During the semester you will be using the Linux machines located throughout the department. If you are not familiar with Linux, it is a UNIX operating system that runs on Intel based machines. If you are proficient with UNIX this lab will be easy for you. The first part of this lab is becoming accustomed to Linux.

First, you must create an account for yourself. The username and password are posted on Blackboard.

Second, you need to have /sbin and /usr/sbin in your path¹. To do this, edit the runtime configuration file for the shell you are using (for bash, use .bashrc --- for csh use .cshrc) and make sure that /sbin and /usr/sbin are in your PATH variable.

¹ This may already have been done for you. The default shell in the 460 Lab is bash. From your home directory type the following:

[user@some_host_name user]$ more .bashrc
  or
[user@some_host_name user]$ grep PATH .bashrc

If you see something that looks like this: export PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/usr/sbin, then you are all set.

Perform the following activities and report on your results:

1. Use telnet to connect to a different lab machine (such as tape.cs.byu.edu or flute.cs.byu.edu). Now telnet to www.cs.byu.edu 80.  This is actually using port 80 on the machine www.cs.byu.edu. Type "Get foo".  What happened (if you dont know what the output means, just write it down and we will discuss it in class)?
2. Use Netscape to access http://www.ietf.org/.  Retrieve RFC 602.  What is the title?  What is the RFC about?  What is an RFC? Find another interesting RFC and describe it.
3. Read the man page on ifconfig. Use this utility with eth0 as the interface name. What is the IP address of the machine? What is the network mask? What is the Maximum Transmission Unit (mtu)?
4. Read the man page for arp.  What is the ethernet address for 460serv.cs.byu.edu? (If 460serv doesn't work, try another machine in the same room where you are) (Make sure you have /sbin in your path)
5. Read the man page on netstat. Using the '-i' option find out about your local interfaces.  How many input and output packets has your ethernet interface seen (eth0) ?  What is the default router for your machine (netstat -r)?   Try netstat -p.  What information does this display? How is this useful?
6. Read the man page on ping. Ping several hosts. What is the average ping time to "www.et.byu.edu"? How many packets were sent? What was the percentage of packet loss?
7. Read the man page on traceroute (Make sure you are in /usr/sbin). Try 'www.et.byu.edu', a computer in the ET department. How many hops did it take? Where was most of the delay found? How is this utility useful?
8. Read the man page on dig. Using the information from dig, determine the IP address of flute.cs.byu.edu.  What is the name associated with 128.187.175.96?