Links on this page are desolated. For recent
progress of this project, check Dr. Edo, Yi Dan and John Wu's homepages. [Note 8/30/2007]
NetLab
Release 2.0 Xin Chen October 24, 2001 Information and Computer Science Department, UH 1. Overview
With
the full name Networks Laboratory Training Environment (NetLab T.E.),
NetLab is a computer-based visual training system targetted at helping computer science major students
to design and configure networks. It saves time and money when compared to actual
labs. NetLab
1.0 is done by Blanca Lopez but not finished yet. Then I
took it as my ICS 699 directed research project.
Great thanks to the work Blanca had done so I could get a lot
of help by reading her code in my work. Please check Blanca's homepage for
NetLab. NetLab 2.0 includes two versions. These two are zipped into files Borland_NetLab.zip
and unix_NetLab.tar.gz respectively. The first version is to be compiled and
run in Borland JBuilder University/Professional Version 3.00, the second is to be run in unix.
They both include source files and compiled bytecode files, i.e., both .java and .class
files. The
on-line version of NetLab 2.0 in available at: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~chenx/NL/PopFrame.html. NetLab is an open source software and we appreciate
your participation in improving the source code. If you want to get the source code
please email me at chenx@hawaii.edu
or Blanca at blanca@hawaii.edu
. 2. How to compile NetLab
source code
Both
Borland_NetLab.zip and unix_NetLab.tar.gz include source java files and compile
class files, so you can run NetLab once unzip them. However you can also
compile the source code by yourself. Currently I
compile NetLab source code in Borland JBuilder Professional Version 3.00.
Borland JBuilder University Version 3.0 was tried and it worked too. I did not
try compile NetLab under unix yet, to try that you should use jdk 1.2 version
or above. Following is the procedure to compile NetLab source code in Borland
JBuilder: Root directories 3. How to run NetLab 3.1 Run NetLab using Borland
JBuilder University/Professional Version 3.00 Root directories
3.2 Run NetLab in browser from
anywhere on the internet
For
this purpose you need to install NetLab on a server. This can be a unix server
or Windows2000 server. To install NetLab on a unix server, you just unzip
unix_NetLab.tar.gz into a folder, let’s assume it is folder NetLab. To unzip unix_NetLab.tar.gz, use the following two commands:
%gzip -d unix_NetLab.tar.gz
%tar xvf unix_NetLab.tar
Assume that the internet URL for this
folder is http://www.x.com/NetLab, then
you can open NetLab by going to the page http://www.x.com/NetLab/PopFrame.html. There
after pressing an applet button you can start NetLab in browser. To
install NetLab on a Windows2000 server, you first unzip unix_NetLab.tar.gz into
a folder in unix, then transfer that folder to wwwroot of Windows2000 server. The
first time when running NetLab in a browser, you will be prompted to install
Java Plug-In 1.3.1. Download and install the Plug-In from Sun and then you will
be able to run NetLab. 4. What’s new from NetLab 1.0
One
important improvement in NetLab 2.0 is “cat-5 cable” and “fiber cable” buttons
are implemented. Now when you press one of these two buttons, a dialog box will
jump out and let you select two nodes to which a cable is created to connect
them with each other. Another
feature is that mouse movements are captured in the working area so you can
press down mouse button and drag it to draw a square thus select an area. This
is used to implement cloud function that is discussed next. The
third new feature is that a cloud button is added. This offers the ability to
put a part of the network you create into a cloud. This hides the details of
that part of network, and leaves you more space to create more nodes in the
working area. Eventually this can allow you to create a huge network with
hundreds and thousands of nodes. However this feature is not finished yet and
is waiting to be completed in the next release. The
last significant advance is that now NetLab 2.0 can be put on a server and be
accessed anywhere on the internet. Currently NetLab 2.0 on line version is
hosted at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~chenx/NL/PopFrame.html.
5. What’s not working in
NetLab 2.0
One
thing is in the cloud function. Now you can create a new cloud standing for
some nodes you create before that cloud. However now the previous nodes are not
removed from the working area yet. Also at this time you cannot reverse this
process to recover the nodes hidden by the cloud. You will be able to do this
by pressing “Recover the hidden nodes” button in the information window of
cloud in the future. Some
of the menu choices are not working at this time. The following choices are to
be added or improved: File à Print; Edit à Undo; View à
Network Specification; Viewà Device Specifications; View à Find; View à
Network by Subnets; Network à Remove Device; Network à Evaluate Network. When
running in the browser, in the information window of each node, the “Help”
button cannot load corresponding help files at this time. This is not a problem
when running in JBuilder. 6.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Blanca's great work in NetLab 1.0, so I can get a lot of help
from reading the previous code. Also thanks to Blanca's suggestions and
encouragement when I need help. Thanks to Dr. Edo for supervising the
work. Thanks to Ying Wang and my other labmates for discussing and giving
suggestions on my work. 7. Usage and
redistribution of this software
Please limit the usage of this software to education purpose only. For any
redistribution of this software please include this readme file with
it.
source: C:\NetLab\
output: C:\NetLab\
source: C:\NetLab\
output: C:\NetLab\