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Computer Networking Course Materials Free Online

Posted by timothy on from the really-open-courseware dept.

Shivkumar Kalyanaraman writes "I am an Associate Professor in the Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (ECSE) department at Rensselaer Polytechic Institute (RPI). This post is to inform you that I have recently collected all the videos and audios of my networking classes and put them online, freely available." Read on below; the course materials are also available on CD.

"For those who might prefer a CD-ROM set of the videos, that can also be ordered from this site. I hope this will be a useful reference for those working in the networking industry or interested to learn about or brush up their knowledge of networking, but do not have time to take formal university courses. It could also help complement your regular studies on this topic.

Comments/Errata welcome! If you find this resource useful, please recommend it to your friends and colleagues.

Thanks!
-Shiv
Shivkumar Kalyanaraman
Associate Professor, Dept of ECSE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)"

28 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Bandwidth Spike by WereTiger · · Score: 1

    I feel SO sorry for the sysop who's gonna be trying to manage this slashdotting :)

    I figure I'm not the only one who's gonna try to download it all.

    --
    If you're hearing rhetoric about Linux, open source, or Mac and everyone's bashing Microsoft, you've found Slashdot.
    1. Re:Bandwidth Spike by fm6 · · Score: 2

      On the other hand, if there's no slashdot effect, we might infer that the sysadmin is one of Prof. K's students, and that it's a really good class!

    2. Re:Bandwidth Spike by WereTiger · · Score: 1

      well, that could be as much because of the quality of the hardware rather than the quality of the admin, but I see where you're coming from :)

      I'll just wget -r the URL and pray ;)

      --
      If you're hearing rhetoric about Linux, open source, or Mac and everyone's bashing Microsoft, you've found Slashdot.
    3. Re:Bandwidth Spike by WereTiger · · Score: 2

      Whoa, slashdot effect is in effect :)
      subsequent file transfer speeds:

      380k/s
      237k/s
      159k/s
      125k/s
      117k/s
      98k/s

      --
      If you're hearing rhetoric about Linux, open source, or Mac and everyone's bashing Microsoft, you've found Slashdot.
    4. Re:Bandwidth Spike by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Well, you can deal with the Slashdot Effect by throwing hardware at the problem. But that's expensive! I don't know how well of RPI is, but surely Prof. K would consider such a solution to be, well, uncool.

    5. Re:Bandwidth Spike by Descartes · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am an Associate Professor in the Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (ECSE) department at Rensselaer Polytechic Institute (RPI). This post is to inform you that I have recently attempted to slashdot our servers by putting up tons of high bandwidth content.

      Too bad for those students running kazaa.

    6. Re:Bandwidth Spike by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      Probably one big reason for the heavy bandwidth is that he starts the first video with, "Hello, my name is ..." and proceeds to pronounce it.

      --
      Find free books.
    7. Re:Bandwidth Spike by shivkuma · · Score: 2, Informative

      Folks,

      Interestingly my research is in the area of "traffic management" :)

      The best solution I have for those being traffic jammed at my site and really care about the content is a CD-ROM set that can be ordered there (sneakernet still beats the internet :)

      As some others observed some lectures are not there -- i will have to remove those links. Those were exam days or class cancellation days. The content should be intact if you skip those days.

      BTW, do you guys know other sites with freely available audio/video of courses? I found one on the MIT site on Linear algebra...

      -"Prof." Shiv

    8. Re:Bandwidth Spike by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 1

      I found this: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html by the way, thanks for the videos..

    9. Re:Bandwidth Spike by pillohead · · Score: 3, Informative

      I found this one on slashdot. This is the C programming course from the University of Washington in Seattle, if you poke around you'll find the other online available courses.

    10. Re:Bandwidth Spike by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      I know UIUC used to have a lot of notes out, but the university was trying to force the profs to password protect the page (which stunk because as a student I used the web pages to judge the value of the class before signing up). Some of the profs were fighting it.

      At any rate, thank you for putting the material on the web. I have yet to have a chance to read them, but the spread of knowledge and quality of education can only be improved by actions like these.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    11. Re:Bandwidth Spike by shivkuma · · Score: 1
      Folks, I have been successfully slashdotted -- my sys admin figured out why the site is so sluggish.

      One way to reduce the load is to order a CD-ROM set. I have amended the CD-ROM ordering page -- so that you can contact me and name your price for the CD set (i do have a suggested amount).

      -Shiv

    12. Re:Bandwidth Spike by shivkuma · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Folks,

      The web server is on its knees as predicted and the entire department is affected. So, I have had to remove the high bandwidth/quality streams off the web area. But they are available in the the CD-ROM set (name-your-price ordering).

