Extra, extra, read all about... nothing!

Part 1 to the neswrougps saga starts with me trying to sign up to a newsgroup... after spending about an hour trying with no luck I was almost ready to give up, when I stumbled onto this site.


That in combination with going to google, which automatigally signed me in to my account, and then wondering what the "my group" tab at the top did, actually resulted in being able to sign up for some news groups. I ended up signing up for 7 of them!!

Part 2 results in waiting a few days so that I actually get some newsgroup alerts... only to find that I then had to go through another whole process to activate them further brefore reading!!! ARRRGH, at this point I give up on the newsgroups, and conclude in the current age or RSS feeds that they are a far more efficient and practical way to get up to date informaiton on a topic of interest. And if the point of joining the newsgroup is to add to a conversation.... well forums are just far more practical and user friendly to join.

I think I'll pass on participating in the convuluted process required to be part of a news group!

Listing things

Unlike in the email post where I said I didn't get much out of the topic and then talked for ages, this one will be short! I also didn't get much out of looking at the lists except a lot of disappointment.

When browsing topics I found it very difficult to find topics on my specific interests, only broader categories that they sort of fitted into. Then when I read the posts they didn't seem to really tie in with the topic description, like this one. Maybe it was because most of the ones that caught my attention were not moderated?

A list is good in theory and I can see how they would be good for ongoing information on a topic of interest, but finding said topic with a quality list seems to be the difficulty.

I looked at some other topics that I wasn't so interested until I found a moderated topic... the posts looked to be better quality and stayed on topic!

Over all I've concluded that lists can be useful if you want ongoing information on a topic and you can find a moderated list for your topic of interest, otherwise they are a waste of time.

Email Reflections

I found this section of the course so far the least useful and interesting. While it was good to 'refresh' on good use of email, there was practically nothing in this section that I was not already aware of and not already doing... all the same we have been given some questions to reflection on and answer so here goes....

Messages - What Information Can You See?
A lot of information can be gleaned from an email message. When we look at the message itself, the header section in particular can tell us a lot.

First by looking at where the email message has come from we can see the user name - that may or may not indicate their real name, and the domain or place that hosts the email account. This is only useful to let us know who has sent the message (if it is a user name that is known) and the domain might also give us a clue to where the message has come from, especially if it includes a company or business name.

It is always important to know (especially in a business setting) if the message being received is private or sent to several people. This can be quickly ascertained by looking at the To: and CC: fields in the header.

The date the message is sent is also important and should be visable in the header. If you get a message requesting an action with in a certain time frame (eg, please do xyz by close of business today), would need to acted upon very differently if viewed on the day it was sent, vs the following day.

And perhaps in many ways the most important part is the subject... otherwise how can we know what the email is about!

A habit of mine when I don't know the email address is to scan to the footer first when reading a message to see who it is from - that is provided I even open it, which I may not if the sender is unknown. The information in the footer varies a lot depending on the sender and can range from just a name (sometimes not even that!) through to a full signature with there title, company and contact details for phone, post and fax.

Finally the body or the message - what the sender actually typed. Depending on the quality of the information they have sent, this can tell us a lot or very little at all and will vary from message to message.

Sending and Reply - CC, Bcc and Reply All
The CC option on emails is useful for them times that you need to have someone else see a copy of a message that is not necessary for them. There are a few different times this might be necessary. One example is if your boss requests you complete a task that involves emailing, often in this case (depending on the task though), it might be useful to CC the boss in on message so they know you have completed the task. Another example is when something is being planned, say an event, some people who are not directly involved in the planning may still need to be made aware of important decisions being made, so might be CC'ed in as a way of this happening.

Bcc is useful in much the same way as CC but with a hidden element. When using Bcc the other recipients of the message can't see anyone it was sent to in the Bcc section. I don't consider it polite to use Bcc in most settings. Using Bcc implies that you have something to hide. Despite this there are some legitimate settings for Bcc - mainly to do with privacy of others. For example if you are friends with two people who would not want the other one to know of their email address, but you want to forward the same funny joke to both, Bcc is a way to do this with one message without sharing their email addresses with each other.

While they are often useful, it is important to not overuse CC and Bcc though. No one wants to see a whole email discussion that is not really relevant to them so they can be told the final outcome! When using CC and Bcc think 'does this person really need to be included?'

