment is due by noon on Friday, 22nd of April . There will be no extension. It is possible to submit past the deadline subject to late penalties as outlined in the specification. Assignment consults are running so seek help if you need it. Make sure to test your code in VLAB before submitting it to avoid angst later. If your code does not run as expected on VLAB then there isn't much we can do about it.
• Lab 5 marks are released. If you have any questions about your lab marks, reach out to your tutors.
• The final exam will be held on Thursday, 5th May from 09:45 to 12:00 Sydney time on the Inspera online platform. I will make available several resources for the final exam including a practice exam later this week.
• I know everyone is busy but we would greatly appreciate it if you could take some time to complete the myExperience surveys . The link to the survey is HERE .

Week 10 Announcements (including Monday's lecture)

Posted by Salil Kanhere Thursday 14 April 2022, 04:50:04 PM, last modified Monday 18 April 2022, 03:34:01 PM.

A few important announcements for next week:

• Monday, 18th April is a public holiday . However, I will go ahead and record the lecture at our scheduled time of 11 am - 1 pm as we cannot afford content loss since we want reliable delivery of all course content !! Feel free to join the Zoom link as usual or you can always watch the recording in your own time. There is no pressure to join on a holiday. We will wrap up the Wireless Network module which we started on today and then move on to Network Security. The lecture slides are available.
• Lab 6 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 19th April . There will be a tutorial replacing the lab (in your usual Zoom/Teams meeting) next week. This will serve as useful practice for the final exam. Please look through the questions beforehand and try to solve them by yourself. All questions on the tutorial are from past exams. So effectively, it is a sample exam.
• Please complete the myExperience surveys . The response rate so far is rather low. We would appreciate your feedback.
• The final exam will be held on Thursday 5th May from 09:45 to 12:00 Sydney time online (Inspera) . I will make available several resources for the final exam including a practice exam. Stay tuned for further details next week.
• The assignment is due by noon on Friday, 22nd of April . This is a hard deadline. Assignment consults are running so seek help if you need it. Make sure to test your code in VLAB before submitting it to avoid angst later. If your code does not run as expected on VLAB then there isn't much we can do about it. Assignment consults are running next week if you need help.
• I know next week will be busy for everyone but make sure to not overwhelm yourself. Good luck with everything.

Have a great long weekend.

Additional Assignment Python Consult on Thursday, 14th April

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 13 April 2022, 05:36:41 PM.

Due to a mix-up, the assignment consult session (Python) that was running today from 16:00 - 18:00, did not start till about 17:30. We have scheduled an additional Python session tomorrow - Thursday, 14th April from 09:00 am - 11:00 am, Zoom link. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Link Layer + Lab 6 + Assignment deadline approaching

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 08 April 2022, 02:37:44 PM.

A number of announcements for Week 9 (one more week to go !!):

• In the lectures next week, we will focus on the data link layer . Lecture slides are available. A number of homework questions are posted. You are encouraged to work through them.
• Lab 5 is due by 10 am, Tuesday, 12th April . Lab 6 held next week is the last lab for the course. A reminder that we will pick your 5 best lab scores (out of 6 labs). Lab 4 marks should be available early next week.
• The assignment deadline of noon, Friday, 22nd April is approaching soon. This is a HARD deadline. Late submissions will be accepted but are subject to penalties as noted in the specification. Attend the assignment consultations running in weeks 9 and 10 if you need help. Details are HERE .
• IMPORTANT : We appreciate that many of you prefer to write code on your personal machine and in your preferred IDE (e.g. Eclipse). However, your assignment will be marked in the VLAB environment and through command line execution. It is thus imperative that you thoroughly test your code in VLAB before you submit it. If we cannot execute your code then we cannot award you any marks . Please pay attention to this point to avoid any angst when marks are released.
• The final exam will be held on Thursday , 5th May from 09:45 am to 12:00 noon . Further information will be provided in Week 10. Mark that time in your calendar.

Stay safe everyone. Have a good weekend and see you in the lectures next week.

Mid-Term Marks Released (read carefully)

Posted by Salil Kanhere Thursday 07 April 2022, 03:32:09 PM.

As noted in my previous communication, the manual marks had disappeared in Inspera. It is a known issue, and the Exams unit is investigating this. Regardless, we have remarked all the exams. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Note that there was an error in the auto marking script for one sub-question of one version (of 3) of the DHT question and one version (of 4) of the HTTP question. If your exam had one of these questions, we manually over-rode the auto-marking and awarded you the marks for that sub-question if your answer was correct. Inspera auto-marking would still show your answer to be wrong but check the marker feedback and the awarded marks for the changes made.

