Network Fundamentals
In today’s digital world, having a digital Information System (IS) is important in order to compete globally. Taking advantage of the digital world does give an extra push toward a flexible and feasible business. Information Systems knowledge is very essential for companies to survive and prosper. Many objectives such as reaching far away location, offer new products and services, reshape jobs and work flows as well as profoundly change the traditional ways of business. As the information age advanced the need for computers became a daily part of human life.
Computers have emerged from early abacus, papyrus and ENIAC to today’s main frame computer and super computers that can manipulate huge amount of information across the globe. Today, computers are the most essential part of human life starting from basic calculators to storing and manipulating of terabits of information. Internet influences the growth of businesses by providing new, fast and efficient ways of advertising and new and different ways to reach the public and expand their organization.
Internet symbolizes sense of freedom which is uncensored and unregulated by the government. However, use of Internet has its drawbacks such as different security issues. The main security issue such as data access must be implemented in such a way that the privilege given to the individual or companies is controlled and can be manipulated. Controlling the web-browsing habit such as browsing illegal or unwanted web sites need also to be controlled, hence providing user access to email, web sites using password and encryptions is essential.
Keeping off the malicious users from accessing valuable company information and other external information that can be used against the Joe’ company stuff and the authorities needs to be taken under consideration. Sending emails and other attachments must be allowed according to hierarchy of access permissions. Network Security The security implications of sharing Internet connections between the employees and stuff and the managers must be strong in order to assure safety for both the inmates and the employees.
The main security issue such as data access must be implemented in such a way that the privilege given to the employee and the inmate is controlled and manipulated. Controlling the web-browsing habit such as browsing illegal or unwanted web sites need also to be controlled, hence providing user access to email, web sites using password and encryptions is essential. Keeping off the malicious users from accessing valuable company information and other external information that can be used against the company stuff and the company authorities needs to be taken under consideration.
Sending emails and other attachments must be allowed according to hierarchy of access permissions. Other issues that need to be taken under consideration are such as the network password and security tokens needs to be changed constantly and most off all securing the connection to local devices that are connected to the network such as print servers and internet connected printers. Routers and switches should be organize and installed as securely as possible and web based configuration should be disabled as well as network access to the device’s should be limited to the Joe’s company networks.
IT security is made up of three main categories and they are Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Confidentiality is when company or an organization has sensitive information and does not want to disclose such information to anyone outside the company. Integrity is when companies want to update the system to adapt to future needs. As for availability, it is when a business implements a system it needs to make sure the system is up and running when needed. “A threat is a danger which could affect the security (confidentiality, integrity, availability) of assets, leading to a potential loss or damage.
” [1]. Threats such as customer’s information can be disclosed which can affect the credibility of any company; companies information can be hacked by illegally, etc. There are many ways to improve the correct securities such as protecting data and information using different sophisticated firewall software, understanding threats and its impact in order to be protected from it, calculating risk and deciding how to eradicate such risk. There are two basic ways to improve security and they are Bottom Up and Top Down.
Bottom Up approach is not that precise but in order to implement such approach it is advisable to properly understand company policies, network topology and companies operating procedure. Top Down approach is methodical and more precise compared to Bottom Up approach but is slow and expensive. “Where security needs to be “urgently” improved, it is suggested to use both methods in parallel i. e. use the bottom up approach for important “well known” systems and the top down approach to have a long term, precise policy, strategy and vision on security that is supported and understood by management.
” [1]. Network equipment of the Joe’s company The figure 1 below shows the network diagram of the Joe’s company for each building. The employers and the employees are connected to the firewall using a switch that support LAN star topology. Hence, the company is protected from any dangers such as hacking into the system, is controlled using the firewall. The whole system is protected both internally and externally with the help of the Firewall connected to the Switch. Figure 1: Network Diagram of Joe’s company (For each building) Network Equipment and Cost
The suggestion for using Cable is UTP Cat6- Panduit which provides less congestion and more security. UTP Cat6- Panduit is 27,000ft will cost $12,648. 29 and can be bought from the following link: [3]. Cat-6 Panduit cable will need RJ45 Connector provided by D-Link. Each floor can have up to 83 computers and hence the number of switch can be calculated following way: (83*3)/23 = 11. Each building will have 11 switches where each switch will have 24 port connections. One or two port will be used for uplink such as use for internet and the rest 22 port will be used to connect with each nodes of each floor of each building.
Recommended Switch is 24 port CISCO Catalyst 2950 series with 24 ports. It is a standalone, fixed-configuration, managed 10/100 switch providing user connectivity for big to mid-sized networks. This wire-speed desktop switch comes with Standard Image (SI) software features and offers Cisco IOS® functionality for basic data, video and voice services at the edge of the network. It can be bought from the following link [4] with a cost of $709. 99. As for supported network card, Ethernet 10BASE-T must be used.
Since switch is used, Patch panel must be used because for port identification. Patch Panel such as D-Link 24-Prt RJ45 Patch Panel for 6510 – DES-6506 (DES-6506) which will cost around $532. 72. Network Expansion and TCP/IP structure For the Joe’s company, STAR topology is more suitable because all stations are connected by cable (or wireless) to a central point where the central node will act as a switch. WANs can be used to connect different STAR topology hence providing services for both the employees as well as the head office.
In this LAN architecture the nodes are connected to a common central switch with the help of dedicated link as well as it can be easily increased with more STAR or more nodes. It is becoming very common network layout used today which connects point-to-point to a single central location. Other layouts such as BUS, RING, TREE and Mesh can also be used but can become venerable compared to STAR topology. However, STAR needs more cables compared to BUS but is very reliable for example, if one cable is cut only single pc is affected.
Other advantages with STAR topology are that it is easy to install both cable and wireless and the network is easily changeable without affecting the entire system. The most important benefit of using Star is that it is easy to detect errors and faults. TCP/IP network must have a unique IP address. If a Joe’s company is part of the Internet, the IP address must be unique and if TCP/IP communications are limited to a local network, the IP address only needs to be unique locally. An IP address is composed of 32 bits. These 32 bits are divided into 4 octets of 8 bits each.
For Class A IP address with CIDR value 29 needs the following Sub-net mask of 255. 255. 255. 248. Class A IP is for large network such as a major international company having IP addresses with a first octet from 1 to 126 are part of this class. The other three octets are used to identify each host. This means that there are 126 Class A networks each with (224 -2) possible hosts for a total of (231) unique IP addresses. Fault tolerance Joe’s company must be configurations in such a way that helps to prevent a computer or network device from failing in the event of an unexpected problem or error.
To make a computer or network device more faults tolerant requires that the user or company think of how a computer or network device may fail and take the necessary steps to help prevent the computer or network device from failing. 1. Power Failure: Have the computer or network device running on a UPS. 2. Data loss: Run backups daily or monthly on the. 3. Device / Computer failure: Have a second device, computer and/or computer components available. 4. Unauthorized access: If connected to a network, setup a firewall.
5. Overload: Setup an alternate computer or network device that can used as an alternative access point. 6. Virus: Make sure the computer has updated anti-virus. References [1] Sean Boran; IT Security Cookbook; http://www. boran. com/security/; Accessed on 21st Dec, 2008 [2] Stallings, William, Internet Security Handbook, IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. , 1995. [3] http://www. twacomm. com/catalog/model_PUR6504BU-UY. htm? sid=F4438D2F8638EEDA444D79A261B476E3 [4] http://www. cdw. com/shop/products/default. aspx? EDC=298050
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