User Guide

Introduction

Welcome to hog.net, a beginner-level "Harry Potter" themed querying exercise / detective game / analytical CTF challenge / interactive fanfiction made by Amitai Cohen, in which you explore the local network of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In this exercise, you are tasked with answering research questions by querying the databases available on the local school network:

Books.hog.net – soft copies of select books from the school library
Comp.hog.net – personal computers of hog.net users
EOwl.hog.net – the magical equivalent of email
Floochat.hog.net – instant messaging logs between hog.net users (based on the FLOO protocol)
News.hog.net – news reports and articles from the international wizarding community
Users.hog.net – information about hog.net users

You can watch a demo here (please enable subtitles / closed captions).

If you're looking for a primer on this sort of querying, please read this blogpost.

Once you have completed the exercise, you can check your work by revealing the solutions.

If you’d like to contribute to this project or share any feedback, please fill out the self-assessment and feedback issue template on GitHub.

Instructions

Answer the exercise questions in the next section (it is recommended that you read all questions prior to solving the exercise).

When writing your solutions, be sure to include references in footnotes and use proper estimative language (“probably”, “possibly”, etc.). Here is an example of a well-referenced answer:

Question #0

What is Dumbledore’s favorite snack?

Reveal solution

Technical Instructions

To query the databases, click S, F or / to open the search bar, and enter your search terms.
To search for an intersection of multiple terms, use "+" (e.g. "+ronw +scabbers" will only return items that include both "ronw" and "scabbers").
To exclude a term from the current query, use "-" (e.g. "ronw -scabbers" will only return items that include "ronw" but not "scabbers").
To browse the various databases, use the left-hand navigation sidebar.
To search within the current page, use your browser's built-in search function (Ctrl+F).
To copy the location of a certain page (for recording it as a reference in a footnote, for example), use “Copy link address” (when using Chrome).
To go to a specific page (copied from a reference, for example), navigate to it via your browser's address bar.