      I plan to add a lot more material in diverse areas -- electrical engg, CS, mathematics, physics etc. I need to strike a balance between putting valuable free stuff and being voluntarily compensated (using name-your-price ordering of high-quality versions) so that i will have the incentive to put more free stuff.

      this is indeed a pilot in open distance education -- i would invite views/comments on how best to balance all these considerations..

      -Shiv

  2. Bittorrent... by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 1

    Would be nice if someone could put a bittorrent in f.scarywater.net or some other place

  3. Re:Lecture 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Read it more carefully -- Note there is no lecture 6, 11, 19 -- class was cancelled on those days.

  4. Re:Lecture 11 by tha_mink · · Score: 1

    Lecture 11??? Pssst....I can't even get index.html.

    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  5. free classes, except for me by Chrome3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I just paid 3k$ to take the broadband networking class this past spring semester. Where can I get my refund?

    On a relavent note. Shiv was a very good professor, and I learned an extreme amount of information.

    1. Re:free classes, except for me by neildaswani · · Score: 1


      Previous posts to Slashdot have asked about how to get started learning about security. A solid networking background is essential to learning security, and Prof. Shiv's course could help you get that background. Once you have a grasp of networking, if you are interested in learning about network security, you can take a course such as the one at http://www.learnsecurity.com/

    2. Re:free classes, except for me by bluethundr · · Score: 1

      I just paid 3k$ to take the broadband networking class this past spring semester. Where can I get my refund?

      On a relavent note. Shiv was a very good professor, and I learned an extreme amount of information.

      You can always get a free education if you are a self starter. Just go to Barnes and Noble and your set for a mere fraction of what the Uni charged you.

      Of course, most of what you were charged was for the opportunity to point at a piece of paper and say to a potential employer and say "See! I really DO know my stuff!"

      This past fall, I decided to go back to college at NYU under the auspices of the McGhee School which is a branch of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. SCPS is meant to help adults who have to actually work for a living get back into the Uni system, but it also provides for non-credit classes.

      The classes have all been pretty high caliber so far, with decent to excellent instructors. But, what I've found is that what you're getting is a mixed bag of credit and non-credit students who are all learning the same thing! Credit students are being popped at the regular NYU student rate of roughly $1000 PER CREDIT!!! SCPS non-credit students pay roughly $1,000 PER CLASS.

      Rather than get an ulcer over this fact, I just tell myself that those letters NYU are gonna gleam pretty brightly on that (very expensive) piece of paper I'll have when I'm done. Will it gleam brightly enough to justify the expense? Guess I'll know once I'm roughly $100,000 smackaroos in the hole.

      --
      Quod scripsi, scripsi.
  6. Re:Lecture 11 by Chrome3 · · Score: 1

    Those were days when we had exams.

  7. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Do I know of a way? yes. Will I tell you? No.

    Why? You've demonstrated ignorance in two ways. For starters, you spoke against Microsoft. Secondly, you didn't look into the problem or read the posts enough to find the obvious solution.

    a child could figure it out, give it a shot.

  8. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by pillohead · · Score: 1

    hmmm... right-click save target as in any browser that has that option. Fetch on any Unix,Linux,*BSD type machine should do the trick.

  9. Thank you very much by GCP · · Score: 1

    I really appreciate your doing this!

    --
    "Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
  10. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by shivkuma · · Score: 1

    Yes you can right click and download each file. i hope to convert it into a non-MS format (eg: mp4) sometime soon when i find the tools and i can batch process it...

    best
    Shiv

  11. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dickheads like you make the comments in slashdot not worth reading.

    Here is a prof who takes his whole lecture series and hands it to you FOR FREE AS IN BEER and all you can do is whine about the format.

    If you really don't want to support M$ in anyway then don't download the files.

    Never look a gift horse in the mouth!

  12. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by shivkuma · · Score: 1

    Folks,

    Does someone know a way to extract MP3 audio out of ASF video files? Is there a utility that can do it? Also can someone suggest a utility to convert ASF files into MPEG format?

    -Shiv

  13. Re:Any way to get these videos without ms crap? by H*(BZ_2)-Module · · Score: 2, Informative
    mplayer/mencoder will do both of the things you have asked for. I believe transcode will as well. Basically what you want is something like the following(using mencoder):

    mencoder movie.asf -o movie.mpg -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=96:vol=6 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1300:vhq:v4mv

    You'll have to tweak the options to get desirable results.

  14. Thanks by Quill_28 · · Score: 1

    For all who will use this thanks for putting this up.

    Also, is there a web page somewhere the indexes this type of stuff?