It is much the same when using the 'reply all' function. Should your reply really be directed at everyone on the original email, or should it only be directed at the sender? If your reply is something of a more private nature, or something that might be confrontational (eg. heavy questioning them on what they are saying or disagreeing with what they sent) to the other party, a private reply should most likely be used. If the reply or even questioning is more of an information reply (eg, Which venue will the meeting be in?) it is likely to be of relevance to everyone so the reply all function might be appropriate. Whether or not reply all should be used really needs to be thought about on an email by email basis.

Attaching Files - Consider the Receiver
One of the biggest issues with email attachments (well ignoring technical issues of a user having trouble using attachments) is the differences in computing systems. It is easy to assume that the person opening your attachment has a compatible computer and compatible software, though this is not always true.

Some ways to ensure the attachment can be opened by the receiver are:

1. Check to see what software they have by asking them, then you can make sure the files you send are compatible to their files.
2. Tell them in the message what software and version was used to make the file, that way they can select the appropriate software at there end to open it.
3. Make the file small enough they can open it quickly - this may require compressing the file. There is nothing worse than waiting that long for a file to download that it either times out and fails or your thought process has moved on to something new.

Another thought on email and its attachments. I have downloaded and installed TextMaker Viewer. I find it is very useful when I receive document attachments in formats my computer is not familiar with, especially when going between Linux and Windows platforms. I have only used it with PCs so I don't know if it works with software from Mac's.

Managing Your Email - Filters
Most of the filters that I use are for ensuring I'm not inundated with junk email. This is mainly true of my web based email accounts, though less of an issue on my work email. I find the amount of filtering I use varies a lot from one email account to the next, at last count I have 8 different email accounts each with its own purpose.

On one of my web based email accounts that is particularly prone to junk email, I have the filter set so every message that is not from someone in my address book already is automatically directed as junk! This places it in a junk mail folder, that I do quickly check about once a week... occasionally there is a legit message from someone I know when they have changed email accounts.

On the other hand I have placed no filters on my work email account. The work server has a lot of filtering and it is almost unheard of for spam or viruses to get through. I have everything go straight to my inbox, and then I manually sort it from there (discussed more in the next section).

One of my other email accounts is used only for the various mailing lists that I have signed up for. In this account I have folders set up for each list and filter the incoming email so it sorts itself to the right folder - this filtering is done by the address of the incoming mail so needs updating occasionally. This way I can attend to the messages when I want instead of wasting time sorting through what could otherwise be a lengthy inbox.

Organisation - Folder Structure
I have two ways I arrange my file structure for emails - one for work and a different one for other emails. This is because the way I use the email accounts, and the way I need to retrieve past emails is different.

For my work email account I have a folder I have called 'Items to action', when checking my email if I have messages that will need more follow up than an immediate reply allows I move them to this folder so I can address them fully when I have the time later in the day. This is because I 'chunk' my email checking, so I read all my new emails at once (I do this a few time throughout the day), so during this time I only reply to messages that would not require more than a quick reply.

The rest of my work email is arranged by topics, with a topic for each area of my job, a topic of any personal messages I receive at work and additional topics for any short term projects (eg organising an event). This allows me to quickly view and retrieve all the emails on what I am doing at once. Within each topic I also have additional folders for sub -topics, but only in the areas with a high volume of email traffic or that are ongoing over a long period of time. This is to further reduce the amount of emails that need to be searched through when seeking specific information form one message.

M personal email is arranged by topics also but in a slightly different way. for example in one email account I have a 'friends' folder and inside it I have put sub-folders one 'family' and one for each 'group' of friends ( I make up nicknames of teach group). I do this as I often use email to plan a social event with a group of friends so want all of the emails together, though usually not between groups. I also have a other category folders such as 'bills', 'memberships', 'shopping' etc with some of these also having sub-folders. Again this is structures in a way that I personally find quick and easy to retrieve past information from.


I would like to acknowledge the tutorial that I have just read on email. No doubt I have paraphrased bits from that site, especially the first couple of topics, only having just read it before writing this!

...and so it continues

Finally, module 1 is finished... just 4 more and some assignments to go! Having finished the first module I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how I'm going in NET11.

Module 1
As mentioned already this is finally finished! Yay! I feel as if I learnt a lot about some of the more technical aspects of using networks during this module.

I took to using networks (and not just the internet) when the WWW was first becoming popular... I still remember winning a competition that got me a 48bps modem that was the fastest available at the time, and quickly hooking it up for use. I have been an avid daily internet user ever since and have always felt as if I understand the technology quite well.

During this first module I realised there is a lot going on 'beneath the surface' of the networks I use that I was not as fully aware of as I thought. This has given me an enthusiasm to continue through the rest of the modules to discover more hidden knowledge about using the internet and other networks.

