Help with an assignment

[Aleck]

Hey guys, I am currently trying to do an assignment for school. Unfortunately I am finding it hard to track down the information I need to complete it. I think the best way to do this is just to quote the scenario I have been given.



Scenario

Since starting your company with just one small showroom with a tiny office at the rear, you have experienced substantial growth in product sales. Future prospects appeared promising and on that strength you transferred your business to larger premises. This in turn resulted in a further increase in sales, boosting profits beyond expectations. From your single PC which once managed all transactions, you now have 6 Pentium IV's dedicated to controlling the enormous workload resulting from healthy sales.



On the advice from a financial adviser and your faithful accountant, you decide to expand even further. The total computer power now stands at six Pentium IV's in your heard office and 4 at each of the new branches. The financial advisor recommends that you seriously, consider networking your organisation to increase your company’s productivity. Having considered this possibility in the past, you decide to take some action and research the facts necessary to fully comprehend what network(s) best suits your requirements





ok, now I realise this is a technical support forum, but I though some of you would have to actually know about this sorta thing in order to help those with problems.



Does anyone know of a site or even better have an opinion/information on...

- the advantages/disadvantages of the Bus, Ring and Star networks?

- The types of transmission mediums available and perhaps a recommendation on which is best suited to the above scenario.

-Hardware and software requirements.



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[renegade600]

sorry, not going to help with your assignment, however, if you use google, you should find info about the different networks.

[Ned Seagoon]

Hi Aleck

Welcome to CTH

Yes we are technical support forum, but we all had to start somewhere so as advised we don't do homework for people but some of us are happy to, at least, set people on the right path.

You will have been given details of text books for your course, ensure you get the book and take some time reading it and your course notes. You might like to take a look at http://www.lantronix.com/learning/networking.html for some networking information, remember teachers take a dim view of students who just copy and paste information, so read the information and then use your understanding of it to answer the questions you have been given.

You might also like to read http://www.citap.com/documents/tcp-ip/tcpip001.htm for some more detailed information. Then if you wish to get a really detailed view read http://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/~jain/bnr/index.html

Good luck, and please come back with any specific questions you might have. BF

[Aleck]

Thanks BigFred I never expected anyone to actually do the assignment for me. I must admit that now I re-read my post, it does seem otherwise. Thanks for all your help, all I wanted was any opinions, tips or links to information that could help me out. Thanks again, and if I do have any questions, I will sure ask them.

[Ned Seagoon]

Good for you, Aleck, thanks for coming back, and all the best with the assignment. BF

[Lubricant_Larry]

www.studynotes.net/indnet.htm (http://www.studynotes.net/indnet.htm)

Good link for the basics and what you want.
Hope it helps

[Aleck]

Hey again, I have a question that I just want to run past you guys. If I have several locations running off a Star network, with the server located at site A and I have a smaller star network running off a switch (a couple of computers on it) at site B. Now, if the server goes down at site A, are the computers still able to communicate at site B through the switch just not to with the server or computers at site A, or not?

I hope that makes sense.

[Ned Seagoon]

Hi Aleck

There could be some problems depending on how the networks are configured.

If the server is used to authenticate the login of the client machines (This is the usual set up) and it has failed, then unless the client machines are able to use a stored profile then the users will be unable to access the network.

Also if the server is also used as a DHCP server then the client machines will not have been given valid IP addresses for the network, so again the users will not be able to access the network.

However if the network is setup as a peer to peer network with static IP addresses the only effect would be that users would be unable to access files on the server and would be able to access each other. Note it is not usual for a network with a server to be set up as a peer to peer network, although it does happen. BF

[Aleck]

Thanks BF, do any of your guys have any links for the different transmission mediums. There is a bit on some of the links above, but google isn't proving very helpful. Any help would be great.

[Spider]

but google isn't proving very helpful

everything you wanted to know about servers (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=everything+you+wanted+to+know+about+servers&btnG=Google+Search&meta=)

Google works, it's what you put in is what you'll get out of it.

[Ned Seagoon]

Hi Aleck

Google has always proved to be helpful to me.

It is all to do with the search critera that you use. A search engine reads web pages and stores information on what is in which page in the form of words in a database.

So to do a good search you need to have a little imagination as to what information a page that you seek may contain. So instead of placing a question in the search box you might be better off putting a series of words that are likely to appear in a desired page.

Example: tutorial network computer media cable type
Gets the following near the top of the list: http://www.d-m.com/documents/network/networks.html

This one will answer most of your questions. You could look at others on that search or you could change or add some words. Note adding the word tutorial usually means that all the ads that come up offering the stuff for sale get pushed down the list, (as they are not offering tutorial information) as in this case you are not looking for this information.

Good luck with your course. BF

[Aleck]

Thanks again BigFred. I really owe you guys ;)

I just know I will find something after I post this, it has happened twice already, but can anyone help with wireless transmissions? I think I am just plain
incompetent but I have been fiddling around with google for half an hour now, using the words 'tutorial' and the names of the types of tranmissions and I am being creative ect... but with no luck.

[Ned Seagoon]

Hi Aleck

If it is wireless networking you should take a look at this page, http://www.drizzle.com/~aboba/IEEE/ it has lots of links to relevant stuff.

On a lighter note you might like to look here http://j-walk.com/other/wifispray/index.htm ;) BF

[Aleck]

OK, BF I have had a look at your link and its not really that helpful. I need something that will tell me how the three main types of wireless networks (radio, microwave and satellite) work and their advantages/disadvantages. So far most websites are just trying to sell me the dahm things. I am starting to get desperate.

[edit] I dont know why i just dont post here first, and save me some time :) A few minutes after posting the above, I found some information, it still doesn't seem to be enough though. Any help would still be apreciated.

[2nd edit]I am just about ready to give up. Sure by typing in "tutorial" you get rid of all the websites trying to sell you the thing, but you get whole new type of websites, university courses from america that you have to pay for to view... or worse, e-books that are no more than sponsor billboards. :angry:

[Aleck]

Thanks all, especially you, BigFred. I completed my assingment today.

[Ned Seagoon]

Hi Aleck

Thanks, sorry I missed your last post but glad you got it finished OK.

For these sort of assignments, your text books and lecture notes should be your prime source of information, the stuff you get from internet searches should just form the icing on the cake.

Hope you can now find time to come back with your new found information, and help others who have some questions on this.

Cheers BF