How would you set up a network for a Corporation on a 3 building campus?

mrmike16

Honorable
Mar 10, 2016
313
18
10,915
This is for an assignment. I'd appreciate any input!

I'm also genuinely interested in how different people would set it up, which is the main reason I am posting it here. I really like how the guys at Tom's Hardware think :)


Here are the questions:


Topology
What network topology will you use and why is that technology the best one to select?

Media
What type of cabling would be appropriate and why?
Would different cabling be indicated in different areas? Which areas and why?

Protocol
Which protocol and channel access method will be used? Be sure to consider band width.

Network Design
How will you design the network? Multiple LANs? How many? How big? Why? How will you connect the LANs?
Network Operating System What NOS will you select?
For Server? For Client?
Do you recommend using thin client? Why/why not? If so, where?

Fault tolerance
How will backup be handled? Where will you backup to? Where will you restore from?
Redundancy is different from fault tolerance. How will you accomplish it?

Interface to Internet
How will the employees in the office connect to the Internet? How will they connect from home?

Remote Access
How will mobile workers remotely access the network from home? What technology will they use?

Computers and Hardware
What type of computers will you use for the servers and for the clients?
Switches and routers — How many and why? Where will you place them?

And the assignment:

Each of the three buildings has two floors with 40 employees in each building. There are four networked laser printers located on each floor. Each floor has a cabling closet which means that all computers are within 75 meters of the closet. (No cable run greater than 75 meters).

Obviously, no wires or cables can be run between buildings.

Building 3 is the technical building and contains a computer control center on the first floor and all the servers are housed in this control center. Security, speed and fault tolerance are major priorities in the control center.

Many employees are required to do extra work after hours so they would like to be able to access the network from home.

Management is willing to spend what is necessary to accomplish these goals but the budget is not unlimited.



Trying my best to do this on my own, but I definitely need help on it!

Thanks :)
 
Solution
Yeah I mean again, this is a book theory question. Any real life application will be limited by well: money. Budget will decide on where you will cut corners and in the real world you will always cut corners, be it because of time or money.

As for OS again this is just a book question and offers no information about the workflow involved of the company.

Backups you'll always want one local and one as far away as possible from where you are that is still US based (assuming you are in the USA) in case of natural disaster (like sandy that took my company down for 10 days, backups were a life saver).

And interface to internet, again ISP will provide hardware, and then you are going to have some kind of hardware firewall, spam filter...

Supermuncher85

Distinguished
*Sigh* these retarded 100% theoretical homework assignments here goes for giggles:
topology: star
media: cat6 (don't think I even need to say why...comon...)
protocol: outdated book shit, it's called a lan no one cares about token ring
network design: not enough information given to answer that. What is the CIA model being used? What are the security clearances being used? Again not enough information given to answer the question.
Fault tolerance: again not enough information given. How are backups handled? Cloud storage? No mention of workflow or necessity of data redundancy. Love the where will you restore from question....restore what from where.....there is no mention of backups... again not enough information
Interface to internet: not really sure what this is supposed to mean, you have a server, maybe with a proxy cache with DHCP and job done? Dumb book question, write whatever your chapter is talking about.
Remote desktop: Again not enough information, windows RDT works fine in most cases, but there's too many alternatives to list.
computers and hardware: budget related, again not enough information

Assignment: Unrealistic I've put fiber between buildings, so initial argument seems invalid. You really expect a business to pay 3x for internet? Yeah right, a business will get the single fastest line they can afford, and run fiber between them to save on cost. And for the last cat6 to each station, and a print server for the 4 printers per floor.
 

mrmike16

Honorable
Mar 10, 2016
313
18
10,915


Wouldn't a Logical topology make more sense?

No idea about the protocol. That's gonna take some research I guess...

About the network design...Well that just stinks xD I don't have the answer to those questions.

As for the Network Operating System, Windows would be the answer, right? OSes are also NOSes?
Well the fault tolerance parts asks how the backups are handled. I'm supposed to answer that, apparently. I guess a Differential Backup...Cloud Storage would be a backup medium.

I think Interface to Internet is asking for something like through ethernet cables, switches, etc.

Remote Access would be a VPN, no?

Computers and Hardware- I would use Dells, despite crazy horrible support. As for switches and routers, how many I would need and all I have no idea!

I have to write a page on this, and then draw some diagram. The drawing part is gonna throw me off.
 


I think you should read your books and do your own work, I'm pretty sure this site isn't here to do your homework for you!!
 
The answer to your questions are to outsource the data center to some cloud company and pay a external design company to wire and design the building wiring. They can then manage the building lan and switches from some low cost country and keep one low paid monkey locally to act as their hands and eyes.

You may not like that answer but realistically almost all companies are going that route.
 

Supermuncher85

Distinguished
Yeah I mean again, this is a book theory question. Any real life application will be limited by well: money. Budget will decide on where you will cut corners and in the real world you will always cut corners, be it because of time or money.

As for OS again this is just a book question and offers no information about the workflow involved of the company.

Backups you'll always want one local and one as far away as possible from where you are that is still US based (assuming you are in the USA) in case of natural disaster (like sandy that took my company down for 10 days, backups were a life saver).

And interface to internet, again ISP will provide hardware, and then you are going to have some kind of hardware firewall, spam filter (depends on size of company), cache and then general DHCP if windows domain server.
 
Solution