CS10001: Computer Literacy – Lab Assignment #1 (D. Reed) 1

CS10001: Computer Literacy Lab Assignment #1

Goals: To create your electronic portfolio for this class so that the instructor may view your work online

and assign grades. To expand your knowledge about Internet protocols and specialty computers. To use an open-source software application to interact with a remote file server. To practice file transfer (uploading/downloading), folder creation, and file naming on the server. Specifics: The Internet protocols used in this lab are FTP (file transfer protocol) and Telnet (port 21 to

remotely access a network server). The specialty computer used is a file server with the address/name of research.kent.edu. An open-source software application is one that is free of charge. It is not distributed under a

commercial license (such as Microsoft). The open-source application used in this lab is called FileZilla.

Uploading and downloading files means that you are transferring files from source to target. Uploading moves files from the local machine (source) to the remote machine (target). Downloading moves files from the remote machine (source) to the local machine (target).

Steps: 1. Use your favorite browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and visit the class Web site at http://www.cs.kent.edu/~dreed/CS10001. Click on the Syllabus folder to see its contents. 2. Click on the revised copy of the class syllabus to view the document. Save a copy of this file to your local machine’s Desktop by using the Save a Copy option on the menu bar directly above the syllabus title. 3. Close the browser window. 4. Open the FileZilla application from Start All Programs FileZilla. 5. Connect to the server by using the information below:

Using the Quickconnect BarStep 1: Enter the “IP address”

for the FTP Server.

Step 2: Enter your Flashline

User ID.

Step 3: Enter your Flashline Password.

Step 4: Enter 21 for the

Port number

(Telnet protocol).

Step 5: Select

Quickconnect

for server

access.

CS10001: Computer Literacy – Lab Assignment #1 (D. Reed) 2

6. Double-click the public_html folder to see its contents. The folder should be empty unless you have used the server for other classes. Create a new CS10001 directory inside the public_html folder by using a right-click. See the following example:

7. Change the directory’s file attributes (permissions) by highlighting the CS10001 folder, using a right-click, and selecting the File attributes option. You will be presented with a “Change File Attributes” dialog box. Check the appropriate boxes as follows:

Owner reads, writes, and executes. Group reads and executes. Public reads and executes.

You should see the numeric value below the boxes set to 755. Select OK. 8. Double-click the CS10001 folder and notice that its contents are empty. 9. On the left side of the FileZilla application you will see the contents of the local machine on which you are working. Find and select the Desktop. One of the files on the Desktop is the revised syllabus saved from step 2. Click on this file to select it and upload it to the server by using one of the methods that follow:

Right-click on the selected source file and choose the option to “Upload”. Left-click the selected source file twice. Left-click and drag the selected source file to the target folder (CS10001).

Note: Always ensure that any file you plan to upload to the server is not open in a separate application. Failure to do this will result in the file being stuck in the queue and a transfer error may result.

CS10001: Computer Literacy – Lab Assignment #1 (D. Reed) 3

10. On the right side of the FileZilla application is the listing of files on the server. Notice that a heading bar exists above the files with the titles of Filename, Filesize, Filetype, Date, Time, and Permissions. For now, we are only interested in the Filename. 11. Position your cursor at the gray vertical bar between the headings Filename and Filesize and notice that the Filename section changes color. The cursor should also change to a vertical bar with two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Left-click, hold, and drag the cursor to the right and expand the view under the Filename heading. The full name of the file should be Syllabus_CS_10001_Spring_2009_Reed_Revision.pdf Note: All files contain two components—a filename and a file extension, and the two components are separated by a dot. With some exceptions, the filename may consist of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. The file extension is mainly composed of three characters although four characters may be used (Web pages created as “html”). The file extension is important because it visually tells us the type of file or which software application was used to create the file. Some examples of file extensions include doc (Word file), xls (Excel files), ppt (PowerPoint files), and pdf (Adobe portable document files). For the syllabus file, we can tell that the filename is “Syllabus_CS_10001_Spring_2009_Reed_Revision” and the file extension is “pdf”. 12. On the server, left-click on the syllabus file to select it and then right-click. Select Rename from the options and notice that a box appears around the full name. Position the cursor at the end of the filename and before the dot. Left-click and drag the cursor to the left selecting the filename. Replace the old filename with a new one—syllabus—and ensure that the dot and the file extension remain unchanged. Hit the Enter key to make the change. The name of the file should now look like syllabus.pdf 13. Properly disconnect from the server by selecting File Disconnect from the top of the FileZilla application. The right side of the application should become blank and this indicates that you are disconnected from the server. Close the application. 14. The file should now be accessible over the Internet, especially via a Web browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox). To find the file you will need to know the file’s URL (uniform resource locator). A more comprehensive discussion of URLs may be found in Chapter 3 of the textbook and will be a topic of future lectures. For now, let’s discuss the main components of any URL:

Protocol – commonly seen as http:// or https:// World Wide Web identifier – commonly in the format of www and following the protocol. Top-level domain – preceded by a dot and seen in the format of .edu, .org, .com, etc. Host – separated by dots and located between the World Wide Web identifier and the top-

level domain. Paths and subdirectories – anything that follows the top-level domain (preceded by a

slash). Domain name – the combination of the World Wide Web identifier, the host, and the top-

level domain.

CS10001: Computer Literacy – Lab Assignment #1 (D. Reed) 4

15. Open a Web browser and locate the syllabus file by using the URL format that follows: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~userid/CS10001/filename.ext Type this URL into the address space of the browser but make the following changes:

userid is replaced with your FlashLine userid filename is replaced with the current name of the file—syllabus ext is replaced with the current file extension—pdf Leave the dot separating the filename and file extension intact If you are successful, you will see the Adobe Reader software application start and a copy of the revised class syllabus will be viewable.

16. If you have any questions about the lab assignment, please see the instructor for assistance. Final Notes: For assistance with using any computer resources on campus, contact the Kent State Helpdesk at http://www.kent.edu/is/Assistance/HelpDesk.cfm (personal experience shows that phoning for assistance is better than sending e-mail). The KSU Helpdesk has many suggestions about specific software and hardware to use when working on campus computers or using KSU resources remotely. For Windows users, visit http://www.kent.edu/is/Software/DownloadsWindows.cfm for more information. Mac users may visit http://www.kent.edu/is/Software/DownloadsMac.cfm for details. To learn more about the open-source software application FileZilla, visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/. If you want to work remotely from home, then you may be interested in downloading and installing this application on your personal computer. See the instructor for any questions you may have. You may install and use more than one Web browser on your personal computer. Many students that take this class are not aware of this. If your operating system is Windows and you are using Internet Explorer, you may want to consider switching to a better browser—Mozilla’s Firefox. Visit http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ for details or to download the current version of Firefox.