summary for the week

The week was so challenging. Had two assignments.The first one was browsing on HTML,creating an account with geocities.com and to finally upload a picture into my profile.I few hints to share on how to go about it would be;clicking into www.geocities.com,go into device manager.If you have an account like me,you use your yahoo password to sign in.you go under (manage) and you open file manager and you go to upload files by browsing through the images of your interest.You look around and locate the URL address by coping it and pasting it in your profile where it is written (about me).
We learnt on javascripts,visual basic scripts,computer codes,WIFI connections, Firewalls,bridging using AP-CLIENT and its advantages.The bridging was interesting. It allows for fast internet because you may restrict other users from using your network.The computer which is the access point will have a MAC address and so will the client. This will allow only the two to communicate and blocking other users. The speed is usually 54Mps. If there are more clients, the speed is reduced. This explains why we complain if the internet is slow without understanding that alot of clients are connected to one access point and each person doing a span of things.
Depending on the type of routers, it may have 2 or 3 MAC addresses. You may get the MAC address for your PC or router by going to the start bar and going to run and type( ipconfig /all )
It will give you all the important parameters.
The last exercise was to take photos. We went to the dam,was fun and that explains the pictures in this blog post.
Later!

Assignment

Finally finished our assignment today. One problem we faced was that we didn't know that one of the routers IP address was already existing.
In order to get into the control panel for the router by using the software (dd-wrt), we went to the browser and typed in the IP address. upon doing that, a page was displayed and it gave different configuration modes, wireless settings, administration settings etc. we went under the wireless bar and put our settings to AP- CLIENT ,Put the IP settings to static and changed the host part and kept the network part, other settings were also done. When pinging one PC from the other, we could read out that all the data was transfered and nothing lost. We gave the two routers names and we were able to bridge the two routers.
We noticed that Different subnets couldn't talk to each other until we used a gateway.The only problem we faced was in trying to connect the client PC to the internet and thats what we are working on today. As we further on did our assignment, in order for the Access point to be connected to the network we needed a gateway.
The other set of routers were challenging. The model was WRT54G version 7. The only thing we managed to do was to be able to see one PC from the other by setting the routers. It was not possible to bridge the routers by using the software WRT.We configured the routers and did the necessary settings. The following were the IP addresses in our assignment.
for the access point we used 10.1.1.190 (wan) and 192.168.2.1 (lan).
for the client, we used 192.168.2.2 (wan) and 192.168.3.1 (lan).

Knock knock

hallo,
Today,we were given an assignment on how to make two computers communicate with each by using a wireless network. We were given 2 routers, the documentations, in short 2 full and sealed packages containing all the information needed for the set up wizard.
We were in two groups but we decided to work together to put all our ideas in achieving the assignment. It took us the whole day to put everything in place unfortunetly, we had a problem on the final part of the installations. It was when entering the password on step 7. Upon typing in the password, the pop up was telling us to unplug the DSL cable and plug it back again but still the same problem. And now this time, it told us to enter a password again and again.
I called it a hot afternoon,tried all passwords but still failed to go ahead.
Today has marked a year since I last came here and I thought of sharing three or four photos I took. I asked my friends to take me round and they took me to a place called Gideons and the dam. It was a beautiful day.I enjoyed myself tho i got tired. It was kilometers away, as if i were on my way to the promised land.
How was the weekend?
It was fun. We had volleyball on saturday and sunday afternoons around 16:30hrs. Musapa the sports captain blew the whistle inviting everone to come and organize themselves. We could have been 25. The winning team kept on replacing the losers from each play. You could have been there. Where you?
On sunday the kitchen was closed so we all assembled at Mr Aniset Kamanga's place and had lunch. We were 9 of us, Aniset, Musapa, Mwatwa and the 6 of us. Mr Van stam donated 2 pizzas. mhe mhe mhe, they were so delicious.
Now getting back to today;
At 16 hours we called it a day but of course continued straggling trying to finish up the assignment.
Bye bye.

