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# General Announcement Emails Sent to IT 280 Students
# Winter Semester, 2011, Professor Don Colton
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Tue, Mar 29, 6:40 PM, to everyone

The testing went well today. Lots of people used the [Cancel] button
to walk away from tests that they did not feel ready for, even after
attempting some of the problems. That is exactly what I was hoping
would happen.

Everybody ended early. We had just under 90 minutes available, and
most people were gone way before that time. Prepping for the next exam
probably.

All the tests have been graded. They are open for review.

All the scores have been copied into the grade book. They are open for
review.  One student pointed out to me that his scores from a week ago
had not been properly transferred, so I fixed that.

Warning: If I messed up on one student, maybe I messed up on another
student.  Check all your scores.

We have three testing days left. Thursday (this week), Tuesday (next
week), and Friday (next week). That's it.

See you Thursday! Bro Colton

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Sat, Mar 26, 8:35 PM, to everyone

I am pleased to report that the last two chapters of the IT 280
textbook are finished. In fact, the whole book is finished. All the
chapters are done, or as done as they are going to be this semester.
(Changes may occur if errors are found and corrected.) The exams are
based on the book as it currently stands for Tools, and as it stood a
week ago for everything else. I will not be doing a lecture on
tools. You can read about it in the book.

I also updated the grade book to include your latest scores from the
IPv4 Subnets (calculation) test. All of the exams will be available on
Tuesday.

Before class on Tuesday, you should review your scores and decide
which tests you plan to take. If you let me know at least an hour
before class, I will make sure you can start the tests without delay.

The time allowed for some of the exams has been adjusted. A few are
longer. A few are shorter.

In this list, for each test I show the name, the points toward your
final grade, the minutes allowed to take the exam, the number of
questions on the exam, and what chapters are covered.

IT 280 B1 (100 pts, 25 min, 40 q): Bonus Exam, Chapters 0-4
IT 280 O3 (300 pts, 50 min, 72 q): OSI Exam, Chapters 5-8
IT 280 N8 ( 80 pts, 25 min, 37 q): Home Networking Exam, Chapters 9-11
IT 280 W8 ( 80 pts, 20 min, 27 q): Wi-Fi Exam, Chapters 12-13
IT 280 S  (100 pts, 30 min, 44 q): Security, Chapters 14-16
IT 280 I2 (200 pts, 25 min, 39 q): IPv4, Chapters 17-19
IT 280 I1 (100 pts, 20 min, 30 q): IPv4 Subnets (calculation)
IT 280 T  (100 pts, 25 min, 36 q): Power Tools, Chapters 20-21

Thanks! Bro Colton

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Thu, Mar 24, 11:15 PM, to everyone

I have graded our tests from Tuesday. They are open for review.

I have also consolidated the scores into a grade book. It is also open
for review. Check it out.

COOKED: Each test has a raw score, but in the grade book, the score
gets scaled (cooked) before it adds toward your semester total. For
example, the OSI section is worth 300 points toward the final grade,
but there are only 168 points on the test. You will see both your raw
score (based on 168 possible) and your cooked score, based on 300
possible.

The remainder of the semester looks like this:

Tue Mar 29, 1:50 to 3:20, Pre Final Exams, up to 90 minutes
Thu Mar 31, 1:50 to 3:20, Pre Final Exams, up to 90 minutes
Tue Apr 5, 1:50 to 3:20, Pre Final Exams, up to 90 minutes
Fri Apr 8, 3:00 to 4:50, Final Exam Day, up to 110 minutes

I still hope to make brief comments at the start of class, as needed,
and to do a lecture on Tools after I have written it up in the
textbook. The rest of each class period will be testing.

TESTING: Most days will be devoted to letting you earn points toward
your final grade by taking the tests. While we are giving tests, you
can take any test that you have not already taken. Your goal should be
to get as many good scores as you can by the end of the semester. Once
you have enough points for the grade you want, check with me and I
will verify it, and then you are done for the semester.

RETAKES: For tests that you HAVE already taken, and you want to
retake, you can have one retake. You do this by telling me that you
want to retake the test.  When you do that, I will delete your old
score and you can take a fresh shot at the exam. It will actually be
the same exam as before. Your score will be the score from the retake,
whether it is higher or lower than the first score.