Speed of Progress
Well this has been a bit hap hazard. I'm finding I tend to do a whole heap one day, then don't find time to even look at the course for several more days. I'm pretty much having one day on the weekend each week where I get most of the module and assignment work done and sometimes an evening or two during the week where I try and keep up with the ever growing discussion board posts.

Being at the end of the second week of the course and only having just finished module 1 I feel as if I'm progressing ok, but still not as fast as I would like. This feeling that I need to progress through the modules more quickly comes from having spent some time looking at the module requirements and the concepts assignment and thinking that it would be beneficial to finish the modules before doing the assignment.

The Concepts Assignment
I have finally had the time to read the concepts we can choose from a few times and digest what they are saying. Having done this there are still 10 concepts, from the Curtin NET11 concepts document, that stand out from the rest for me along with the reasons why.

1. Your audience's use of communication - this one appeals to me as I often come across issues at work that link very strongly with this concept and would like to delve into how to be more effective with communication.
2. Effective Internet communication combines technical and communicative competence - The idea that we need to understand how the communication works, to communicate effectively is one that I find intriguing.
3. Nettiquette - another concept that links in strongly with issues at work and a concept I would like to better understand so I can more effectively tackle or cope with issues that arise due to poor nettiquette.
4. The invisibility of difference - one that I can strongly relate to from personal experiences from both the human and technological perspective.
5. Communication is not complete upon receipt - this concept is one that I had not previously given conscious thought to, yet I find very intriguing and appealing to consider further.
6. The impact of text-based real-time chat - This is something that I have previously thought about over the last few years as the prevalence of the use of real-time chat (in my mind at least) has increased, and I would like to take these ponderings a lot further.
7. Active communication generates identity awareness - having recently taken on the role as a forum admin, I became acutely aware of how many members were registered yet did not post, something that I have not been as aware of in the past when being a member only on forums.
8. Public space and regulation - this concept discusses how public spaces work best when regulated, however excessive regulation is something I feel discourages creativity and innovation, so I would like to further consider how regulation is best imposed in a way that is beneficial without being too limiting.
9. The paradox of the World Wide Web - the concept name says it all, unraveling a paradox is always an interesting challenge.
10. Information and attention - this is interesting in a two fold manner, from that of someone seeking the attention of net users and also the perspective of the user having their attention sought.

Now of the fun bit of deciding which 4 I want to focus on for the assignment! I'm torn between selecting 4 that are related or 4 that are very different. Selecting related concepts would make it easier to focus the assignment and tie each section together, however selecting 4 disparate concepts would allow my research to cover a wider breadth of areas related to the internet.

I'm off to ponder the possibilities and catch up on the discussion board....

PC vs Web Based Ping and Traceroute

Traceroute
Further to the previous post on traceroute, the same trace to curtin.edu.au was done from my computer. This time it took only 13 hops (including 4 time out errors).

This result did not surprise me at all as I am in Australia and so is the curtin server (based on the .au at the end of there site address). This means the route did not need to go to other countries and the destination is physically closer. I realise physically closer does not always mean less hops, as it will depend of the routers available, however to me it makes sense that it would mean less hops in the majority of instances.

I was also not surprised to see the earlier part of the route was totally different. I was not surprised as the point of origin for the traceroute was quite different. On the other hand the last four hops were the same, also predictable as the route would have to eventually become the same as part of getting to the same final destination. I did however expect a few more hops near the end to be the same... Oh well, a bit of unpredictability makes it more interesting!

Ping

After doing a ping from http://centralops.net/co/ to see if the curtin.edu.au site was available I got the following results:

I then did a ping from my own computer using the DOS prompt and got the following results:

The ping from DOS prompt send one less packet of data. For both methods all packets were successfully sent and the IP address was exactly the same.

The differences were in the times. From the website the min, max and average times were all slower and from my own computer. This slower time was between 8 and 10 ms for each one.

When looking at this result in conjunction with the earlier traceroute results they make sense. As shown above the path from my computer has less hops than the one from the website, so it makes sense that this path is also slightly quicker.

Trace Route

The Initial Task and Results
After reading all about traceroute I used the http://centralops.net/co/ site to do a traceroute from there to the curtin.edu.au site. I decided to do this three times to see how much the results varied.... only to find they were exactly the same all three times!

Trace route results:



From the above a few things can be seen. First the IP hostname for Curtin university is 134.7.179.56 and it took a total of 16 hops to get to the destination. The reason for saying 16 hops is numbers 16-18 are time out errors and therefore not actual router hops.

