La Trobe University, Bendigo

Division of Information Technology

Computer Networks

Assignment 1, Semester 2, 1998

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. The motivation for this assignment is twofold: 1. to hand you a few easy marks, and 2, for me to get a list of your email addresses!

You are required to do two simple things:

1. Prove you can use the Internet to discover information about the various Internet protocols. In particular, I want you to read the appropriate RFC and report on the meanings of the various "numeric status codes" used in the HTTP/1.0 protocol. You've probably seen some of the 400-series codes -- now here's your chance to find what the others mean. I'll even make it simpler - the document you need for this is RFC1945.
2. Write up a report on your work. This report must be written in HTML. However, it should not be made available as a public Web page (ie, stored in your public_html directory). Instead, it should be submitted by electronic mail as an "enclosure", or "attachment" of MIME type text/html. If you use Netscape Communicator (and probably other browsers, but I haven't tested them), it should be clever enough that if your file has a .html extension (.htm on PCs?), eg: filename.html then it will happen automagically. Finally, do not submit your work to my 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.

For those students who have never looked "behind the scenes" of the web, this will be your first exposure to HTML, the markup language that is its lingua franca. There are lots of on-line resources to assist you in getting going in HTML, including an excellent tutorial written by our own Mal Sutherland. There are also many Web authoring tools which do a fine job of hiding the fact that the underlying document is in HTML. In fact, if you use the "composer" option in Netscape Communicator, it will create your message in HTML without even telling you! If you're still worried, here's some extra information on this method for submitting assignments.

Your assignment will be marked both on whether you have succeeded in the first task above (3 marks), and also on the quality of your submission (2 marks). If you do not submit your assignment correctly, as outlined above¹, 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. This assignment carries 5% of your mark for Computer Networks.

Due Date:

Friday, 4th September 1998, 5pm. If your submission is not in the cnsubmit mailbox by this time, there is no guarantee it will 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