IT-212 Milestone three

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Jan 9, 2024

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IT 212 Milestone Three IT-212-X2249 Intro to Computer Networks 23EW2 1

This advertising firm has offices in Albany, New York, and Springfield, Massachusetts. The company decided to expand in Fayetteville, North Carolina because there were more chances to enter new markets. This office will be home to 50 employees, including the new executive vice president of sales and marketing. I’ve been tasked to research the new Fayetteville, NC office setup project and deliver a report to the team with key considerations and recommendations for the network infrastructure setup. Since there are many ways of troubleshooting a network, diagnosing any problems will be easier if you understand how the network works. Troubleshooting requires technician to begin with the obvious, or at the bottom and work way up. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model is a reference model for how applications communicate over a network without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology . OSI model explains the complex process of sending data on a network ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). OSI model has seven layers that can help the technician to troubleshoot and understand the network. First, there is the Physical Layer or Layer 1 . This OSI model layer sets standards for sending and receiving electrical signals between devices ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). For example, a user called to report being unable to use the internet. The technician should inquire as to whether they are wired or wireless, and if wired, the technician should verify whether the wired end is connected to an ethernet port of the machine and the other end is connected to the unmanaged switch, port wall, or VoIP. If all ends are connected, the technician should check if the ethernet port has both LED connections. If the machine is connected through wireless, the technician should verify if the Wi-Fi button is turned on or the Wi-Fi driver is not disabled cause this way the technician can verify that the Layer 1 or the Physical Layer has no issue. The second layer of the OSI model is the Data Link Layer or Layer 2 . The Data Link or Layer2 defines the rules and procedures for hosts as they access the 2

Physical Later ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). On this layer, a technician checks the technologies used to connect two machines across the network like Switchesm bridges and NICS, and WAPs function in Layer 2. On this layer, a technician can check on how devices control the rate of data transmission between hosts (flow control) ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). The third layer is the Network Layer or Layer 3 . The Network layer describes how data is routed across networks and onto the destination ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). On this layer, a technician can check if the machines are getting the correct IP address, sending it to the correct IP address, or if it is in the correct subnet. The fourth layer is the Transport Layer or Layer 4 . The Transport Layer provides a transition between the upper and lower layers of the OSI model. This is where the segmentation, sequencing, and combination happen ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). This is where a technician or Network admin checks if the data packets arrive at the destination in the right order, with no data loss or errors. The fifth layer of the OSI model is the Session Layer or Layer 5. The Session layer manages the session in which data are transferred ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). This is where a technician or Network admin checks if the machine gets the correct session by identifying through their session ID. The sixth layer is the Presentation Layer or Layer 6. The Presentation Layer formats (presents) data in a form compatible for receipt by the Application later or the destination system ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). This is where the encryption and decryption happens. This is where a technician or Network admin checks if the data gets decrypted before it gets sent to the machines. The last layer of the OSI model is the Application Layer or Layer 7 . The Application layer integrates network functionality into the host operating system and enables communication between network clients and services ("TestOut LabSim," n.d.). OSI model also gets rid of the need to buy proprietary network equipment. 3

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Regarding the IP range considerations for this company, I would suggest using a variable- length subnet mask or VLSM to avoid wasting unused IP addresses. I will suggest using the subnet mask of /24 and IPv4 addresses that the ISP provided. Since they will only have 50 employees, plus other equipment that needs an IP address, and because some employees are working remotely 254 hosts should be enough. For this building, the company needs to provide other network components like shared printers that can do fax as well, servers (for the DHCP and DNS server or other servers that will not be hosted through the cloud), managed switches, firewalls, and routers. The company also needs to provide connecting Media like a wireless access point for the Wi-Fi connection, fiber optic cable speed over distance connection, and ethernet cable for internal connection. The company also needs to tell the telecom company or the Internet Service Provider company to ensure each room has a network port for ethernet connections. The company needs to consider using a Voice over IP(VoIP) to reduce telephone expenses. The use of cloud-based servers, such as the Adobe Creative Cloud server and the Microsoft Office 365 server, is something that the company should think about. By doing this, it will save money and the employees will find it easier to share documents and save their files without having to worry about whether or not they backed up their files. As a result, the workplace won’t need many physical servers and maintenance time will be reduced. When it comes to the LAN topologies, I will suggest that this building use a star topology because all network connections are connected to a single physical connection which makes it easy for troubleshooting. With this topology, it’s easy to add and remove a device from the network and cabling problems affect only one device. I would not suggest the Bus topology, yes Bus topology is cost-efficient but because all devices are connected in one cable, and if a broken 4