Partial marks are generally not awarded for the auto-marked questions, except for the DHTquestion, where I awarded some marks if I saw a reason to do so. Partial marks were awarded where justified for the manually marked questions. If you have questions about the manually marked questions, contact the following markers directly:

Packet Switching: Wei Song - wei.song1@unsw.edu.au

DNS: Rui Liu - rui.li@unsw.edu.au

SR/GBN: Ayda Orang - a.valinezhadorang@unsw.edu.au

You can check your response and the correct answers for all questions in Inspera. Log into Moodle and access the same mid-term exam link as before.

It would be best to ignore the Pass/Fail grade in Inspera . I am unable to turn this off. There is no such grade for the mid-term. The final mark for the course will be computed as noted in the course outline .

Within Inspera, on the main page, you can click on "View without downloading" to see the questions and your answers. The correct answers are visible at the bottom of each page under "Feedback".

On the main Inspera page, you will also see a candidate report ("View Report"). This would include answers to all questions as general feedback (same as in the above view) and specific feedback from your maker for the manually marked questions if marks were deducted. At the bottom of the report, you can see a detailed view of the marks received for each question and the total mark.

We will update your mark (out of 20) in WebCMS later today.

Want to find out how you fared compared to other students? Check out the class statistics available here . Shout outs to those students who did well on the exam are included in the summary.

Mid-term Exam Remarking

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 04 April 2022, 07:41:36 PM.

In light of some issues with the marking, the exams are now being remarked and won't be visible in Inspera. We will make them visible after we have updated the marks. The marks in WebCMS will be updated accordingly later. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Mid-term Exam Marks Released

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 04 April 2022, 05:25:29 PM.

The mid-term exam marks are now available. You can check your response and the correct answers for all questions in Inspera. Log into Moodle and access the same mid-term exam link as before.

You should ignore the Pass/Fail grade in Inspera . I am unable to turn this off. There is no such grade for the mid-term. The final mark for the course will be computed as noted in the course outline .

Within Inspera, on the main page, you can click on "View without downloading" to see the questions and your answers. The correct answers are visible at the bottom of each page under "Feedback".

On the main Inspera page, you will also see a candidate report ("View Report"). This includes answers to all questions as general feedback (same as in the above view) and also specific feedback from your maker for the questions that were manually marked if marks were deducted. At the bottom of the report, you can see a detailed view of the marks received for each question and the total mark.

Your total mark on the mid-term exam (out of 20) is also available through WebCMS.

We have been as generous as we can in awarding partial marks.

Want to find out how you fared compared to other students? Check out the class statistics available here . Shout outs to those students who did well on the exam are included in the summary.

Week 8: Network Data/Control Plane + Lab 5 + Assignment Consultations

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 01 April 2022, 09:25:08 AM.

A few announcements for next week:

• In the lectures, we will wrap up our discussion on the network data plane and move on to the control plane where we will focus on routing algorithms. Slides are available.
• A number of practice questions have been posted under the Homework Questions page. These cover TCP congestion control and the network data/control plane. Do make sure you work through them.
• Lab 4 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 5th April .
• Lab 5 is open and includes exercises that use the ns-2 simulator where you will investigate TCP congestion control.
• Midterm marks and class statistics will be available early next week.
• The assignment is due by noon, Friday, 22nd April. If you need help, then you should attend the assignment specific consults . The timetable is on the assignment page.
• The remainder of this term is going to be busy and stressful for everyone. Please stay safe and make sure that you take care of yourself. Do reach out to us if we can help in any way.
• Anonymous feedback can be left through the following link .

Have a good and safe weekend and see you in the lectures next week.

Week 7: Mid-term Exam, Lab 4 and Consultations

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 25 March 2022, 03:25:05 PM.

1) Exam: Note that the mid-term exam will open at 11:15 am on Monday, 28th March and close at 12:30 pm . You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam. There is no separate reading time. Students who have sent us their ELS requirements will have their time adjusted as per these requirements with the exam starting at 11:15 am.

The Inspera exam link is HERE (also accessible through the Moodle page for the course and the mid-term page).

A link to the Zoom Meeting is here in case you wish to ask us any questions. It is not required that you join the Zoom meeting. If you join, you must mute yourself and ask your question in the chat.

Further details are on the mid-term exam page .

There is no lecture on Monday. We will start with the network layer in the Thursday lecture.

Good luck, may the force be with you !!

