La Trobe University, Bendigo

Division of Information Technology

Computer Networks

Assignment 1 1999

Welcome to the first assignment for Computer Networks! This assignment is entirely on-line. There should be no need for anyone to print copies of the assignment sheet, and no need to hand paper copies of anything to the lecturer.

You are required to do three things:

  1. Prove you can fetch and read RFCs. In particular, I want you to read rfc822 (updated by rfc1123 -- you probably don't have to read rfc822 if you read rfc1123) and tell me the recommended format for specifying the date in Internet email messages.

  2. Check out some email messages that have been sent to you (if no one sends you any email, send yourself a message!) and discover if the Date: field in them is rfc1123 compliant. It might be interesting to look at messages generated by different User Agent software -- you can see (in many cases) what package was used by looking at the X-Mailer: header line. If you're really keen, look at files generated by some other Internet applications, and check if the data format there is rfc1123 compliant as well.

  3. Write up a short report on your work. This report must be written in HTML. However, it should not be made available as a public Web page (eg, stored in your public_html directory on the Unix systems). Instead, it should be submitted by electronic mail as an "enclosure", or "attachment" of MIME type text/html. Modern email packages should be clever enough that if your file has a .html extension (.htm on PCs?), eg: filename.html then it will happen automagically, but there are no guarantees -- if in doubt, send a test message to yourself before you use that software to submit your assignment. Finally, do not submit your work to your lecturer's ordinary email address. Instead, submit your assignment to the special address: 
       cnsubmit@ironbark.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au
    This address exists only for the submission of assignments for this subject. Your submission should be a single attached HTML file, but it may refer to other documents (or images) elsewhere on the Web. Images (or other auxiliary files) may be stored in your public_html directory and referenced with a full <IMG> or <A> markup. All URLs should all be "clickable", that is, they should be enclosed in an <A> markup.

Your assignment will be marked both on whether you have succeeded in the tasks above (3 marks), and also on the quality of your submission (2 marks). If you do not submit your assignment correctly, as outlined above[1], you will automatically fail. There is no specified number of words required for this assignment -- use your judgement. When you submit your assignment, you should get an auto-generated reply telling you that your submission has been received. If you do not, please email me. Please don't submit your assignment multiple times if you don't get an auto-reply message. This assignment carries 5% of your mark for Computer Networks.

Due Date:

Friday, 16th April 1999, 5pm, no extensions without medical certificate. If your submission is not in the cnsubmit mailbox by this time, it will not be assessed. Because this assignment will be marked "on-line", your should have your mark returned by email within a few days.

Lecturer and tutor:

Phil Scott, 5444 7277

[1] That is, as a text/html MIME attachment. In particular, if you send a HTML document as MIME type text/plain, most email software will not attempt to interpret the HTML markup.

Phil Scott