The Internet seems to many to be a magical unknown force that just works, but HOW does it work?

This class delves into the very basics of how the internet itself is organized, and how it is built at a very low level. Emphasis is on the mechanics of the internet to explain how everything works together. This lays a solid foundation for exploring further into the technologies involved. 

In Part 1 we explore how information is sent from one computer to another across the internet.
Concepts discussed in Part 1 include : 
   IP addressing
   Routers and Routing
   DNS
   Internet Service Providers
   Redundancy
   Packets
   Bandwidth
   Ping and Traceroute commands

In part 2  we discuss how the flow of packets across routers can become unlimited streams of information. 

Concepts in part 2 include:
   Encapsulation
   Reliable vs unreliable streams
   TCP 
   UDP
   Ports
   Sequence #s
   Ack packets
   Connection evaluation using statistics within zoom

In part 3 we discuss what is "said" across the streams of packets 

Concepts discussed in part 3 include:
   What is a protocol
   What is a service
   Services such as HTTP, HTTPS,  SMTP, RTSP
   Hands on tools to explore the use of protocols
   Languages (ie HTML) sent across streams using a protocol
   Using telnet to make manual connections to a service

There is some amount of hands on work during each of these classes, to allow the student to explore the concepts on their own at their own computer.

This is an interactive whiteboarding class, where the teacher draws illustrations on a whiteboard as the class progresses. Questions and comments are welcome and encouraged but not required.  Each student can choose their own level of interaction.