CANCEL: After you start to take any test, you have the option to
cancel your taking of the test. By this I mean that you can look at
the questions, and you can try to answer as many as you want, but
after that, if you think you did not do well enough and you want to
try again without having me grade your work, then you can press the
[Cancel This Quiz] button instead of [Quiz Done]. Then I will ignore
your answers and you can try again. If you cancel the test, it does
not count toward your two tries. If you walk away without pressing
either button, I generally treat it as though you pressed [Quiz
Done]. If you run out of time, and want to cancel, come see me after
the test and let me know.

The purpose of CANCEL is to take away your fear of starting a test, in
case you are worried that you may not have enough time to finish
it. Start it anyway, and if you don't have enough time to finish it,
just cancel.

See you Tuesday! Bro Colton

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Thu, Mar 17, 9:00 PM, to everyone

The OSI exam that we took in class today is graded and open for
review. After comparing your answers and scores with the other
students, if you thing I may have graded you wrong, you are welcome to
come and see me and we can check it out together. Sometimes you get
points. Sometimes you just get an explanation.  :-)

Tuesday March 22, our exam will cover Home Networking and WiFi. In the
book, that's currently chapters 9 through 14, questions 118 through
161. Everything should be finalized by Saturday night. There will be
time before the test for review and asking me questions. The test will
be the last 40 minutes of class.

Thursday March 24 there is no class. It is the Empower Your Dream
day. Please enter one or more competitions and have some fun.

Tuesday March 29, our exam will cover IPv4. Currently that is chapters
16 through 18 in the textbook, questions 182 through 228. By then I
should have worked through the questions and there may be more. The
test will be 40 minutes toward the end of class. On the same day, we
will do a retake of the 30 question IPv4 test where you have to
calculate things. That test will be for 20 minutes.

Thursday March 31, our exam will cover Security. Currently that is
chapter 15.  Currently it only has 20 questions, but by then there
should be more.

Tuesday April 5, our exam will cover Tools. Currently that is chapter
19 and 20. Currently it only has three questions, but there should be
more questions and content by then.

FRIDAY, April 8 is our final exam day. On that day, I will allow make
ups and retakes of any exam including the extra credit exam we already
did. If you go for the retake, I will erase your previous score and
you can try the test again. Only one retake per test.

On any test day, if you finish the test early enough I may allow you
to do a make up test that you previously missed, depending on how much
time is left. No retakes until April 8.

Thanks! Bro Colton

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Mon, Mar 14, 6:40 PM, to everyone

The first 12 chapters of the book are in pretty good shape. You can
safely read them now and study for the exam questions that are
contained in them.

Some of you have earned preliminary points in the IPv4 category. I say
preliminary because there will be another opportunity to earn those
points in about a week. I am finally ready to have you start earning
final points towards your final grade. As you will recall, the points
for the class will be as follows:

10% (100 points) for Home Networking
10% (100 points) for WiFi
10% (100 points) for Security
10% (100 points) for Tools
30% (300 points) for OSI Model
30% (300 points) for IPv4

We will do an extra credit exam in class on Tuesday March 15. It will
cover chapters 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. It will be worth up to 10% (100
points) towards your final grade. You will want to earn as many of
these points as you can. The test will only take part of our class
time.

We will do the OSI test on Thursday March 17. It will cover chapters
5, 6, 7, and 8. It will be worth 30% (300 points) towards your final
grade. This will be the one and only time to earn these points.

We will do the IPv4 test on Tuesday March 22. It will consist of two
parts. One is the 30-question test you have seen several times
already. The other will be questions from the book. I will give you
more information as we get closer to it. The IPv4 tests will be worth
30% (300 points) towards your final grade.  This will probably be the
last opportunity to earn these points.

Please do your best to prepare for the test tomorrow by studying up
through chapter 4 and working to understand and if necessary memorize
the answers to the questions in the book.

See you for class tomorrow! Bro Colton

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Mon, Feb 21, 12:45 PM, to everyone

I am pleased to report that the first draft of the IT 280 Final Exam
Study Guide is posted on the class website. It is 30 pages long. It is
mostly complete. It even has a table of contents and an index.

http://byuh.doncolton.com/courses/it280/2111/final.pdf

Anyway, you can take a look at it when you feel up to it, and see what
percent of the things that it covers are things that you have already
learned.

