B211 Internet Computing

Software Downloads

This page is mainly for external students to download and install the required software off campus. Internal students will have the software available in the labs. Of course, internal students may choose to download and install the software on your home computer as well.

The download files are password protected. Currently enrolled students may get the password using this unit's password query system.

Required Software:

Internet Access

All external students must have Internet access through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to access servers at Murdoch University. If you do not have an ISP of your own, and wishes to use Murdoch University as your ISP, follow the instructions at http://www.murdoch.edu.au/cns/studnet/studnet.html.

Any Web Browser

All external students must have access to a graphical web browser (such as Netscape Navigator 4.5+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+).

SSH (Secure Shell) client

You will be using a SSH session to connect to Murdoch University servers for your lab work.

SSH clients are distributed with most Linux distributions. Refer to your system documentation.

If you have MS-Windows and do not have a SSH program, follow these instructions: Download putty.exe, put the file in a convenient directory, and make a link to it on your desktop.

PHP on a Web Server

The PHP software required for this unit are available by connecting to one of the School of IT's servers. Instructions on accessing the server will be given in the laboratory exercises.

You may however choose to install the required PHP software on your own computer, to avoid having to connect to the server all the time for your exercises. To do so you need to

Install a web server (eg. Apache, IIS or Personal Web Server),

Install PHP, and

Enable PHP on your web server

Step-by-step guide on how to do the above is given in your Unit Reader 7: Getting Started with PHP. The Apache and PHP installation files are also available in the downloads directory, or download the latest versions from the original sites httpd.apache.org and www.php.net.

If you install your own copy instead of using the server, keep in mind that your programming assignment will still be assessed on the server, so make sure you upload your programs to the server and test them fully before submitting! The standard excuse of programs working at home but not on the server will not be accepted.

Optional Useful Software:

LeechFTP for Win32:

Installation instructions: Download lftp13.zip. Uncompress the ZIP file. Click on setup.exe, and follow the instructions.

Original Site

Adobe Acrobat Reader (for viewing lecture notes in Portable Display Format PDF):

Follow this link

Open Office 1.0 for MS-Windows, Linux and MacOS (for viewing lecture notes in Microsoft PowerPoint PPT format, but do not have Microsoft PowerPoint software):

Download from
www.openoffice.org.

H.L. Hiew
Unit Coordinator