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Visual Network Simulator To Teach Basic Networking?
unteer writes "I am a US Peace Corps volunteer currently teaching a computer technician course at a technical college in Kenya. My students have all completed the Kenyan equivalent of high school and have been accepted into a program where they give a year of nation-building non-military service in return for a technical education. My students' course load includes an introduction to computer networking, and this is where my problem lies. Do any of you know of a visual network simulator that can create an interactive network map that allows me, the instructor, to manipulate various components of a network, including the physical media, routing configuration, and which applications are being used to submit data? An example would be to have a visual of the differences between mail traffic and web traffic, and be able to show how the configuration of a wireless network might be different from a wired network. I know this may seem silly, but visuals of all this are critical to getting ideas across. It doesn't even have to be technically accurate, but rather just pictorially accurate, possibly just labeling the various components correctly. Also, it would be highly preferable if it ran on Linux, as I teach using FOSS only."
The academic version is free. Unfortunately OPNET is Windows only.
OPNET and Wireshark make for some very informative lab work.
URL to some labwork used by various universities:
http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/coe/ashraf/RichFilesTeaching/COE081_540/BPG_OPNET/BrownLabManauls
(I'm not sure where these labs came from, I think from a book. My networks lecturer used them as lab work for a 2nd/3rd year network course)
What do you mean by that?
Our world is full of proprietary technology.
Including things as basic as writing utensils. Ink cartridge designs are often proprietary, and the manufacturers don't release manufacturing specifications.
Does that mean Ink pens should not be used in a classroom, I think not?
It is obvious from the description that the design of the simulator itself would not be the subject of the class.
Teaching introductory network classes does not involve teaching students anything about simulators, except, perhaps, how to use one.
The simulator is a tool, just like a physical model would be a tool.
You don't need to be choosing an inferior physical model to use in your classroom, just because the manufacturer releases full specifications that would be needed to clone the model, than the more instructive choice.
Of course cost may be a legitimate factor
I assume you have some lab computers that are already part of a network, can't you just install wireshark on them and use the existing network? You won't be able to teach everything, but you can probably cover a lot of it that way. Learning tends to be easier for me when I'm looking at the actual thing anyway. If you trust them with root access (or have automatic restores) they can experiment with different configurations too.
Is there one that I can load Windows, Linux, BSD, and any other system on? That can also emulate other CPUs?
I would like to be able to do something similar to this XKCD, but with random software and routers.
... but I just love "Warriors of the Net".
It gives a pretty good idea on how networking works, and some of the visual metaphors are quite awesome.
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
You act like the kids are paying for a univerisity education and the OP is shorting them because he hates Windows. News flash: he is a *volunteer* in the Peace Corps. He's teaching in Kenya. That would be in Africa, bordering coutries like Ethopia and Somalia. Do you think it's possible that he's using FOSS to maximize his budget?