2) Lab: In the lab next week ( Lab 4 ), you will work through a couple of exercises on TCP. You will also familiarise yourself with a network simulator called ns2, which will be used in subsequent labs. Lab 4 reports are due by 10 am Tuesday, 5th April.

3) Assignment : Special assignment specific consultations will run every week from Week 7 to Week 10. There are dedicated sessions for C, Java and Python. You are encouraged to avail of these sessions if you need help. Note that, the purpose of this session is to provide general help and NOT for tutors to debug your code. The schedule is on the assignment page.

Midterm Exam Reminder

Posted by Salil Kanhere Tuesday 22 March 2022, 08:50:39 PM.

I hope everyone is taking a bit of a breather during flexibility week. A reminder that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday, 28th March during regular lecture hours (11:00 - 13:00). Further details are on the exam page .

I will be available for mid-term exam consultations as follows:

• Wednesday, 23rd March 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm, Zoom Meeting (regular consult slot)
• Friday, 25th March, 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, Zoom Meeting

I will circulate a link for the exam by Friday.

Mid-term Exam Details + Sample Exam + Poll on Programming Language + No lectures/labs in Week 6

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 16 March 2022, 10:25:14 AM.

Marks for the first two labs and the answers are available. If you have questions about marking, contact your tutor. Their details are on the timetable page.

The mid-term exam will be held during regular lecture hours (11:00 - 13:00) on Monday, 28th March (Week 7).

Check the information available on the Mid-term Exam page (includes information about the content covered, exclusions, online meeting information, etc). A short video is also available in the Youtube and Echo360 playlists and on the mid-term page (with slides).

The link for the exam will be circulated towards the end of next week and will also be available on the Mid-term page and on the course Moodle page.

A practice exam is available here: Moodle link . The exam uses the Inspera platform which will be used for both exams in this course. You can only attempt the exam once so make sure you activate it ONLY when you are ready to take it . Answers are available as feedback in Inspera after completing the exam. The questions that require manual marking won't be marked. You can examine the provided answers and compare them with your answers. Everyone is strongly urged to attempt the exam. It will familiarise you with the Inspera assessment environment so that there are no surprises on the exam day. A PDF file with the exam questions and answers is posted on the mid-term exam page.

We would strongly urge everyone to provide input on their choice of programming language for the assignment in this poll . This will help us to appropriately schedule programming help sessions in Weeks 7-10, as we plan to run distinct C, Java and Python help sessions.

You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link .

A reminder that there are no lectures or labs in Week 6 . You are all urged to make use of this week to prepare for the mid-term exam and get started on the assignment.

See you online during the lecture tomorrow where we will wrap up our discussion on TCP and the transport layer.

Week 5: Exploring TCP and Congestion Control, Tutorial (No lab), Mid-term Exam coming up, Assignment is out

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 11 March 2022, 12:14:10 PM.

This is a busy week with a lot of updates, so make sure to read through this list multiple times:

• Lab 3 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 15th March.
• There will be a tutorial replacing the lab (in your usual Zoom/Teams meeting) next week. It is not marked. This will serve as useful practice for the mid-term exam. Please look through the questions beforehand and try to solve them by yourself. ALL questions are from past exams, so effectively it is a sample (but longer) exam paper. You can ask your tutor to prioritise questions that were particularly difficult for you. The question set is released.
• In the lectures, we will explore TCP in detail followed by a discussion on congestion control. Slides are available.
• The mid-term exam will be held during regular lecture hours (11:00 - 13:00) on Monday, 28th March (Week 7). Further information about the format and a sample exam will be available middle of next week. The exam makes up 20% of your final mark.
• Lab 2 marks and solutions will be available early next week. If you have questions about your marks, please connect with your tutor.
• The programming assignment specification was released earlier this week. We have released two videos - the first one covers the assignment spec and is available in the regular lecture feeds (Youtube/Echo360) and is also linked from the assignment page. The second video covers the basics of multi-threading and is linked from the assignment page. You are strongly encouraged to watch both videos. The slides for both videos are on the assignment page and so are sample code fragments for multi-threading which you may use in your code. Assignment consults will run from Week 7-10. Details will follow. The deadline for choosing the non-CSE option is 5 pm, 18th March. Only students who are not enrolled in a CSE program are eligible. Further details are in the specification. Requests after the deadline will not be entertained.
• Everyone is encouraged to discuss the homework questions on the Ed discussion forum. All of these questions are from past exams. We have provided answers and comments on these discussions.
• You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link .
• Flexibility Week ( Week 6, 21-25 March ) is close. There will be no lectures or labs in that week which will give you an opportunity to catch up and prepare for the mid-term exam and get going with the assignment.
• The census date for Term 3 is 13th March . While we do not encourage it, this is the last day that you can drop the course without incurring fees.

