Training the Next Generation of IT Engineers
So, you want to learn about Computers, Networks and the Internet? Feeling a little overwhelmed by how complicated they are?
All of these technologies are built out of small pieces. That is, each piece was developed all by itself, and the pieces where then put together to make the more complicated systems. To make learning about computers and especially networking or the Internet a little easier, you can start with the OSI Model. If you understand the concepts that go into the OSI Model, you can use the OSI Model as a framework for helping you understand how the pieces that go into networking fit together and how they rely on each other to create the web surfing experience.
What the heck is the difference between a packet, a frame, a protocol data thingy and a datagram?
That’s easy. All of these things are terms for ‘chunks’ of communication data, but to use them correctly, you have to know where they are used.
As the family ‘professional-geek’, I get all the tech support phone calls.
One of my family members (we’ll call him ‘R’) called me the other day somewhat put out and frustrated with his latest computer purchase. The new computer he was setting up for someone else had Windows 7 installed on it.
“I just got used to the XP interface and they had to go and change it all. Why’d they do that?!?” he gasped in exasperation.
The Windows 7 Desktop
Windows doesn’t come with a simple command-line differencing tool as does UNIX/Linux. This is unfortunate because even Windows has to do some scripting from time to time and comparing files manually, correctly, is a pain. Here is a short list of options that I am aware of for differencing files on a Windows system.
- MS-DOS Tools
- fc
- windiff
- Windows Power Shell
- compare-object
- Win32 versions of UNIX utilities
- unixutils – diff.exe
- Third Party Utilities
- WinMerge GUI
MS-DOS Tools
The file comparison tool, fc.exe comes with Windows and can perform an ASCII or binary file comparison:
fc file1.txt file2.txt
The windiff.exe tool does the same comparison, but within the Windows GUI. For Windows 2000, 2003 and XP, this tool is in the Support Tools kit, or the Resource Kit for older versions of Windows. The windiff.exe tool can also compare the list of files in folders.
Windows Power Shell
Windows 7 comes with PowerShell, you have to download it for all other versions. Within the powershell are “command-lets” and one of those is compare-object. To compare the contents of two files, you have to use this long, complicated setup:
compare-object -referenceobject $(get-content C:\test\testfile1.txt) -differenceobject $(get-content C:\test\ testfile2.txt)
Win32 Versions of UNIX Utilities
There is a bundle called “unixutils” that is a Windows 32-bit port of the standard UNIX utilities. I prefer these so much, I actually make a point of installing it on any workstation I use frequently.
diff file1.txt file2.txt
Third Party Tools
There are also several third party tools, but the one that seems to work best is called WinMerge, which is free and open source.
Screenshot: WinMerge file comparison utility