This is what you should have had on Day 1.  Sorry about the delay.

The good news is once you can do everything in the Study Guide, you
should get an A in the class.

The bad news is there are a few places that say "to do: add
more". There will be some filling in of the gaps. I will work on
crafting questions that can be on the exam.

But the concepts are all there, I think

Woo hoo.

See you tomorrow afternoon! Bro Colton

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Thu, Jan 20, 4:00 PM, to everyone

In class today we took the Address Classes test. These are the scores
that were earned.

33 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 32 32 32 32 31 29 29 27 26 26 24 18 17 12 6 4

I am comfortable with scores in the 29+ range, but the lower scores,
there are still too many. We will do the test again, probably on
Tuesday of next week.  Your responsibility is to make your skills
stronger so that your score is as close to 33 as possible.

In class today we also started looking at other aspects of IP
addresses, such as broadcast addresses and first and last host. We
will start testing on that probably Tuesday.

And next up is subnets. So, study up on these two tests:

QCA: IPv4 Classful Addressing
QSS: IPv4 Simple Subnets

See you Tuesday! Bro Colton

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Tue, Jan 18, 3:40 PM, to everyone

Today in class we took a quiz that covered identification of IPv4
addresses as class A, B, C, D, E, or Invalid. We also asked the
private address spaces: 10, 169, 172, 192. You should know these for a
quiz on Thursday afternoon.

We spent most of the time walking through a BEFW11S4 home router
(pretty old).  There was a *lot* to understand just with the
configurations. We talked specifically about some of the settings,
what they were for and how to change them.

Yes, there is a lab this week. You will be making crossover cables,
just for the experience of it.

For Thursday, be ready to take the test again, and this time get a
better score if possible.

The next thing to study would be my Tests On Demand QAC: IPv4 Address
Classes, which has a 1p PDF to read.

See you Thursday! Bro Colton

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Tue, Jan 18, 11:00 AM, to everyone

For class today, there was not any particular assignment.

Last Thursday (1/13) we did an in-class quiz on network classes. The
scores were high in general, but only three got perfect scores. Today
in class we will do that quiz again (different questions, same
idea). That will be at the start of class.

We also discussed non-routable addresses and NAT, and how that is
affecting the speed at which the world is running out of IPv4
addresses.  For the quiz in class today, you should be prepared with
the following four answers. (We discussed these on Thursday.) It will
be a closed book exam, so memorize these:

Question: What is the private (non-routable) class A address range?
Answer: 10.x.x.x

Question: What is the private (non-routable) class B address range?
Answer: 172.16-31.x.x

Question: What is the private (non-routable) class C address range?
Answer: 192.168.x.x

Question: What is the Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA) address
range?  Answer: 169.254.x.x

THIS WEEK'S LAB:

This week the lab will be to create a good cross-over cable. You will
not keep it. (You seldom need one.) It will be just for
practice. Since there was not school yesterday, those with the Monday
lab can attend either Tuesday (today) 6:30 to 8:30, or Wednesday, 9:00
to 11:00. The expected amount of time to do the lab is maybe an hour.

Thanks! Bro Colton

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Fri, Jan 7, 1:18 AM, to everyone

Welcome to the IT 280 class. This email is an update based on class
Thursday.

We did a high-level discussion of networking. I shared a couple of
stories where networking knowledge allowed me to be helpful and
productive when circumstances were conspiring to prevent it. And a
lame joke about boy scouts.  Sigh.

Your reading assignment is to go to the Internet (Google and/or
Wikipedia) and learn about creating networking cables. Key words you
should look for include cross-over, straight, rolled, cat 5, and rj45.

There will be a quiz at the star of class on Tuesday to see how much
you learned. It will be closed-book, from memory, so try to memorize a
few facts that you think are most important.

At your lab on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, you will be assigned to
create a regular cat5 cable suitable to be used to connect a computer
of your choice to the Internet. It can be up to 10 feet long, or
shorter at your request. You can keep it when your are done. The
grading will be based on these factors, and will be judged by the
Teaching Assistant, Greg Kioa, or his assigned replacement (in case he
does not cover all three labs):

* is there good workmanship evident in the crimping job at each end of
  the cable?

* does the cable test out correctly using the cable testing equipment?

That's it. Greg will report your scores to me.

See you all in class on Tuesday. Thanks! Bro Colton

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