The fact that the route stayed the same all three times is quite interesting and raised a few questions:

• Seeing as the routers should be sending the packets through the fastest path, is the fastest path fairly stable?
• Does the fastest path change, but slowly across the day?
• Would the path be the same (both length and routers involved) if I ran the same trace in an hour? Twelve hours? A day?
• Are other sites just as stable?

Testing out some of the questions
I kill some time waiting for an hour to pass by trying a different site to check its stability. After three traces to http://www.blogger.com/ I find that overall the route was very similar however steps 11 and twelve changed slightly...

First time:
hop rtt rtt rtt ip address
11 55 55 55 66.249.94.90
12 55 67 56 72.14.236.138

Second Time:
hop rtt rtt rtt ip address
11 55 55 55 66.249.94.90
12 55 55 68 72.14.236.142

Third Time:
hop rtt rtt rtt ip address
11 55 55 55 66.249.94.92
12 55 56 56 72.14.236.138


... after waiting an hour I run the first trace again and get the following results:


When I compare these to the first results some of the timings change, but the IP addresses still appear to be the same.

Conlusions
I realise this doesn't answer all the questions I posed and that my testing is nowhere near thorough enough to make my conclusions totally solid, but this is what I have concluded:
If there were no 'busy' patches on the net, the fastest path would stay the same.

• The 'busy' patches stay fairly stable, resulting in multiple traces having the same or similar results.
• 'Busy' patches usually only affect part of the path, so that is why only part of the path changes.
• These fluctuations in how busy the routers are occur continuously, though only by small amounts

Is FTP hosting secure?

This task involved installing an FTP client on my computer, linking to the given site and opening the readme file. This resulted in being able to finish the statement to say "according to the readme file, 'CAPITALIZATION MATTERS'".

I found this a very easy task to undertake, however it raised a lot of questions for me. First I wondered if that meant everything in the directory could be accessed.... a few clicks later and a few randomly opened files and I concluded probably yes, at least with as much certainly as I could conclude without opening them all.

Then this got me thinking should we be able to access all the files? It could be assumed that if you are a FTP host you would only make files available that you are willing to have shared... but mistakes do happen.

I also wondered about editing files and uploading files, so I decided to do a little test. I created word document called 'upload testing' with the words 'upload testing' inside and attempted to upload them. I was actually relieved when this resulted in an error message and wouldn't let me upload the document. This lead me to feel as if FTP hosts are more secure than they first appear to be, and lead me to the conclusion that the security of information being hosted in this manner is up to the person controlling the host.

Telnet part 2

WOW that was a trip and a half down memory lane to when computer graphics used to always be really basic! Maybe I’m showing my age again, but I remember when something like that would have really impressed me! – I guess I am still impressed however that someone either took the time… or got so bored that they created that! I would have taken ages and shows a lot of creativity.

It really doesn’t make me any more appreciative of telnet as a whole than the first task did, even if it was more interesting to look at. That being said, I can see that telnet can be used in ways that are quite different to the Internet, and that being said certainly makes it a useful piece of technology.

The biggest thing that I realised by completing that task was how far technology, especially the Internet, has come in the last 25 years. While the trip down memory lane was fun, I now more fully appreciate the quick and simple ways that tasks can be done on the WWW!

Telnet Part 1

My Telnet journey started with a search on Telnet to do some reading on how to use it. I found myself looking at a website discussing telnet and how many browsers will run Telnet sites anyway, well that's how I interpreted this anyway "NOTE: If you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, your telnet program may be already configured to run when you click on a telnet address" (Accessed from http://www.windweaver.com/w95tips5.htm on 8/3/09). So off I went and loaded IE and put in the address we were given.

This resulted in a page loading that looked and operated like any normal web page. I was able to complete the task as I could search for the given author and email myself the results of that search. However I was left feeling as if that was not exactly the required task. This lead me to try the address for the second task in the same way, only to receive a message that the site was forbidden, confirming my hunch that I had not done the task correctly.

I pursued this further by going to the discussion to see how others had approached this task and any issues they may have had. Sure enough someone had a suggestion of going to Start/Run and typing in Telnet (Thanks Hannah!). I gave this a go and sure enough a little telnet box cam up on the screen that looked a lot like the DOS command box.

Confident that I was now on the right track I typed in the address, only to get another error message! Noticing that just like with DOS there is a help command I typed in ?/help and got a list of all the available commands, as follows.


