NETW-0001 — Course Outline | Assiniboine College

What this course is

NETW-0001 introduces students to Linux as an operating system, building from first principles — what an OS does, how Linux was born from Unix, and why it matters for anyone working in IT infrastructure. Students begin with zero assumed Linux knowledge but are expected to bring Windows networking experience from prior study.

The lab environment runs Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in Hyper-V on college workstations. Every student provisions two VMs from scratch on Day 1 and uses them throughout the term, progressively layering in users, permissions, packages, scripting, storage, services, networking, and remote access. By Week 7, those same VMs are the exam environment.

The OverTheWire Bandit challenge runs as a standing activity throughout the term — students are given target levels per week as a self-paced stretch goal, not a graded assessment. It reinforces command-line thinking in a game format and surfaces naturally in lab time when students finish early.

Phase 1 — Weeks 1–2 Foundation & File System

Week 1 — Getting Into Linux

OS concepts, installation & terminal basics

What an operating system does, Linux history and distributions, Hyper-V VM setup, Ubuntu 24.04 installation with manual partitioning, and first steps in the terminal — filesystem hierarchy, navigation, find, and grep.

Day 1OS concepts, Linux history, distributions · Lab 0: Hyper-V host config, vSwitch, dual VM creation

Day 2Ubuntu 24.04 install, partitioning, mount points · Lab 1: manual install with ext4/swap partitions on both VMs

Day 3The terminal, TTY, filesystem hierarchy · Lab 2 Part 1: shell basics, cd/ls/pwd, absolute vs. relative paths

Day 4File operations, find, grep, sudo intro · Lab 2 Parts 2–3: find by name/size/time, grep in /etc/passwd

Day 5Review & Mini-Assessment 1 · Written: OS concepts, hierarchy, paths · Practical: terminal navigation tasks

Hyper-VUbuntu 24.04fdisk / partitionsFilesystem hierarchyfindgrep Assessment Day 5 OverTheWire: target Levels 0–2

Week 2 — Users & Permissions

Accounts, groups & the Linux security model

Create and manage user accounts, understand Linux permission bits and octal notation, assign group-based access, and practice changing file ownership — building the same mental model as Windows NTFS permissions but from the ground up.

Day 1User accounts: useradd, passwd, su, sudo · Lab 3 Part 1: create four users, enable root, test su vs. sudo

Day 2Permission bits, octal notation, chmod · Lab 3 Part 2: permission matrix — test read/write/execute for other

Day 3Groups, chown, chgrp, umask · Lab 3 Part 3: group-based file access, ownership, default permissions

Day 4Special permissions: SUID, SGID, sticky bit · Guided exploration: /tmp sticky bit, passwd SUID, shared directories

Day 5Review & Mini-Assessment 2 · Written: permissions theory · Practical: set up multi-user file access scenario

useradd / usermodchmod / chownGroupsOctal notationumaskSUID / SGID Assessment Day 5 OverTheWire: target Levels 3–6

Phase 2 — Weeks 3–4 Software & Shell Power

Week 3 — Package Management

APT, dpkg, Snap & software repositories

Install, remove, and query software using three different package systems — APT for repository packages, dpkg for manual .deb files, and Snap for sandboxed applications. Understand dependencies, repositories, and when to use each tool.

Day 1Software on Linux: source, .deb, repos, APT overview · Lab 4 Part 1: apt update, apt search, install cowsay, inspect dependencies

Day 2dpkg: manual install, query, purge · Lab 4 Part 2: install Dropbox .deb via dpkg, compare with apt, purge and reinstall

Day 3Snap packages: sandboxing, channels, confinement · Lab 4 Part 3: install gnome-mahjongg via snap, attempt kmahjongg, diagnose failure

Day 4Repository management, PPAs, apt-cache, sources.list · Guided: inspect /etc/apt/sources.list, add a PPA, pin a package version

Day 5Review & Mini-Assessment 3 · Written: package manager comparison · Practical: install/query/remove using all three tools

apt / apt-getdpkgsnapsources.listDependenciesPPAs Assessment Day 5 OverTheWire: target Levels 7–10

Week 4 — CLI Power Tools

Redirects, pipes, text editors, compression & cron

Master the shell tools that make Linux administration efficient — I/O redirection, pipes, text editors (nano and a vim introduction), file compression with tar/gzip/bzip2, cron job scheduling, and environment variables. These tools underpin everything in Weeks 5–7.

Day 1Redirection (>, >>, 2>) and pipes (|), tee, xargs · Lab 6 Part 1 intro: redirect output to files, chain commands with pipes

Day 2Text editors: nano fluency, vim basics, environment variables, PATH · Guided: edit config files safely, .bashrc, export, which, $PATH inspection

Day 3Compression: tar, gzip, bzip2, lzma — tarballs · Lab 6 Part 1: create/extract/append/compress archives, compare sizes

Day 4Cron jobs: crontab syntax, scheduling, system crontabs · Lab 6 Part 2: create student and root cron jobs, verify with syslog

Day 5Review & Mini-Assessment 4 · Written: cron syntax, compression theory · Practical: pipe/redirect challenge, write a cron job

Pipes & redirectionnano / vimtar / gzip / bzip2crontabEnvironment variablesPATH Assessment Day 5 OverTheWire: target Levels 11–14

Phase 3 — Week 5 Scripting & System Administration

Week 5 — Scripting, Git & System Administration

Automation, version control, storage & services — condensed into one week

Formerly two separate weeks (Bash Scripting & Git, then Storage/Processes/Services), merged into one condensed week as part of the move from an 8-week to a 7-week course. Every topic is retained; guided lab time is trimmed to the most essential exercises, with several original exercises kept on the handouts as optional take-home practice.

