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This page is now obsolete. Please go to the ETSU D2L site for up-to-date course information.

Laboratory Instructions

This page contains the instructions to guide you through each of the course labs. Please print them out and bring them to class for the weekly labs. Don't bother printing them out until a few days before you come to the lab since the instructions are sometimes altered as late as the weekend before the lab is to be performed. A few of the labs will be held in the laboratory in room 491 of Nicks Hall. In these cases, you should have Internet access to the lab instructions. It will be announced in class the meeting time before the lab as to where the lab will be held.

All of these documents are in either HTML or PDF format. If you do not have a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Viewer for the PDF files, download the free copy from their web site.

Exercise	Comments
PC BIOS Upgrade & Configuration	We will be updating the BIOS and examining the configuration of the Dells in the lab. You must download the BIOS flashing program for this lab and bring it with you to class on a USB thumb drive, CD, or floppy disk.
Hard drives	We will be examining the physical connections of hard drives (IDE, SATA, and USB).
PC Motherboard	We will be installing all of the devices connected to a motherboard necessary to get a PC up and running.
PC Troubleshooting	This lab will simply be an exercise to see if you can fix what the instructor breaks on your PC.
MS Virtual PC and Linux Install	This lab provides an introduction to the concepts of virtualization. It will also take you through the installation of the first operating system: Linux. We have begun using Ubuntu Linux, so you will need to go to their website to download the latest installation CD image. You will not need to burn the CD - just make sure you have the image stored to your hard drive when you come to class. Click here if you want to see a demonstration of using Virtual PC.
Installation of a Linux RPM package and using tar and make	This lab involves the installation of a package using the Red Hat Package Manager and uncompressing and compiling a package from a "tar.gz" file. Be sure to remember your hard drive! I will have copies of the installation packages in the lab, but it might be quicker for you if you bring your own copies. You can download a copy of the RPM package from here (right-click and save to disk) while the tar/make source code can be downloaded from Sourceforge here. For the virtual machines, I have combined both files into a single floppy disk image that you can download and mount as a floppy drive in Virtual PC.
A simple install of Windows	This is our second O/S install. Be sure to bring your hard drive and the Windows XP installation CDROM you burned. If you have trouble reading the lab notes, check out the old version that doesn't use JavaScript.
Intro to Windows XP Troubleshooting	This is a simple lab aimed at showing students how to access some of the resources available with XP. Please bring your hard drive and a blank CDROM with you to this lab.
Hard Drive Imaging (David Robinson, who will be running the lab, has provided notes in PowerPoint/pdf.)	This lab provides an introduction to hard drive imaging, a common practice to protect the configuration of a hard drive or to maintain large numbers of similarly configured machines.
Windows XP Registry	This lab presents a simple introduction to the XP Windows Registry which is a database containing information on all of the services and settings necessary for the operation of Windows. Bring your hard drive with its XP installation for this lab.
Memory Details	This lab examines issues regarding different types of memory and how they interface to the motherboard.
Hard Drive Performance	We will be measuring the different performance parameters of your drive's operation. This lab is to be done on a computer for which you have administrative privileges. Before you begin the lab, download an electronic copy of the lab sheet from here. You will be turning in the results from your lab on this sheet. The lab notes explain how to install the needed tools to your computer.
Serial Protocol Analyzer	This lab uses the GNU-licensed software Wireshark to examine TCP, IP, and Ethernet packets. You will be examining packets from a captured session found at http://csciwww.etsu.edu/tarnoff/labs2150/network/SampleCaptureSession.cap In order to get full credit for the lab, you need to fill out this worksheet. I will have copies at class.

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