CST 311 - Module 5

This week we began our foray into the Network layer. It was very interesting to cover the difference between routing and forwarding and seeing how a router accomplishes its forwarding process. I found Longest Prefix matching to be quite interesting and it was fun to work in binary for a few of the questions this week. I found it somewhat surprising that it only took 20 jumps with the traceroute to reach the school in India. The lab this week was also quite fun and it was interesting to see the DHCP process in action.

Module 3 - CST 311

This week we covered a variety of topics including multiplexing and demultiplexing, UDP, reliable data transfer, and congestion control. While I was expecting to learn about how a connection would be established with TCP, the three-way handshake we studied seemed like a surprisingly simple yet elegant way to complete the task. I found that it was very interesting to learn about congestion control and how TCP handles this issue. I enjoyed going through the lab this week, especially working on a linux machine and seeing the resulting IP and Port addresses from schools across the world. Before I head out of town I am beginning to look through the study guides for the midterm and am planning on taking the practice exam soon.

Module 2 - CST 311

This week we covered quite a few topics. We covered HTTP and FTP, learning what these protocols are and how they function. I was not expecting to learn about cookies, but it was interesting to see how they can work to enhance a users browsing experience. It was particularly interesting to work through the wireshark lab. Going through them I begin to feel that I am understanding the information we receive through wireshark.

Module 1 - CST 311

This week we covered a variety of topics including a network overview, delays in transmission and propagation and even some aspects of security. While I did expect to get an overview of networking, there was a lot more interesting aspects that were covered in this weeks lesson. For instance, I was not expecting to learn anything about security so early but I am excited to begin covering this topic. It was interesting to see the goals of CIA and learn about some of the basic concepts of what security is attempting to protect. I found the layout of the videos and video quizzes quite helpful, and the early opening for the week's work very helpful.

Module 8 - CST 363

Overall, I really enjoyed this course. Going into it I was not entirely sure how I felt about SQL and databases from my brief exposure in our prior course. However, this course was really quite fun and very informative. Our professor and TA were both helpful and clear, the textbook was easy to read and understand, and the assignments were straightforward and interesting. I feel fairly confident in my SQL skills now and see how they it can be used as a very useful tool. I look forward to my next course beginning soon, and am glad that I was able to take part in this one. Thanks again.

Module 7 - CST 363

This week was mainly spent working on our final project. My teammate did a great job on the ER diagram and establishing the model we would be using. I had fun coming up with queries to use that utilized subselects and joins in their statements. It was interesting to cover some new topics as well including BI, OLAP, and the NoSQL movement. Later this week I will take my final and that will finish up the course. I feel like I've learned quite a bit in these few weeks and honestly really enjoyed the course work, as well as all the effort the TA and Professor put into the course.

Module 6 - CST 363

This week we received our instructions for the final group project of the course. It looks like it will be an interesting exercise to complete with my teammate. This week I we covered some interesting topics such as security, users, permissions and creating functions. It was quite interesting to see the various levels of permissions that were available and how granting and revoking worked on various users. It was also useful to learn about groups and how they can be used to create a general template for permission granting.