Day 1Scripting: variables, conditionals, loops, functions · Lab 5A: greet.sh, number_check.sh, file_check.sh, countdown.sh, disk_report.sh

Day 2Error handling, debugging (bash -x/-n), then Git & GitHub · Lab 5B: safe_backup.sh, debug buggy.sh, init/commit/branch/merge, push to GitHub

Day 3Storage: fstab, UUID, fdisk, mkfs, partprobe · Lab 5C: read fstab, attach a VHDX, partition, format, and persist a mount

Day 4Processes (top, ps, signals, jobs), then systemd · Lab 5D: process/signal management, systemctl, journalctl, a custom service unit

Day 5Review & Mini-Assessment 5 · Written: scripting/git/storage/processes/systemd · Practical: script+Git, disk, and process+service tasks

Bash scriptinggit / GitHubfdisk / mkfs / fstabtop / ps / killsystemdjournalctl Assessment Day 5 OverTheWire: target Levels 15–22

Phase 4 — Weeks 6–7 Networking, Remote Access & Exam

Week 6 — Networking, SSH & File Sharing

Network tools, remote access, NFS & Samba

Configure and troubleshoot Linux networking using the ip command suite, set up SSH with key-based authentication, harden the SSH daemon, configure ufw firewall rules, and share files between Linux machines using NFS and between Linux and Windows using Samba.

Day 1ip command suite, hostname, DNS, netplan · Lab 7: rename VM, configure NIC manually, check routes and DNS resolution

Day 2SSH setup, key-pair generation, authorized_keys, sshd_config · Lab 8 Parts 1–2: install telnet (and purge), install openssh-server, key auth from Windows host

Day 3SSH hardening, ufw firewall basics, allow/deny rules · Lab 8 continued + ufw expansion: disable password auth, enable ufw, allow SSH and Samba ports

Day 4NFS server and client, /etc/exports, mount options · Lab 9 Part 1: share nfs_share between desktop1 and desktop2, mount from Windows host

Day 5Samba: smb.conf, Windows file sharing, authentication · Lab 9 Part 2: configure Samba share, access from Windows, set permissions

ip / netplanSSH / sshd_configKey-pair authufwNFS / exportsSamba / smb.conf OverTheWire: target Levels 23–26

Week 7 — Final Exam

Written exam & terminal practical

Two-part final assessment using the student's own VMs as the exam environment. The written portion covers concepts and theory from all seven weeks. The terminal practical presents a scenario-based sequence of tasks spanning users, permissions, packages, scripting, storage, services, and networking — all performed live in Ubuntu.

Day 1Exam review — open Q&A, command reference session · Students may complete any outstanding labs; OverTheWire wrap-up

Day 2Exam review — practical walk-through of common tasks · Instructor-led review of key commands and scenarios likely to appear

Day 3Written Exam (30% of final mark) · 90 min · Concepts, theory, scenario analysis, command identification

Day 4Terminal Practical Exam (70% of final mark) · 90 min · Scenario-based tasks on student's own VMs · No notes, no internet

Day 5Results, debrief & course close · Review common errors, preview next course, collect VMs

Written Exam Day 3 — 30% Practical Exam Day 4 — 70%

Weekly assessments at a glance

Week	Assessment	Format	Key skills tested
1	OS Foundations	Written (30%) + Practical (70%)	OS concepts, filesystem hierarchy, absolute/relative paths, find, grep
2	Users & Permissions	Written + Practical	useradd, chmod octal, chown, group access scenarios, umask
3	Package Management	Written + Practical	apt/dpkg/snap comparison, install/query/remove, dependency resolution
4	CLI Power Tools	Written + Practical	Pipe/redirect challenge, cron job syntax, tar compression, environment variables
5	Scripting, Git & System Administration	Written + Practical	Write a script from a spec, git commit/branch/push, fstab entry, systemctl service management, journalctl
6	No formal assessment	Lab completion	SSH key auth, NFS share, Samba config — verified by instructor
7	Final Exam	Written (30%) + Terminal Practical (70%)	All topics — scenario-based tasks on student's own VMs

OverTheWire Bandit — standing challenge progression

Not assessed — but encouraged every weekOverTheWire Bandit (overthewire.org/wargames/bandit) is a self-paced SSH-based challenge that reinforces command-line skills in a game format. Students connect to the Bandit server using SSH on port 2220 and progress through levels by finding passwords hidden in the system using the commands taught each week. It is not graded but is the best use of "I'm done early" time throughout the term.

Week 1
Levels 0–2
SSH, files

Week 2
Levels 3–6
Permissions, hidden files

Week 3
Levels 7–10
grep, sort, pipes

Week 4
Levels 11–14
Compression, encoding

Week 5
Levels 15–22
SSL, scripting, setuid, cron

Week 6
Levels 23–26
SSH keys, git

Key design principles

The VMs accumulateNothing is throwaway. The two Ubuntu VMs created in Week 1 are the same machines used in the Week 7 exam. Users created in Week 2 are used in permission labs, and scripts and service configs from Week 5 carry forward too. Students who treat each week as isolated will arrive at the exam with an unfamiliar environment. Students who maintain their VMs throughout will be comfortable.

Bridge from Windows constantlyStudents have networking experience from a Windows perspective. Every new concept should be introduced with a Windows analogue where one exists — ip vs. ipconfig, chmod vs. NTFS permissions, /etc/hosts vs. Windows hosts file, services vs. the Windows Services panel. The goal is not to replace their Windows knowledge but to build Linux fluency alongside it.

Week 4 is the hingeRedirects, pipes, text editors, and compression are moved to Week 4 (before scripting) deliberately. Students who can't confidently redirect output or edit a file in nano will struggle to write meaningful Bash scripts in Week 5. The Week 4 CLI power tools are the vocabulary that makes Week 5 scripting possible.