cable anywhere on the bus breaks, it will break all communications between all devices on the network. Bus topology is only good for small networks, such as home. Ring topology is the other topology that I would not recommend even though it is simple and cost-efficient, Ring topology is like bus topology when one cable is broken cable anywhere on the bus break, it will break all communications between all devices on the network. Also, the installations require careful planning to create a continuous ring. Even though Mesh topology is costly and initial setup is difficult this would be a great setup as well for this building because every device has a point-to- point connection with every other device. But Mesh topology works better only in wireless networking medium because if we use a wired medium, each device will need a separate network adapter for every other device on the network. In conclusion, for the company's new site, the star topology is more efficient, highly scalable, has a centralized network, and is easily manageable. There are many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area but I will only recommend two ISPs, the Spectrum and Brightspeed. Spectrum uses a cable type as a connection and offers unlimited data means that there is no limit on the amount of data transferred. With the cable connection, Spectrum offers 300Mbps which costs $49.99/month for 12 mos when bundled* ($64.99/mos for 12 mos for internet only) the ideal speed for video conferencing, streaming, and point-of-sale systems at businesses with fewer than 5 employees. The 600Mbps speed for $99.99/month for 12 mos when bundled* ($149.99/mos for 12 mos for internet only) is the right speed for running e-commerce and cloud-based applications for businesses with 20 employees or less. The 1Gbps for $149.99/month speed for 12 mos when bundled* is the right speed for multiple simultaneous users and devices, data backups, and large file transfers for businesses with more than 20 employees (Communications, n.d.). Spectrum is 5

reliable when it comes to security because of all internet speeds, they include a free F-Secure Desktop Security that is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems and provides automatic detection and protection against viruses, spyware, malware, hacker intrusions, and more. They also offer 24/7 Real-Time Protection against major cyber threats (Communications, n.d.). Spectrum offers Advanced Wi-Fi features with extra charge. This allows the company to manage and secure the devices connected to the network while maximizing the internet performance. On the other hand, brightspeed offers different speeds. First, they have 1Mbps – 10Mbps which is good for businesses with 1-20 employees and ideal for light web browsing, as well as downloading presentations and data files. The 10Mbps-100Mbps is good for businesses with 20-50 employees and ideal for businesses that require point-of-sale, video applications, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Their last speed is 100Mbps – 1Gbps, which is good for businesses with 50- 100 employees and ideal for sending and receiving large files, online collaboration, video conferencing, or streaming (“Broadband,” n.d.). Brightspace is a reliable, advanced fiber-optic network that offers a high-quality, high-speed dedicated broadband service. They have 24/7 customer support from Brightspeed engineers and technicians. Upon careful consideration, I recommend Spectrum as the Internet Service Provider for this office due to its reputation, reliability, and great network security which helps the business when it comes to cyber threats. When it comes to the ethernet cable, I would recommend that this building use cat6a because it’s designed to provide better protection against EMI, and crosstalk and provides better performance especially when used with 10-Gbps Ethernet (10GBASE-T). Also, I recommend using a fiber optic cable speed over distance connection. For the 50 employees, including the new executive vice president of sales and marketing to be able to do their jobs, the company needs to provide them with good computers that are 6

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ready to use and set up to connect to the company VPN, especially to the users who will be working remotely. With the VPN connecting to the Albany VPN server, this will allow them to connect to the printer that is located in the company headquarters in Albany. Additionally, the company needs to have 5 extra loaner machines just for backup. I would recommend Dell products for Windows users because I know that when it comes to support you can count on Dell. I would recommend that each user’s Windows machines have an Intel Core i7 or higher or AMD equivalent, 16 GB minimum of RAM, 500 GB minimum of storage, and a DirectX 12 or later with WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 2.0 driver since this company will do more in editing. I would recommend also that the machines be capable of wired and wireless connection. And it would be better to purchase Mac products for those users who prefer Mac to Windows. For Mac hardware, I will recommend that the company purchase a Mac that was released in 2020-latest, with a processor of M2 or the latest, with a minimum of 512GB for storage, and a minimum of 16GB for memory. When it comes to monitors, I would recommend ordering a monitor with a built-in webcam for those users who have a desktop so that in this way the company will not have to purchase a webcam. For monitors that are only used for a second display, the company can purchase monitors like Dell, HP, and Lenovo without a built-in webcam. When it comes to a mouse and keyboard, the company can purchase a desktop that has a keyboard and mouse included. For an external hard drive, I would recommend Western Digital and Seagate. For the server, I would recommend HPE ProLiant servers. I would suggest Aruba CX Switches, Cisco Catalyst, and Netgear switches. For the Access Point, I would recommend that the company purchase Aruba Access Point. I would suggest that the company use SonicWall for a router that can act as a firewall. I would recommend including a hardware warranty for each device that the company will purchase. 7

