[Blackpool] Saturday

Fri Feb 13 12:26:00 UTC 2015

Hi,
I'm sceptical that it can be written in a useful guide, or else I'd have found one someone else had done that fit the job when I googled it. 

In my mind it's more a learning by doing experience than a written down guide.  We do need a crib sheet at the end with the details of the things we did so that people can go off and do the experiments in their own time.

So:
ipV4 addresses, how to find yours.

Difference between our ip address and a real fixed ip on the internet.  Touch on Class C and what is DHCP on a local router. 

What is a router, why do we need one.

What a web server is and does.  HTML. What actually is a browser.  Whats that http:// about, and https:// ? 

How we find all of these webservers without knowing ip addresses of everything - DNS

Routing worldwide, the origins of internet and robustness of packet switching.  

Traceroute, just like on the TV with the hackers, where did the data visit on it's way to us 

I'd cover all that in 15 minutes but by doing hands on stuff, like this:

find out your ip address using command line
find out ip address of someone else's pc
notice similarities in the ip address's (talk about DHCP, router, real ip addresses vs class C.)
ping somebody elses ip address in the room, what does that time mean?
open the router setup in a browser look at DHCP (need to ask about that...)
Have a machine with a standalone web server running and access it via http direct from its ip
Open the default html file on the server and edit it
Do view source at the browser side
Quick overview of the F12 debug features in a browser are to find the code behind a particular area in a big web page
Use reverse DNS to look up an ip of a famous site
Ping that ip address - understand what just happened request and response compare time with the local ping.
Use traceroute to see how that data was routed across the world

Also something about what Jo (and James!) does, managing VMs that are on boxes physically half way around the world and the reasoning to have two VMs.  

Maybe back it up with a handout which might need to be custom to the kit that person has so that the commands are right for them Mint/Ubuntu/PC/Raspbian.  In my mind it's too hard to have a proper printed guide... too many variables.  (But we can try!)

So in my mind it's a snappy practical exercise (15mins might be optimistic) that we can do with all sorts of people, this would be just as good done with Pis at the CoderDojo or new families that visit the Makerspace for example.  

I am a dev, I just do the code, there are people on here that could take the idea and improve it or put it in the bin and do it better from scratch...  PLEASE DO!

regards

Arthur

> Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 11:46:20 +0000
> From: heed at bigmassiveheed.co.uk
> CC: blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [Blackpool] Saturday
> 
> How deep do you want this guide to be?
> 
> On 13 February 2015 at 10:47, Elizabeth C <elizabethcoop1945 at hotmail.co.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> > re " I want to write down what will be in our 15 minute practical guide to
> > how the internet works."
> >
> > I would be sooooo very grateful for something like that written....
> >
> > Elizabeth
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > From: arthur_garlick at hotmail.com
> > > To: jmsp.1983 at gmail.com; blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > > Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2015 10:01:05 +0000
> > > Subject: Re: [Blackpool] Saturday
> > >
> > >  Hi,
> > > The plan with the Pi wearable got changed to me delivering it to Les and
> > Tom at Mereside tomorrow morning.  We will be making a slightly late
> > appearance at the makerspace.
> > >
> > > I know nothing James!  But interested.
> > >
> > > Been busy this week, I'll be playing with the Arduino compatible Teensy
> > and working out what the 'compatible' there actually means.
> > >
> > > I want to write down what will be in our 15 minute practical guide to
> > how the internet works.
> > >
> > > Or maybe I'll just drink coffee, sit back and pontificate on the vast
> > expanse of things tech that doth offend mine eye.
> > >
> > >
> > > See you tomorrow
> > >
> > > A
> > >
> > > > Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 21:42:29 +0000
> > > > From: jmsp.1983 at gmail.com
> > > > To: blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > > > Subject: [Blackpool] Saturday
> > > >
> > > > Ahoyehoyey, peeps!
> > > >
> > > > If there's anybody coming on Saturday who knows their way around a Web
> > > > server, could you help me out with a site on my VPS? I run a small
> > forum
> > > > and it's recently started running pretty slowly - I'm at a loss as to
> > what
> > > > it could be. I haven't noticed anything unusual in terms of processes
> > and
> > > > memory.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > James
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Blackpool mailing list
> > > > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > > > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/blackpool
> > >
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> > > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
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> >
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> > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
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> >
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