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Good luck with your Mid-term exam
Posted by
Wen Hu Monday 26 October 2026, 08:12:56 AM.
With the midterm exam starting at 11:15 am, we wish everyone the best of luck. All relevant information about the exam has been shared in previous messages. Please arrive on time (11:00 am), as there will be no additional opportunity to sit the exam if you miss it.
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Week 7: Mid-term exam, Network Layer, Programming Workshop and Start of Assignment Consultations
Posted by
Wen Hu Friday 23 October 2026, 01:30:26 PM.
Hope you’re enjoying Flex Week!
- Mid-term exam: The exam is approaching. It will begin at 11:15 am on Monday, 26 October. Please arrive by 11:00 am. We wish you the best of luck! All relevant information has been shared here. Please make sure you arrive on time, as there will be no additional opportunity to sit the exam if you miss it.
- The practice test will remain available until 12:00 pm (noon) on 25 October. If you haven’t completed it, we strongly encourage you to do so before it closes.
- Guidance on minimising technical issues with Safe Exam Browser is available here.
- ELS students should have received an email with their exam venue and individual extra-time arrangements. If you haven’t received it, please contact us using the class account email address.
- Thursday’s lecture: We’ll wrap up TCP before beginning the network layer. See the lecture materials.
- Week 7 programming support: Week 7 includes a programming tutorial and the start of assignment consultation sessions to help you prepare for the assignment due in Week 9.
- Programming tutorial: Your regular lab will be replaced by a programming tutorial to help you get started on the assignment.
- Separate sessions are available for Python, C, and Java. Please attend the session for your chosen language.
- The tutorial is not graded, and no submission is required.
- Starter code will be provided, and sample solutions will be released by the end of Week 7.
- Please check the revised Week 7 timetable and review the tutorial specifications in advance.
- Assignment consultations (Weeks 7–9):
- Weekly consultations will offer assignment-focused programming guidance in Python, C, and Java.
- These sessions provide general programming guidance and are not for debugging individual code.
- Schedules and locations may change, so please check the consultation schedule before attending.
- Additional sessions may be added closer to the deadline, depending on demand.
- We strongly encourage everyone to attend the Week 7 programming tutorial to get a solid start on the assignment.
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Practice Mid-Term Test
The COMP3331/COMP9331 practice mid-term test is available on Moodle. You must log in to Moodle to access the test link. The link can be found in Mid-term Exam section in webcms.
Please start the test only when you are fully prepared.
- Only one attempt is allowed.
- The test must be completed within 75 minutes.
- If the test remains open beyond 75 minutes, it will time out and cannot be submitted manually.
- No further attempts will be provided.
- Safe Exam Browser is not required for practice test.
A PDF containing the practice questions is also available for revision. Sample solutions will be released next Wednesday.
The practice test is only one revision resource and does not represent the complete mid-term exam. Students should also revise lectures, tutorials, homework questions, and other WebCMS materials. The mid-term may assess any examinable topic.
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Week 6: Flex Week
Posted by
Wen Hu Thursday 15 October 2026, 04:14:32 PM, last modified Thursday 15 October 2026, 04:15:49 PM.
- There will be no lecture, lab/tutorial and assessment due in Week 6. This will give you a good opportunity to prepare for the mid-term exam, which will happen on Monday Week 7, 26/10 during the lecture time (i.e., 11 - 13).
- Although we prefer Discourse Forum, we will offer special consultations in Week 6 to answer any questions or confusions you may have while preparing for the mid-term exam. Please come prepared with your questions (FCFS).
- The sample solution for all the lecture quizzes between Weeks 1 and 5 have been released.
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Week 5: Transport layer continue, mid term exam information, and tutorial 1 (No lab)
Posted by
Wen Hu Monday 12 October 2026, 09:34:55 AM.
- In this week’s lectures, we will continue our journey through the Transport Layer, covering Transport Layer 1 and Transport Layer 2.
- The mid-term exam will take place during the Monday lecture time in Week 7. More information is available here.
- In Week 5, a tutorial will replace the usual lab. The tutorial is not marked and is intended to provide useful practice for the mid-term exam. Please look through the questions beforehand and try to solve them yourself. All questions are taken from past exams, so you can effectively treat the tutorial questions as a sample exam paper. During the tutorial, you can ask your tutor to prioritise the questions or topics that you find most challenging.
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Week 4: Journey into the transport layer
Posted by
Wen Hu Sunday 04 October 2026, 04:29:28 PM.
- Please note that Monday, 5 October, is a public holiday, so there will be no lectures on Monday of Week 4. Labs scheduled for that day will be replaced by online sessions on Tuesday. Affected students should have received an email with further details. Please attend these sessions as scheduled; they will also be recorded.
- Daylight saving time began today, 4 October. Please ensure that you attend lectures and labs on time.
- In Thursday’s lecture, we will wrap up the Application Layer and begin our journey into the Transport Layer. The slides are available for review.
- Solutions to the Week 3 lecture quizzes will be released after Thursday’s lecture. Solutions to the Weeks 1 and 2 quizzes were released earlier and are available here. Please post any questions on the Discourse Forum.
- Please participate in the lecture-pace poll. Please submit your response by 5:00 pm on 9 October so that we can make the necessary arrangements.
Enjoy the rest of your long weekend, and see you on Thursday!
