Douglas Comer's Networking Resources A simplified API for network programming is available via a link on the left side. The API is in C and includes a Visual Studio Project for those working in Windows.
http://www.traceroute.org/ This site allows you to do traceroutes from sites all over the world. Using this one should be able to map out a bit about what the internet looks like.
Other References
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Great Principles of Computer Science This is work by Denning et al. and might provide some insight in to how we could frame some of the activities in 317 by hooking them back to these seven great principles.
Microsoft Azure This is Microsoft's cloud computing environment. The panel area in the top left has some interesting links, such as "INtroduction to cloud computing"
zeromq User layer software that encapsulates the socket API to simplify making network connections and building distributed applications.