Опыт дистанционного проведения практических занятий по построению сегмента сети Интернет

Abstract

Epidemiological conditions in autumn 2020 required that the most of courses and training in High school have to be executed in distant mode, online. This paper is devoted to moving online the practical training on computer network management, more concretely – on building of the segment of the Internet. This training was executed for several years in the CS department of the Lomonosov State University in the traditional way in the classroom. The scenario of the training includes configuring static routing, name service (DNS) and the firewall. The training was executed using the FreeBSD OS running in the virtual machines on the classroom workstations. The specialty of the solved problem is the reconstruction of the physical training network in the distant, distributed mode. The paper contains the brief description of the training scenario, with the focus on features with help or, in opposite, complicates the online execution, the description of the technology to reconstruct the training network, the discussion on tools for communication between trainer and trainees, the conclusions from the first experience of the distant training. The union of virtual private network technologies and bridging technologies (i.e., packet commutation by means of the OS software) was used to build the distributed training network. The Zoom online conferencing system was used for communications between trainer and trainees; alternatives are discussed shortly. The main conclusion from the experience of the online training is that online training with described scenario requires in 1,5 times more time than similar training in the classroom. Additional conclusion: to detect whether the trainee has completed a training step, an analysis of network traffic should be used as wide as possible instead of tests and inspection of configurations in trainee’s workstations. The results of the work can be used in case of repeated tightening of epidemiological conditions as well as in faculties and courses of distant education.