ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE
Computer Science Department

CS 110

Working on the Web and the Internet
Spring, 2000

Professor: Dr. Thomas R. Leap Telephone (Office): 361-1299
E-mail: leap@etown.edu
Office: Nicarry 243
Office Hours: Mon - Fri:1:30-2:30

Other hours by appointment. Please feel free to request appointments by leaving a note on my door or in my mailbox or by leaving a voice mail message.

Course Objective

This course is a study in accessing and publishing information electronically over computer networks including the Internet. The basic science and principles of information transmission, storage and organization will be covered. Particular attention will be paid to computer networks in order to understand where how the technology works and where it might be headed. The primary technical content of this course will be how to access and use computers over a network and how the World Wide Web functions. Microsoft and Unix operating systems will be studied as they apply to storing information mainly because they are the most common platforms used for storing and serving information on the World Wide Web. The major portion of the course will be designing and writing information pages for the Web. The installation and configuration of Web browser and server software will be discussed.

Prerequisite: None

Textbooks

Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days, by Laura Lemay, Sams Publishing, 1998.

Grading

90% several exams and a final comprehensive exam each of equal weight unless otherwise specified
10% assignments

Conversion from percentages to letter grades will be performed according to the following table with any fractional part being rounded off to the nearest integer:

B+ 88-89 C+ 78-79 D+ 68-69
A 93-100 B 83-87 C 73-77 D 63-67
A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72 D- 60-62

Attendance

Students are expected to attend class. The professor reserves the right to penalize a students final grade or dismiss a student from the course for excessive absences such as more than three unexcused cuts. Students can expect to have their final grade lowered one third of a letter grade for each cut beyond the first three. A medical excuse may be required if an exam is missed.

CS 110 Course Outline
  1. What are computer networks?
  2. Technological Highlights of Networking
    1. Representing Information
    2. Transmitting Information
    3. Transmission Methods
      1. Wire
      2. Coax Cable
      3. Fiber Optics
      4. Wireless Networks
      5. DSL - digital subscriber lines
    4. Communication NetworksD
      1. Circuit Switched Networks
      2. Packet Switched Networks (evolution)
    5. Ethernet
  3. Computer Networks
    1. Local Networks
    2. Network Hardware
    3. Communications Protocols - TCP/IP
    4. Client Server Computing
      1. Terminal Servers
      2. File Servers
      3. Compute Servers
    5. Firewalls and Network Security
  4. Computers and Operating Systems

    A. Microsoft Windows and PCs

    1. Telnet - Connecting to remote hosts

    2. Modems, SLIP and PPP connections

    B. The Unix Operating System

    1. Account maintenance

    a. Logging in and out

    b. Changing passwords

    c. Configuring your account

    2. Accessing Unix over the campus network

    3. The Unix file system

    a. File commands

    (1) Copying files

    (2) Deleting files

    (3) Renaming and moving files

    4. Text Editors - emacs

    5. Printing files and getting hardcopy output

  5. Basic User Network Communications Programs

    A. Telnet

    1. Remote Login

    B. E-Mail

    1. Personnel Computer based E-mail

    a. E-mail client programs

    (1) Eudora

    (2) Outlook

    b. Pop mail

    2. Host based E-mail

    a. VAX E-mail

    b. Unix E-mail

    c. Other E-mail programs - Pine and Elm

    d. Encoding files in E-mail messages (uuencode and uudecode)

    C. FTP - File Transfer

    1. Modes

    a. ASCII

    b. Binary



  6. The World Wide Web

    A. Basic Concepts of the Web

    B. History of the Web

    C. Web Browsers

    1. NCSA Mosaic

    2. Netscape

    3. Microsoft Internet Explorer

    4. Lynx

    D. Web Servers

  7. HTML and Writing Web Pages

    A. Structure of an HTML file

    1. <html> declaration

    2. Document body - <body>

    3. Headings - <heading>

    a. Page title - <title>

    4. Text formatting

    a. Paragraphs - <p>

    b. Line breaks - <br>

    c. Preformatted text

    5. Lists

    a. Unordered lists - <ul>

    b. Ordered (numbered) lists - <ol>

    c. List items - <li>

    d. Definition lists - <dl>

    6. Anchors and links

    B. Including graphics

    1. Image file types

    a. JPEG

    b. GIF

    2. Image tag - <img>

    a. Image source url

    b. Borders

    c. Alignment

    C. Including other Internet functions - URL protocols

    1. HTTPD

    2. FTP

    3. E-mail

    4. Telnet

    5. Others

    D. Tables

    1. Table tags and options

    a. <TABLE> ... </TABLE>

    b. Table rows - <TR> ... </TR>

    c. Heading Cells - <TH> ... </TH>

    d. Data Cells - <TD> ... </TD>

    E. Frames

    1. Frame page

    a. Framesets with rows

    b. Framesets with columns

    c. Specifying division sizes

    2. Page targets

    3. Borders and spacing

    F. Forms

    1. Defining forms - the <FORM ... > tag

    a. Data transfer methods - METHOD= option

    b. Processing scripts - ACTION= option

    2. Input field types

    a. Text boxes

    b. Check boxes

    c. Radio buttons

    d. Option lists

    e. Text areas

    3. Reset buttons

    4. Submit buttons

    G. Image maps

    1. Connecting an image map to an image

    2. Defining clickable areas in an image

    3. Area shapes

    a. Rectangles

    b. Circles

    c. Polygons

    H. Issues in the design of Web pages

  8. Web Page Editors
    1. Netscape Composer
    2. Microsoft Frontpage
    3. Publishing from Word Processors
      1. Microsoft Word
      2. Word Perfect
    4. Others
  9. Web Server
    1. Available Servers
      1. NCSA httpd
      2. CERN httpd
      3. Apache httpd
      4. Windows95 and WindowsNT servers
    2. Installation and configuration issues