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Ask Slashdot: Software For Learning About Data Transmission?

Posted by timothy on from the take-this-string-and-those-cans dept.

bellwould writes "In teaching information tech to a 13-year-old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), I've found she's wildly interested in the details of data transmission but not programming. We've had limited success with command-line tools like traceroute and tcpdump, but now I'm seeking tips/advice on software that may help her explore and visualize things like transmission protocols." What would you recommend?

4 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Umm by M0j0_j0j0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Play data games with a wireshark on someones network, and have fun decoding the packets.

  2. Nmap with GUI by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nmap comes with a GUI called Zenmap. If you want to be visual, the GUI has a tab labeled "Topology". There are also self-explanatory tabs for "Hosts" and "Services". It's also a nice way to teach your child about security.

  3. Re:EtherApe by rwa2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Careful with the CamelCase, but http://etherape.sourceforge.net/ is a fun real-time connection visualizer. We used that for a lot of network demonstrations.

    The command-line based "iftop" is also really nice to get a quick realtime overview of what's using bandwidth.

    I think she'll have lots of fun with any of the Wardriving software, which would also give you maps.

    For Android, there are a few pretty interesting real-time displays. "Wifi Analyzer" will have her running all over the place exploring wifi signal attenuation. "OpenSignal" is also a cool app I just started playing with that will let you do the same with cell towers, which also shows their location on a map. Also look at "GPS Status" to visualize where all of the GPS satellites are, and what kind of attenuation you'd get from each one's signal with trees / buildings / mountains in the way.

    Have fun!

  4. I see a rewarding career path ahead... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm an adult female with ASD and I, too, was fascinated by data transmission. I couldn't hack school but for a couple decades I was an excellent (and highly compensated) network engineer, I recommend Wireshark and some books: "TCP/IP TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol. 1" by Richard Stevens, "Data Communications, Computer Networks, and Open Systems (4th Edition)" by Fred Halsall, and "Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols (2nd Edition)" by Radia Perlman.

    She might also be interested in databases, which is where I went when networking started to get dull.