Chech this out

Hallo viewers!
Today Mr Van Stam, the director of linknet in macha came with a visitor overseas to look at the mighty projects being done in macha.They came in class and observed what we were doing and told us about the meeting he had with the minister of Education in lusaka.The meeting was fruitful and they will soon be coming to macha and hoping that they take a part in this investment for the rural people and the upcoming Ubuntu Campus.
Today i should say i'm impressed on the technology i'v seen in macha, the wireless internet, the networking,the hospital,MIAM and in general the plan and the design of the community,Its beautiful. People should see this.It may be in the rural area but the activities being done by everyone is great.Everyone works together all are friendly and above all everyone looks up to God to make things work.Visit this place and you'll see the beauty.A few years from now,Macha will be everyones place to visit and invest.
Mr Gertjan Van Stam,the Director of linknet has been in Zambia since 2004 and from what i'v seen around this place he is a man with a vision,helping to develop the local peoples skills and free training.The locals are 6 so far and they are doing A+ which constitutes of basic software,hardware,networking etc.
They are been taught by Mr Jonathan Backens,a young man from united states,He did Combined courses in Engineering and Computer science as majors and some other stuff.A Good teacher indeed. The local students can actally build computers, can determine sources of failure for several problems in troubleshooting or looses of signal , helping users,can set up a network just a few to mention..And i should say that is great.They havn't been to college but they are being taught by someone that has been to university and they are good.Like yesturday, we were putting up internet cables and connecting them to our PC's,(RJ 45 cables) and testing if they were working,and they did!
I believe that if people are talented they should extend a hand to others like what Mr vanstam and Mr jonathan are doing.
Jumping to class now,
Today we were learning about security, How information is transfered from one computer to another via internet.
Data is bundled together as packets and for it to be transfered to another computer through the internet, headers are attached to it.
The first header tells us what program is used to read the file.It is usually FTP, and it is attached to both ends of the data.The second headers surrounds the first ones and are called TCP which tells us where the data is coming from and where it is going, it will give you the IP Addresses and finally the data with the headers is sent to the required destination.Upon arrival to the desired computer the pieces are put back together and the headers fall out the outer ones first and the inner ones second.One at a time. The inner headers will again tell us which program should be used to open the files. Finally the receiver gets their lets say song and open it through windows media player for instance.
One would wonder how your internet service provider knows that you are connected to the internet.The two main ways are:
1. Through Point to point connection ( PPP).A number is dialed to your ISP to be connected and their is need for a password.
2. Through DSL. A single telephone line goes through a DSL box and two other
connections extends from the box.One goes to your PC and the other to your
phone. This is advantageous. You can have a single connection to serve to
two tasks in your house or work place.
On Security measures we discussed various viruses and how they affect your computer,and certain ways to prevent down loading them.
Examples of common viruses includes:
1. Boot sector virus, this one moves the information in the boot sector
2. Stealth virus, it constantly changes
3. Root kit, This one loads before your operating system loads. It can change
the system and it cannot easily be found
4. Spyware ,Its a hidden software which reports on you to a website
5. Worm, It is self Replicating
6. Keylogger, records your typing and sends it to a the website
7. Browser hijacker, Everytime you open a browser you go to their web page
Wow,just a few to mention.
How can you prevent them, the most important ones are that:
a) Do not open on links in the emails
b) Do not forward messages anyhow
c) Scan the attached document.

I hope you'll get one to two tips from what i got from class today

What I learnt today!

Today was a beautiful but rather a hot day.
I learnt about PROXY in networking.How a group of PCs are connected to a gateway all the way to a web page say (www.google.com) and finally the internet.
A Gateway is a generic name used which shows how a LAN gets to another network ,it allows one network to communicate with another network whilst a proxy is a server which acts anintemediary between computers and the internet, In short it makes requests for you.
I further learnt on proxy-caching which simply means the storing of webpages accessed often. One interesting thing on how go about proxy-caching is to follow some steps below.
1. The user requests for a webpage
2. A proxy interrupts requests and asks for the web page in place of the user
3. The web page is sent back to the proxy
4. The proxy stores the web page in a file/ cache on the screen
5. The proxy sends copy to the user

Windows uses a version of proxy called ICS.
I further experienced on how to locate and get an IP Address, which can be found through the static or the Dynamic way and also the classes of networks and how to write them.
I think todays lesson was pretty cool and interesting.Some of these things you don't get to learn about them by using the school,s syllabus but through research work and interest.
Later!

Testing!

My name is bridget kamanga. My friends call me biddy. I'm actually trying if this blogging stuff works. we were learning about it in class some two days ago and i thought i should try it out.Thanks to my teacher jonathan.
I'm a forth year student at the university of zambia studying electrical engineering. I'm specializing in electronics and telecommunications.
To the left, that is me with my school mates during some schools function.
I'm currently in macha right now for a month. I'm attending a workshop on wireless networking, solar panels and some other stuff. I'm hoping to benefit a lot and extend the knowledge elsewhere.
It's kind of cool and fun.Away from the busy city and stressful life. We are right in the middle of the bush.
Wow, i think its time up.The blogging test is over.