On 26th November 2022, Persatuan Mahasiswa Sains Komputer Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (PERSAKA UTM), organized a workshop called ‘Packet Tracer Workshop 2022’.

The program was held at MP2, N28a, Faculty of Computing and was attended by a total of 23 participants. This program was one of the starter programs organized by PERSAKA UTM.

The main goal of this program is to provide students with an overview and a better understanding of this application and also allow them to utilize the application with guidance from an expert. This application is widely used by computing students, especially students of Computer Network & Security (SECR). 

Packet Tracer is a cross-platform visual simulation tool designed that allows users to create network topologies and imitate modern computer networks. It also offers an effective, interactive environment for learning networking concepts and protocols. Most importantly, Packet Tracer helps students and instructors create their own virtual “network worlds” for exploration, experimentation, and explanation of networking concepts and technologies.

The workshop, which was held for 3 hours, was divided into two sections which are workshop session and hands-on session with the speaker. The speaker for this workshop was an alumnus of UTM, Mr. Iskandar Zulqarnain bin Mohd Ishak. 

It started at 10.00 am with the registration of participants for the workshop. The program was set off straightaway with a briefing of the program and the speaker. Then, the program proceeded with the talk by Mr. Iskandar on Cisco Packet Tracer for beginners.  

At the start of the session, Mr. Iskandar Zulqarnain began by introducing himself, explained what Cisco Packet Tracer (CPT) meant and how it works. When the participants finally understand the purpose of using CPT, he demonstrated to them on how to download and install the software to their laptop as the participant get more understanding of how packet tracing works. 

He also explained multiple ways of network topology that can be set up in CPT which have 7 ways. After that, he showed the participant on what CPT activities they can do which includes topology setup, IOS navigation and many more. The participant also learned some basics of IPV4 Addressing which is a very important subtopic that needs to be understood before starting the tracing session. 

Following the introduction, he moved on to the hands-on exercises, where he asked for responses from the students on the topic he was teaching. He continued to illustrate while displaying more instances and advice by displaying the cheat sheets code that might assist the students in quickly understanding the material.

Mr. Iskandar was also willing to address any questions from the audience and the participants were given 4 hands-on activities that need to be completed. 

Hands-on material provided by the speaker

Mr. Iskandar also gave some examples of real-life experiences that the participant could relate to and apply the knowledge of CPT. The explanation on how packet tracing works in real life really had the participant interested and really curious about a lot of things so they asked many beneficial questions to the speaker.

Closing ceremony with Dr. Iqbal

The closing ceremony started with the speech of Ts. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Tariq bin Idris. He expressed his gratitude and praised the speaker for agreeing to deliver a discussion, as well as the attendees for attending the programme and the committee for the program’s success. Lastly, the program ended as the speaker and participants gathered to take some pictures during the photography session. 

The event flowed well and engagingly.

Photography session with the speaker of the workshop

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