Network Engineering

Network Engineering, is a Senior Level Class, in which you manipulate a Linux Server Environment. For the majority of the class you spend creating IP Tables and set up INPUT and OUTPUT rules as well as PRE and POSTROUTING rules and other rules creating a firewall for your Linux Box. The class takes an in depth look at these IP Tables, using outside and inside systems to test these firewall rules, which range from allowing/preventing access, to restricting certain IP or MAC addresses, to only allowing certain computer perform certain functions such as SSH-ing and FTP-ing and prerouting computers to other locations. The class also touches about subnetting computers, in which we would take a group of computers and make a subnet for each one. The class even went so far as to teach us how to figure out Subnets by hand to give us a deeper understanding of how they work. You also learn how to set up virtual hosts in the Linux Serve. The Task below touches upon yet another subject taught in the class, which was how to set up a domain in a Linux Server and how to give that domain, or a link from that domain an SSL certificate.

The only experience I had had with Linux before this class was using SLAX in our Web Design class, which didnt touch upon the Linux aspect of it and only used the SLAX as a way to input our HTML code to the school server. The other class was Open Source Operating Systems, which used Slackware. In both cases, while i had an understanding of very basic Linux, the topics covered in Network Engineering didnt really relate to either class, so even being a Senior level class, I went in almost blind. Coming out though, I have a much better understanding of the many things you can do at the command line level with a Linux Server. I also learned how subnets work, how firewalls work, how to use Apache, how to set up domains, and many many more things, that can apply to things outside of a Linux Environment.