Have a good weekend and see you all in the lectures next week or on the Ed forum. Signing out.

Assignment Specification Released

Posted by Salil Kanhere Monday 07 March 2022, 09:12:14 PM.

The assignment specification is available. It is long but for a reason. Read it carefully. Read it again (and again). The deadline is noon, Friday, 22nd April (Week 10) . I have uploaded a video where I go over the key points of the specification to the usual video playlists (Youtube and Echo360). A second video on multi-threading is linked to the assignment page. Sample code for multi-threading is also available on the assignment page. Feel free to use it in your code. Have fun !!

Assignment specific consultations will be arranged in Weeks 7-10. Details will follow. In the meantime, post questions to the Ed forum. You can join the forum via the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC

I have set up the following poll to get your feedback on the pacing of the lectures.

You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link . We will try our best to take this into consideration.

A reminder that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday, 28th March (Week 7) during regular lecture hours (11:00 - 13:00). Further details including a sample exam will follow next week.

Week 4: Getting Busy (Transport Layer, Lab on DNS + TCP Socket Programming, Assignment forthcoming)

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 04 March 2022, 04:30:26 PM.

A number of announcements for Week 4. Read carefully:

• Lab 2 deadline is 10 am, Tuesday, 8th March .
• Lab 3 is released and will require you to get into the nitty-gritty of DNS and gain experience with TCP socket programming.
• In the lectures this week we will begin our journey into the Transport Layer. Slides are available for review
• The assignment specification is ready and will be released on Tuesday, 8th March . An announcement will follow with details.
• The mid-term exam which is worth 20% of the course mark, will be held on Monday, 28th March (Week 7) during regular lecture hours ( 11:00 - 13:00 ). The exam will be held online on the Inspera assessment platform. Further information and a sample online exam will be available in Week 5.
• The solutions to Lab 1 and your marks for the same will be released by Wed next week . Please cross-check the solutions to find out why marks were deducted (if any). If you have questions about marking, ask your tutor. The easiest way to access your marks is through the WebCMS interface. Click on the Grades icon located beside your name at the bottom of the left frame.
• Everybody is strongly encouraged to discuss solutions to all homework problems on the course forum. Several questions are from past exams and will prepare you for the mid-term and final exams.
• If you haven't joined the Ed discussion forum, here is the link - https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC
• An anonymous feedback form is available here if you have comments for us.

Have a great weekend, stay safe and dry, and see you in lectures next week.

Week 3: Wrapping up the application layer + Lab 2

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 25 February 2022, 12:53:02 PM.

The Lab 1 report is due by 10 am Tuesday, 1st March . Submission instructions are in the lab spec. Submissions received via email will NOT be entertained. Do also note the requirement to submit a TAR (NOT ZIP) archive. It is easy to create one using the command line tar utility in Linux (VLAB) or on Mac OS. On Windows, you can use 7-zip and on Mac OS you can alternately use Unarchiver .

In the lectures, we will wrap up the leftover content from last week (E-mail) and study DNS, Peer to peer applications and socket programming. Slides are available for review.

In Lab 2 , we will explore HTTP and learn to use a new tool called Wireshark, a protocol analyzer. We strongly encourage you to install Wireshark on your personal computer (instead of running it through VLAB). It is free and works on all operating systems. Download it here . You will also get your first exposure to socket programming. Sample working client/server programs in C/Java/Python are available under the Week 1 lecture content.

Very few students appear to be attempting the homework questions . We strongly encourage everyone to work through these questions on their own. We will post answers for the collated questions (e.g. Introduction Questions). However, the questions marked with " Students to Discuss Solutions " are exclusively left for you to work on. Please post your solutions on the Ed forum. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts. This should serve as excellent practice for the exams.

You can join the Ed Discussion forum via the following link - https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC

An anonymous feedback form is available here in case you wish to leave us some comments. We will try our best to act on your input.

A reminder that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday 28th March (Week 7) during regular class hours (11:00 - 13:00 Sydney time). Mark this time in your calendar. The exam will be held online using the Inspera platform. Details to follow

Have a good weekend, stay safe and see you in the lectures next week.

Week 2: What's Coming up

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 18 February 2022, 11:45:05 AM.