This lead me to type in o library.deakin.edu.au and finally connect properly. I selected v for the display option, which was a random guess then followed the rest of the task instructions. There were two authors with the surname listed so I emailed both results to myself. The following shows the first email received.


Thoughts and Reflection
Once I finally got Telnet working I was not overly impressed with it. I didn't feel that it really provided any more functions that the Deakin library website provided. Maybe if I hadn't gone to their website instead first I may have been more impressed.

I found the interface of Telnet straight forward to use, though this may be because I grew up using a Commodore 64 and later a DOS based system which had a very similar interface. I think I'm showing my age a bit now!

One major issue I had with the interface was the inability to use cut and paste. As a result I mistyped the authors name at first and had to fix this up when there were no results. I also found myself double checking my spelling of everything and unfortunately I make a lot of typos, and this slowed down the whole process a bit.

Forward to task two... hopefully that will lift my opinion of Telnet.

A final note: I went back and had another look at that web site late in the day... If only I had clicked on the link to go to the next page in the first place, I would of got the instructions on how to use Telnet properly in the first place!

Harware, Protocols and Other Bits

After reading through all the introductory information on how the Internet works, I found myself getting sidetracked as usual by clicking on all the links for more information. During my random browsing I came across this quiz in the howstuffworks.com site. - click on the heading to see the quiz.

I wondered how much I had actually managed to take in from the reading so had a go at the quiz. I managed a 9 out of 10, and while not a perfect result helped to reassure me that I am understanding a lot of the reading and I'm not in over my head!

So Far So Good....

It has now been a week since I made a start and I'm still in the land of overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to do. Unfortunately I have not got as far through the course so far this week as I would like, but I'm hoping to fix that today and tomorrow.

Part of the difficulty with keeping up is the sheer number of discussion posts. I've been trying to read them all and it is leaving little time for actually getting the work done! As a result I have decided to reverse my approach from now on, and do any work that doesn't involve looking at the discussions first.... then move on to the discussions. I guess only time will tell if this is an effective strategy.

The other issue with keeping up with the discussions is they way they load. That may sound strange but in blackboard each individual post needs to be loaded before being read... unless there is a work around I'm yet to find. Most forums allow a whole thread to be loaded and viewed at once, meaning less time being wasted on loading pages and this makes keeping up with posts and replying much more simple.

Anyway that's enough ranting about the shortcomings with the discussion section of blackboard. Time to go work on those course modules.

O Week - Its all about to begin

I've just printed off the unit outline and begun the process of being overwhelmed about what needs to be done! After reading through all the requirements of the course and taking a bit of time to digest what needs to be done, I have started to develop a sense of excitement. I'm about to start studying again, and in a way that looks fun and interesting :)

I like the idea of using the blog to record ongoing thoughts and issues as well as progress. This is fairly new to me but I'm up for the challenge!

I had a few issues early on logging onto blackboard and finding the unit outline... but now that that is all sorted and some of the first tasks are done my confidence is increasing... I'm about to go offline and plan out my strategy of attack in my diary for how to best tackle all of the unit requirements... so until next time, farewell.

Top 5 Tips for New Bloggers

While this is not my first ever blog post in my life, I haven't blogged much before. I'm starting this blog with my top 5 tips for new bloggers.

Tip #1 - Find a blogging site you like!! Take the time to have a look at a heap of sites and find one that you find intuitive to use. I have done some blogging before but it was limited as I found the site I was using very counter intuitive and didn't enjoy the process. This one is intuitive to me :) and was found after trying out a few sites.

Tip #2 - Be yourself when writing - after all who wants to read a blog that has been that self moderated by the author that it is dry and boring to read! Develop your own voice and style and have fun with it, then others are more likely to find it fun and interesting as well. Though do spell check and re-read to edit for grammar, you want people to be able to read it!

Tip # 3 - Be more than just blocks of text, after all would you want to read several screens in a row of nothing but text? Use images, sub headings, diagrams and other graphics to break up your text a bit. This makes if easier for readers to scan to the bits they want and to not get lost in a mountain of text!

Tip # 4 - Select and develop a theme for your page that you like, after all you have to look at it each time you view your own blog. Your theme is also a good way to express your own style so have a bit of fun with it while making it something easy on the eye. Ensure your blog is set out well without too much extra clutter to detract from the blog contents and also looks appealing.

Tip # 5 - Introduce yourself! That way readers of your blog know who you are. Think about what you do want to share though, as personal privacy is also important! Keeping that in mind introduce yourself, sharing aspects of who you are that you are comfortable to put online.