For software, I would recommend that each Windows user’s machine run Windows 11, MacOS of Ventura, or Sonoma for Mac users. Since this company is an advertising company, I would recommend that the company purchase an Adobe cloud-based Suite license for editing, Corel Desktop Publishing software, and a Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based license. Regarding printer hardware, I recommend Xerox multifunction printers or Lexmark CX730 Series printers. When it comes to bigger-size printing, I recommend the HP DesignJet printers. For printer setup, I would recommend managed direct IP printing in this way the company can save money instead of buying printers for each user and also help the user to print easily wherever they are even though they are working remotely as long as they are connected to the VPN. I recommend PaperCut for the print management software. This will let the company track all who print and prevent users from printing without knowing since PaperCut will need users to sign in or swipe their ID to print. The bandwidth recommendation for teleconferencing is 1Mbps for standard video conferencing, 6Mbps for HD video conferencing, and 5 to 25 Mbps for telecommuting (“What internet speed do you need for video conferencing?,” 2021) which can be provided by Spectrum. And for the Voice over IP (VoIP) is at least 100 Kbps upload and download per line (Bai, 2023) which can be provided by Spectrum as well. Since the company will purchase the M365 license, they can use Microsoft Teams for video conferences and Zoom. Network errors are unpredictable even though the network is all planned out. These network errors can be like a slow network, especially for users who are complaining about a slow Wi-Fi connection, mistyped or duplicate IP addresses, users who cannot connect to the network Printer, VLAN or VPN problems, Cyber Attacks, loopback issues, and VoIP phones are not working properly. My proposed solution for these issues is for a technician or network admin 8

needs to know and understand how the OSI model works, understand the network protocols, understand how ping and trace routing works and read the results. A technician or network admin should think out of the box sometimes to find the solution, can think from the user's perspective, and can work under pressure. With these proposed solutions, a technician or the network admin can find any solution to these network errors, especially in this new business location. There are many networking monitoring and patch management software that this new business location can install to monitor their network. For Fayetteville, North Carolina location I would recommend using Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing Services. In this way, the company will not have to worry about installing and subscribing to multiple software for network monitoring and patch management. This will help also the technician access Microsoft Azure quickly. Azure Monitor Network Insights provides a comprehensive and visual representation through topology, health, and metrics for all deployed network resources, without requiring any configuration (Halkazwini, n.d.) . Microsoft Azure will help also this company to run a patch update to all devices to avoid any vulnerabilities that can cause harm to the company network. Azure Update Manager is a service that helps manage updates for all your machines, including those running on Windows and Linux, across Azure on-premises, and on other cloud platforms ("Azure update manager– patch management | Microsoft Azure," n.d.) . With the help of the Azure, IT technician can track what machines is running out of date software, what needs to be updated, and who is the user. Azure can help the company track its assets inventory on the networks. Another way to track asset inventory is through the TeamDynamix Ticket System. TeamDynamix Ticket has an assets section where the IT Technician can add any information about the system like the serial number, who is the current owner, where is this machine located, and the asset number every time a user submits a ticket to the IT. For the Mac machines, the 9

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company can do Jamf Apple Device Management. In this way, the IT department can send patch updates to all Apple devices that are in the network. This will help also the company to track and discover all the Apple devices in the company. In conclusion, I believe the recommendations I’ve made regarding the network configurations, hardware, software, printer, and bandwidth required for this new location in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will help the company and its employees to operate effectively both in the office and for users who work remotely. 10

References Azure update manager– patch management | Microsoft Azure. (n.d.). https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-update-management-center (Accessed December 10, 2023). Bai, J. (2023, November 2). How much data does VoIP use? Tips to save bandwidth . Nextiva Blog. https://www.nextiva.com/blog/voip-data-usage.html#:~:text=For%20VoIP%20calls %2C%20we%20recommend,calls%20at%20the%20same%20time (Accessed November 26, 2023). Broadband . (n.d.). Brightspeed. https://www.brightspeed.com/ew/networking/broadband/ (Accessed November 26, 2023). Communications, C. (n.d.). Business internet services - High speed internet | Spectrum business . https://www.spectrum.com/business/internet. https://www.spectrum.com/business/interne t (Accessed November 26, 2023). Communications, C. (n.d.). Desktop security . https://www.spectrum.com/business/internet/desktop-security (Accessed November 26, 2023). Halkazwini. (n.d.). Azure monitor network insights . Microsoft Learn: Build skills that open doors in your career. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/network-watcher/network- insights-overview (Accessed December 10, 2023). 11

Network monitoring software . (n.d.). Observability and IT Management Platform | SolarWinds. https://www.solarwinds.com/network-performance-monitor/use- cases/network-monitoring-software (Accessed December 10, 2023). TestOutLabSim. (n.d.). https://labsimapp.testout.com/v6_0_575/index.html/productviewer/1190/1.1/8a285 71f-1f77-4d58-ae6f-b3ebfefb77bb (Accessed November 12, 2023). What internet speed do you need for video conferencing? (2021, January 29). MegaMeeting. https://www.megameeting.com/news/what-internet-speed-for-video- conferencing/#:~:text=Video%20conferencing%20typically%20requires %20around,connection%20to%20improve%20the%20experience (Accessed November 26, 2023). 12

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IT-212 Milestone three

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