Networking 101 @ WTFU



  • Couple of test questions:

    - RFC numbers for RIPv1, RIPv2, BGPv4
    - which frame is longer - OSPF, or RIP
    - virtual mac address (ok - that may be normal question - 00:00:5E:00:00:XX)
    - types of DoS attacks, detected by alcatel switches (names _only_, with obviously common things like bonk, boink, pepsi, etc.)

    There are many more...

    oh yeah, btw: I'd risk saying that nobody on this course knows when are RST packets sent, but they all know answers to those questions... WTFCourse

    All of students can configure vlan, spanning tree, aggregate links, multicast domains, etc... but not many realize what they're really doing :/ 



  • So. Very. Typical.

    Most of the people in my class could easily calculate subnets, but couldn't set up a more-complex-than-just-plug-everything-together network if their life depended on it. They know all of the header fields names and lengths of an IPv4 header, but don't actually have a clue what they are used for. Sadly, our tests kinda encourage this, since you can easily pass just by knowing stuff, without actually understanding anything. 



  • So they don't have anything about formal networking?  Performance minima / maxima?  CSMA/CD vs CSMA?  X.25?  isochronous / asychronous / bisync / bitsync?  Geez, what's this world coming to...  If nobody understands all that, who's going to come up with the new tech we have to replace the current stuff with?

    Ignernt curricula make baby Jebus cry. 



  • @poochner said:

    What's this world coming to...

    Makes for some interesting ideas though... Imagine 200 years from now. All technological infrastructure is running fully automatic, self-sustaining and self-maintaining. But unfortunately the people have forgotten how those things actually work and how to control them. The new research branch of Technological Analysis is now out to scientifically discover and classify the mysterious inner workings of all those machines and make them acessible to humankind...
     



  • @PSWorx said:

    The new research branch of Technological Analysis is now out to scientifically discover and classify the mysterious inner workings of all those machines and make them acessible to humankind...

    ... They go to archive.org and find a site that has many design ideas from a couple of IT & computing areas. Among other things they learn that XML should be parsed by a very specialized ai / n-net. And that the more cryptic a messagebox is, the more people are interested in it. And that key to interview new members of team is to ask how 2 guys can have safe sex with 2 girls using only 2 condoms (hanoi towers reference scores high)

    (looks like "aliens find archives of everything2.com and learn about humans" meme...)



  • @viraptor said:

    And that key to interview new members of team is to ask how 2 guys can have safe sex with 2 girls using only 2 condoms (hanoi towers reference scores high)

    I'll propose that one as assignment for our class... you made my day...
     



  • @PSWorx said:

    @poochner said:

    What's this world coming to...

    Makes for some interesting ideas though... Imagine 200 years from now. All technological infrastructure is running fully automatic, self-sustaining and self-maintaining. But unfortunately the people have forgotten how those things actually work and how to control them. The new research branch of Technological Analysis is now out to scientifically discover and classify the mysterious inner workings of all those machines and make them acessible to humankind...
     

    That would be Warhammer 40K.



  • hehe CCNA

    My class can't calculate subnets, and can't configure the crap either.

    They got all the answers from the internet to make the finals. And I have to confess, after a while I was so sick of getting 50% when you had to get 70%, that I used answers to. 

    Configuring the crap went very well for me, but I'm not aspiring an career in networking so I'm not going add my CCNA to my Resumé. For me it is the unwanted bastard child of all the courses I had to do.



  • Sounds horribly familiar. I (completely unqualified except for 20 years in the business) was approached by an MCSE graduate asking about installing NT 4.0 on a computer he'd been given.

    Great..... except the box in question was an old 286 NetWare server with less memory than my goldfish..... and the drives were IDE and the server SCSI, but hey the plugs fit if you ram them in! The real WTF is that this bozo had been given a sysadmin job at a major investment bank at almost double my salary, interviewed only by HR and he fitted their 'positive discrimination' profile.



  • I suggest that from now on we call every test question like this a "Prout", after Ebenezer Prout (1835-1909), American organist and music educator.

    Seeing the need for a mnemonic aid, Prout made up words for the fugue subjects of Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier".  On exams, Prout required the student to write the subject for a given fugue (which was reasonable), and also Prout's own made-up words (which was not).

    If you yourself have a need to remember the fugue subjects, you can find his words at http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1433056

    Fugue number 1 in C major:  "He went to town in a hat that made all the people stare."

    Fugue number 2 in C minor:  "John Sebastian Bach sat upon a tack, but he soon got up again with a howl!"

     


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