Lab sessions will take place on Wednesday mornings from 9:15am to 12:05pm in room MF124/125.
Lectures will take place on Wednesday afternoons from 1:15pm – 3:05pm in room MD108.
The Syllabus lists some of the core texts and finer details of this module from an administrative viewpoint. The philosophy of this module is not to confuse you with ‘spagetti code’ for low level network device handling but rather to provide you with a theoretical underlying knowledge of networking and within the labs to deepen your understanding of how digital communications works.
Notes
Lecture 1: Introduction to Networks and Introduction to Wireshark
Optional additional reading: A Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling.
Optional video clip History of the Internet in 8 minutes
Lecture 2: Physical Layer
Guest Speaker – Kainos
Optional additional reading: An Overview of Key Technologies in Physical Layer Security By Sanega et al.
Optional video clip: Physical Layer
Lecture 3: Data Link Layer
Guest Speaker – Learning Pool
Optional additional reading: An Architectural Framework for Data Link Layer Security with Security Interlayering By Altunbasak et al.
Optional video clip: Data Link Layer
Lecture 4: Medium Access Control Sub Layer
Optional additional reading: What is a MAC Address? by GeeksforGeeks.
Optional video clip: Data Center Tour
Lecture 5: Network Layer
Optional additional reading: Congestion Control in TCP by Mansi.
Optional video clip: Network Layer
Lecture 6: Transport Layer
Optional additional reading: Transport Layer by Tang et al.
Optional video clip: Transport Layer
Lecture 7: Application Layer
Optional additional reading: Application Layer Protocols in Computer Network by Gupta.
Optional video clip: The Convergence of Blockchain, Machine Learning, and the Cloud – Steve Lund, TEDx Talk
Lecture 8: Network Security
Optional additional reading: Enhancing Mobile Security through Comprehensive Penetration Testing by Roshanaei.
Optional video clip: A gift for the hackers documentary
Lecture 9: Cloud Computing
Optional additional reading: Can we make operating systems reliable and secure by Tanenbaum et al.
Optional video clip: Principles of Operating Systems
Lecture 10: Blockchain
Optional additional reading Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Optional video clip: The blockchain explained simply
Lecture 11: Wireless Networks
Optional additional reading: On challenges of sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks: A comprehensive survey of requirements, applications, and security issues by Al Akbar et al.
Optional video clip: Hacking WPA/WPA2 Wireless Security
LAB TUTORIALS
Week 1
Protocol Layers – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – How websites work & Putting it all together
Command Line Tools – Ping, IPconfig, NSlookup and more.
Think you can Outsmart Internet Scammers? – Take a test to tell the difference between a legitimate website and one that is a phishing attempt
Check to see if you have been exposed in a data breach
Week 2
Ethernet – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – DNS in detail & HTTP in detail
Netstat – Command line tool which presents information on active network connections and overall statistics.
How well are you protected against non-consensual Web tracking?
WayBackMachine – Check out sites such as Ulster or BBC to see how they have progressed (click bar graph at top to get quick views).
Week 3
DHCP – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing
TryHackMe – Windows Fundamentals part 1
DHCP – Viewing DHCP Client and DNS Client Status
Cyber threat live map – Visualisation of Threats from Kaspersky
HTTP vs HTTPS Test – Compare load times of the unsecure HTTP and encrypted HTTPS versions on a page
Week 4
ARP – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – Windows Fundamentals part 2
Bandwidth – Measure your Internet Connection upload & download speeds
Online Network Tools – An easy way to ping, traceroute, resolve names, check countries of origin and ports open.
Week 5
UDP and TCP – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing
TryHackMe – Windows Fundamentals part 3
Adversarial Examples – Forcing neural networks to predict anything we want to break the integrity of machine learning systems
Phishing IQ Test – Take a test to see if you tell the difference between a legitimate and phishing email?
Week 6
Class Test 1 at 12:15 during lab class. March 6th 2025
Week 7
HTTP – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – Linux Fundamentals part 1
HTML & Javascript – Create HTML & Javascript to validate forms (PDF)
A Simple Website – HTML Skeleton, Style Sheet, Using JavaScript, Creating a Layout & Building a Web Site
Can you spot a fake email? – Another phishing email IQ test
Week 8
SSL/TLS – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – Offensive Security Intro
Cyber threat live map – Visualisation of Threats from Arbor Networks
How long to hack my password – Find out how long your sacred password would take to bruteforce
Broken Access Control
Week 9
DNS – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
Metasploit: Introduction – An introduction to the main components of the Metasploit Framework.
Running Linux in a Browser.
Shields Up – Test your machines network defenses online
Live Visualisation of Real-Time Worldwide Attacks.
Week 10
ICMP – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
Solidity: Beginner to Intermediate Smart Contracts
Web Page Load Test – Run a diagnostic on a site to see resource loading waterfall charts & suggestions for improvements.
SQL Injection
Cross-Site Scripting
Week 11
802.11 – Wireshark Network Packet Sniffing Word version
TryHackMe – Containerisation and Docker introduction
Netcraft – Useful site for hackers to see what kind of server a site is running and time since last reboot.
Check to see if you are running an exposed local web server
Check to see Who is your ISP?
Week 12
Class test 2 at 12:15 during lab class. April 17th 2025
Class Tests
Please note that the first class test will examine you on what we did in lab class & the lecture material from weeks 1 to 5 inclusive. The final class test will examine you on content in labs (weeks 6-11) and material covered in lecture from week 1 to week 11 inclusive.
CLASS Test 1 – 50% (Week 6)
Class test during lab session on material covered in labs from weeks 1 to 5. March 6th 2025
CLASS Test 2 – 50% (Week 12)
Class test during lab session on material covered in labs from weeks 6 to 11 & material covered in class lecture from weeks 1-11. April 17th 2025.