CST 311 Week 1

 Computer Networks - A Wireshark Bit My Packets

This first week in CST-311, Computer Networks, has been intriguing and has made me realize just how important this subject will be for my Capstone Project. The topics we’re going to cover are directly tied to what I need to know for my future work. It feels great to be learning something so clearly connected to my goals.

The Wireshark exercise was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t expect to feel so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of activity happening on my home network. To make it more manageable, I set up a guest network with only a single device connected. This way, I could filter out all the unnecessary noise and focus on the specific, unfiltered network activity that I wanted to analyze. It was a simple but effective solution that made the task much easier to handle.

The logs generated from the exercises and labs are incredibly detailed, and I’ve realized that I need to be more meticulous in ensuring that all required elements are visible in my screen captures. To avoid any issues in the future, I’m planning to print the logs as PDFs and highlight the necessary information for my submissions. This approach should help me stay organized and make sure I don’t miss anything crucial.

One of the highlights of the week was learning about the global internet’s physical infrastructure, especially the undersea cables that connect continents. I always thought there was more to it than just wires tossed into the ocean, but it turns out that’s pretty much how it works. Although, when I think about it, running those cables under the ocean floor would be an impossible engineering task. 

Overall, this first week has set a solid foundation for what’s to come, and I’m excited about the things I will learn in this course.