In the Week 2 lectures, we will wrap up our introduction to computer networks (protocol layers) and dive into networked applications (principles, Web/HTTP, Email). Slides are available for review. I have updated the Week 1 slides with answers to the in-lecture quizzes.

Labs will commence in Week 2. Please attend the lab class in which you have enrolled as many classes are at full capacity. The link to each lab class is posted on the Labs page. Note that we have a mix of in-person and online labs . For those attending in-person please ensure you follow all covid-safe protocols. Recordings will be available for online labs. You will notice that there are two parallel lab classes, e.g., W11A and W11B. Make sure you attend the correct class as per your UNSW timetable. You are strongly urged to set up access to the VLAB environment prior to the lab . It is not an efficient use of your tutor's time if they have to explain this process to you during the lab. We encourage the use of TigerVNC. Check the instructions here . The first lab exercise is now available. You are strongly urged to read the Tools of the Trade introductory lab prior to the first lab. The first lab report is due by 10 am Tuesday 1st March (Week 3). Submission instructions are in the lab specification.

A number of problem-solving questions are accessible on the Homework Questions page. You are strongly encouraged to work through these questions on your own. These are not assessed. We will post answers for the collated questions (e.g. Introduction Questions). However, the questions marked with " Students to Discuss Solutions " are exclusively left for you to work on. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts, but will not provide ready solutions. Working through these questions will provide good practice for the exams. Please discuss them on the Ed forum. You can join the forum via the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC

My consultations are scheduled for Wednesday 4:30-5:30 pm (Sydney time) starting next week. A link to the Zoom meeting is on the course outline page and also here .

An early head's up that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday 28th March (Week 7) during regular class hours (11:00 - 13:00 Sydney time). Mark this time in your calendar. The exam will be held online using the Inspera platform. Details to follow.

Please complete the following polls if you haven't already: Poll 1 (Internet Speed) and Poll 2 (Your location)

Have a great weekend, stay safe and see you online during the lectures on Monday & Thursday and on the forum !!

Some Updates

Posted by Salil Kanhere Tuesday 15 February 2022, 09:09:37 PM.

Some updates, please read carefully:

• Make sure you have read the course outline .
• Videos for the Week 1 lectures are available on the Youtube and Echo360 playlists. Links to both are on the Lectures Page.
• We will use Ed Discussions for the course forum. You can join it through the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC . All questions and discussions pertaining to the course should be posted on Ed. The WebCMS3 forum is disabled.
• A self-study lab that introduces you to the various networking tools to be used in the course is available. We strongly encourage everybody to review it. This lab is NOT marked.
• Labs begin in Week 2 . We will have a mix of in-person and online labs. Further details are on the Labs page.
• See you in the lecture on Thursday (11 am Sydney, link to Zoom meeting on Lectures page).

Lectures begin on Monday, 14th February

Posted by Salil Kanhere Friday 11 February 2022, 04:41:29 PM.

A reminder that lectures are commencing on Monday, 14th February 11:00 - 13:00 (Sydney time). The Zoom meeting links are on the Lectures page. You will also find all content for Week 1 lectures on this page.

Please read through the course outline prior to the lecture.

There are NO labs in Week 1, even if your calendar in myUNSW may say so. Labs will commence in Week 2 . Further details to follow next week.

We will use Ed Discussions for the course forum. The default WebCMS forum has been disabled. Please join Ed by clicking on the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/kABavC

Please post any course-related questions on the Ed forum. If you must email us, use cs3331@cse.unsw.edu.au instead of personal email.

We would appreciate it if you could complete the following polls - Poll 1 (your location) and Poll 2 (your Internet speed)

See you in the lecture on Monday. Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331 Term 1, 2022

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 09 February 2022, 05:28:49 PM, last modified Wednesday 09 February 2022, 09:19:58 PM.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331, Term 1, 2022 . The course webpage is at www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3331

A short welcome video is here: Youtube or Echo360 .

The course is being offered in a hybrid mode. All lectures, consultations and exams will be held online. Some labs will take be conducted in person in a CSE lab while the others will be online. Please check your enrolment and attend the appropriate lab class.

Please read the course outline carefully .

Our first lecture will be held on Monday, 14th February from 11:00 - 13:00 (Sydney time). We will use Zoom Meetings. Links to the Zoom Meetings are on the Lectures page.

All content for Week 1 is now available on the Lectures page.

Labs will commence in Week 2 . Links for the online labs will be posted next week.

We will be using Ed Discussions for the course forum. Please join via this link . The forum on WebCMS is disabled.

See you online on Monday.