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Online Socket Programming Sessions
The online socket programming sessions cover key concepts and APIs in Python, C, and Java, with a hands-on client–server activity.
The C and Java sessions have now been completed, and their recordings are available. The Python session will be held tomorrow. Students are strongly encouraged to attend, as the session will help you prepare for the Programming Assignment and Lab 2 and Lab 3 exercises.
The session is not assessed, but participation is highly recommended. Please review the specifications and starter code before attending.
Details of the Python session, along with the recordings of the completed sessions, are available here.
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Week 3: Wrapping up Application Layer
Posted by
Wen Hu Monday 28 September 2026, 09:36:03 AM.
Congratulations! You have completed the first two weeks!
- We will cover the remaining Application Layer topics—SMTP, DNS, CDN, MCP, and Socket—in our lecture. The lecture slides are now available under Week 3 on WebCMS for your review.
- Mr Adam King, CTO of auDA, the administrator of Australia’s .au top-level domain (TLD), has kindly produced a video titled DNS and the Digital Economy. Please watch the video before attending Thursday’s lecture.
- Don’t forget to submit your Lab 1 report by the due date, Tuesday, 29 September 2026, at 5:00 pm, to avoid a late-submission penalty.
- There has been very little discussion of the homework questions on the Discourse forum. We strongly encourage everyone to work through these questions independently. We will post answers to the collated questions, such as the Introduction Questions. However, questions marked “Students to Discuss Solutions” are intended for you to work on yourselves. Please post your solutions on Discourse; we are happy to provide feedback on your attempts. This will provide valuable practice for the exams.
- An anonymous feedback form is available if you would like to leave us any comments. We value your feedback and will do our best to act on it.
- We have released Version 1 of the assignment specification. Although the deadline—Friday, 13 November 2026—is still some time away, please take a look when you have a chance and post any questions on the Discourse forum. We will provide the consultation schedule for Weeks 7–9 later.
- The QILT Student Experience Survey (SES) is currently open. Unlike myExperience, the SES is conducted by the Australian Government, and its results are publicly available for all universities. If you have not already received it, your personal survey link will arrive by email or SMS from
ses@srcentre.com.au and/or ses@qilt.edu.au. Please complete the survey and make your voice heard.
See you soon in the lecture!
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Week 2: Starting with the Application Layer
Posted by
Wen Hu Monday 21 September 2026, 07:56:43 AM.
Congratulations! You have now completed your first week!
- Labs (link) will commence in Week 2. Please attend the lab session in which you are enrolled and establish a line of communication with your tutor. Stay in contact with your tutor throughout the term regarding all lab-related matters.
- In lectures (link), we will introduce the famous layering concept and the layered architecture underpinning computer networks and the Internet. We will begin with the Application Layer and aim to cover HTTP (web) and SMTP (email) this week.
- You are strongly encouraged to attend lectures in person and actively participate in the face-to-face interactions and engagement. If you miss an in-person lecture, recordings will be available via Echo360 (link) through Moodle, which is required for authentication.
- It is great to see that many of you are already using Discourse (link). If you are unsure how to access the forum, please remember that you must first join it via the link above.
- Several problem-solving questions are available on the Homework Questions page (link). You are strongly encouraged to work through these questions independently. They are not assessed. We will post solutions for some questions, such as the Introduction Questions. However, questions marked “Students to Discuss Solutions” are intended for you to work on collaboratively, and we will not provide ready-made solutions. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts. Working through these questions will provide valuable preparation for the exams. Please discuss them on Discourse.
- We are currently developing the assignment specifications, which are expected to be released in Week 3.
See you at the lecture at 11:00 am!
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Week 1: Introduction to Computer Networks
Posted by
Wen Hu Monday 14 September 2026, 09:24:06 AM, last modified Monday 14 September 2026, 09:33:52 AM.
We hope you had a wonderful term break!
- Lectures will resume this morning from 11:00 to 13:00 in the Mathews Theatre A.
- Lecture slides and related materials are available here.
We look forward to meeting you soon.
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Welcome to COMP3331/9331 Term 3 2026
Posted by
Wen Hu Tuesday 08 September 2026, 09:37:45 AM.
We will use this WebCMS page to deliver the course. Please read the course outline carefully.
The course will be offered in hybrid mode, with all lectures delivered in person. Lectures will be recorded and made available through Echo360 on Moodle. You must log in to Moodle before accessing this link.
Laboratory classes and consultation sessions will be conducted either in person or online. Please check the timetable for details. Both the midterm and final examinations will use the Inspera platform.
Please check your enrolment and attend your allocated laboratory class. If you encounter any enrolment issues, please contact the Nucleus Student Hub. Course staff do not have access to the enrolment system.
Our first lecture will be held on Monday, 14 September, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in Mathews Theatre A.
Laboratory classes will commence in Week 2, even if your timetable indicates that they begin in Week 1. Further information will be available soon on the Labs page.
We will use the Discourse forum for all course discussions. Please join through this link and post all course-related questions there. The WebCMS forum will not be monitored. If you need to contact us by email, please use cs3331@cse.unsw.edu.au rather than emailing individual staff members.
We would also appreciate it if you could complete the following poll: Your Internet Speed.
We look forward to seeing you in Mathews Theatre A at 11:00 am on Monday, 14 September.