COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Coursework Assignment



Coursework Assignment

Question 1

A secured network is something that not only businesses but also regular day to day people with personal computers must have. Unless you want a computer that will start to run slow and/or is infected with many different types of viruses which will ultimately lead to the crash of your system then it is a good idea you invest in network security.

Part A

Small businesses local area networks come in two basic configurations, or architectures, peer to peer and client/server networks. Considering the business needs of the office, I had to consider how many nodes (each computer, printer, or other office device connected to the network is a node). A client server network is faster, can accommodate more people and makes network management and back up easier as you no longer have to back up each PC workstation individually. It's also much easier to share software applications (databases) and more very large files between offices if expansion took place within this business.

Basically a client/server network is one that adds a server to the network. A server is a powerful network ready computer with a large hard drive. The server in the office network will have double the hard drive of the computers within the network. It has 256mb RAM compared to the 126mb RAM that the seven computers within the workstation have. It 'serves' the rest of the network as a central store for applications and files. The files and applications that are used within this office are stored on the server that can be accessed by the users quickly and conveniently. Therefore the server, not the individual PC's, need only do installation and updates. Network uses can still store their own files on their own PC's then use the server to access shared files, databases, software and peripherals.

Firstly, the decision had to be made on whether to upgrade the two stand alone computer that were already in the office or to purchase all new computers for my network. However after researching for memory upgrades on the Internet I decided that it would be cheaper to buy all new computers. On the Comet website, 128mb pc100/133mhz memory upgrade was £37.95. To add the operating system to this, at PCWorld, such as Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (see appendix page 11) it would cost £299 for the full version. Each new computer has 128mb Ram and a 1700 MHz processor. This processing power and ram is adequate for my network as the employees are using the computers for basic databases, Internet, email and file sharing. The Ram can be upgraded cheaply in the future to 256mb ram if the employees felt that it was necessary. Also if the network was functioning slowly, with the 10/100Mbps NIC's integrated in the computers the business can easily upgrade to fast Ethernet.

As well as purchasing seven new computers for the office, other equipment was also required for the network to function. A hub was bought which connects computers, printers and other network devices ...