Tech Learning Collective

Technology education for radical organizers and revolutionary communities.

  • January 16, 2021 3:30 PM (-0500) January 16, 2021 5:00 PM
  • Remote
  • Status: CONFIRMED

Tickets are no longer available for this event.

View upcoming events or subscribe to our events calendar to make sure you catch the next one.

Event description

Learn the basics of computer networking in this workshop that starts by watching a “conversation” between two computers as it’s happening in real time. You’ll be introduced to the free professional network analysis application called Wireshark so that you can listen in on what the programs on your computer are saying to or hearing from other computers across the Internet. By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand all about the basics of computer networking. If you’ve ever been curious about what happens “on the wire” when you’re browsing a Web site, or if you ever wanted to take a look “under the hood” of your Wi-Fi connection, this is the class for you!

Workshop Description

Our ability to browse Web sites, send and receive digital messages like emails and text messages, and make phone or video calls depends on the connections our digital devices make with one another. That makes it critical to understand how these connections are made, and where they lead to. Far from being an amorphous “cloud,” modern telecommunications networks and services like the Internet are made up of physical devices. Some of these you can see, like your own computer or the router and modem in your house, and others you can’t, like distant servers or Layer 2 switches that make up the network infrastructure itself.

In this workshop derived from a portion of the Tech Learning Collective’s NET101 course, you’ll have the opportunity to actually look—visually and with great detail—at how your computer “talks” to other computers like those that power Google Drive, Facebook, and other cloud services. By using an industry-standard tool called Wireshark, we’ll dissect a conversation between your computer and a server and walk through the process of encapsulating a packet of application layer data, emitting it onto a network, and watching it travel to its destination. We’ll also touch on some illustrative counter-examples to explore how things can go wrong on a network, such as DHCP server misconfigurations, ARP spoofing attacks, and unsecured or weakly-secured Wi-Fi networks.

As this is a remote/online-only event, there is no physical class space, but attendance is still limited to 15 students, so purchase your ticket now to reserve your spot.

To participate in our webinars, you will need access to a modern Web browser such as an up-to-date copy of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. You will also need a reliable Internet connection. We recommend disabling Wi-Fi and plugging your computer in to a hard-wired Ethernet network cable for the duration of the webinar, if possible.

If you would like to share your video screen or appear on camera, you will need to have and activate your own camera, such as the one built-in to many modern laptops. Similarly, to speak with the rest of the webinar participants, you will need a microphone. If you do choose to activate your microphone, we ask that you please plug in headphones/ear buds or use a headset in order to help reduce audio feedback loops that can degrade the webinar experience for other participants.

Please refer to our workshops and webinars FAQ for additional tips and advice before you join the video conference.

As with all Tech Learning Collective events, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, “brogrammer,” “manarchist,” or any kind of similarly awful behavior will result in immediate removal from class without a refund. Please refer to our lightweight social rules for details on our strictly enforced no-tolerance policy against bigotry of any kind.

About Tech Learning Collective

Tech Learning Collective is an apprenticeship-based technology school that trains politically self-motivated individuals in the arts of hypermedia, Information Technology, and radical political practice. We offer unparalleled free, by-donation, and low-cost computer classes on topics ranging from fundamental computer literacy to the same offensive computer hacking techniques used by national intelligence agencies and military powers (cyber armies). For more information and to enroll, visit TechLearningCollective.com.

Performances by

Presented by