need some help. networking... (1 Viewer)

[muzman]

hey. okay. say i had 124 nodes connected to a LAN.
and i wanted to upgrade to 186 nodes.
and put them into three separate LAN's but still interconnected; eg. sales department, administration and research.

what would i need?
like hardware/software.
down to the cabling.. cat5 i suppose.


i really appreciate any help.
im stumped. lol first year at tafe :$

 

[LeftrightOut]

Lots of cabling and a router with 186 ports plus one for external connectivity so make it 187 ports.

Cat5e or Cat6 is cheap enough no need for plain 5.

 

[hachoo]

3 routers, interconnected, 1 dedicated to each department.

Then have a switch connecting from the routers to provide each of the LANs. Obviously need many switches, you can buy 24 port units. You also need many Cat 5e cables as the guy above said.

Software... you could use Windows Hyperterminal and setup router configurations there. Oh, i recommend CISCO routers, always reliable.

 

[muzman]

ay cheers for the comments guys.


really helped me alot. i appreciate it.

 

[fatmuscle]

ok in a real-life situation, this is probably what you'll need:

1. router/s to connect your LAN to a WAN
2. switches to connect up your LAN. These are the 'smart-switches' where you can create VLANs and are connected via optical ether-channels. They transfer data between each switch at very high speeds!
The number of switches will depend on how the company is laid out physically.
Logically, the switches can be divided into separate VLANs.
These switches as the guys above mentioned can either be Cat5e or Cat6 compatible. Cat6 is more preferrable now a days.
3/4. Patch Panel/Wires. Wires from the switch don't go directly to nodes. They go to a patch panel first then out to the network ports located at the work station.
5. Rack. to house your patchpanel, switches and router.

They're probably all your basics.

For software, you can either use Hyperterminal or putty to configure your routers and switches.
Probably need some sort of networking management tools to manage your IP settings, proxy settings for internet, etc.



If you have the full Q, i'm sure the guys here can help you out in much greater detail.

 

[muzman]

jee thanx fellas. its helped me alot.

full question:

SCENARIO

Perfect Printing is a medium sized organistation that specialises in designing and printing brochures, flyers and other advertising material. The company operates out of a conventional factory adn has three different departments; administration, graphic design and sales. The company currently runs a peer-to-peer NetBEUI based network supporting 124 workstations on three separate LAN's, but wants to increase the computing capacity to 186 workstations and have all three LAN's interconnected.

Your mission:-

1. Document the requirements for the client.
2. Suggest a Network Structure for Perfect Printing.
3. Design a network Plan for the organistation, taking into consideration servers, workstations, routers, etc.
4. Detail the Network Protocols and Topolgy you would install to benift the organisation and explain why.
5. Document a proposal to the client outlining your plan and advice.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

as for topologies, a cascading star network topology would be fine?

 

[fatmuscle]

1. You should be fine with documenting the requirements. They seem pretty staright forward in your scenario. You might want to check with your teacher if it's a requirement to allow for expansion ie another LAN or more nodes attached.

2/3. In my above post, I'm assuming that's the type of network structure they want. I was also trying to put it into a more realistic situation. You'll definitely need a server room. This is where you'll have your racks for all your server types and related hardware.
Racks: Will house your servers and networking equipment. They will also have cooling systems in place.
Servers: File, Mail, Proxy, Intranet, SAN, Backup, UPS.
Networking: Router, Switches, Patch Panel, cables.

*Things you may need to add which may be out of scopeA) security to the server room; (B) how the phone lines? / MDF? - very often in companies of that size, the IT will manage the phone lines and PABX.

4. TCP/IP why would you use anything else
You can write up about VLANs, DHCP in this part.

5. Make sure you cover every aspect. include diagrams, etc. And maybe even do some light research on what hardware you'd recommend.


topology - star will be fine. everyone uses star.


**if you don't understand any of these terms. do a bit of light reading. it'll help you.
and if you still do'nt understand, feel free to reply

***forgot about printers... i'm assuming it is a printing company.... so you might want to chuck in Print Server too!

 

[hachoo]

Hahaha... this sounds very similar to my CISCO Summative assignment.

Here's some tips

Decide on what IP Address you're going to use.
Draw a diagram of what you think the setup will look like.
Decide on what routing protocol you shall be using (i think)

Diagram is important, stating what ip addresses go where. I don't know anything about NetBEUI. Do you use VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Masks)?

Wait... this ain't CISCO, so everything will be different.... don't listen to me.

 

[muzman]

haha thanx alot guys.
ill take all your advice into consideration and get back to you in a few days.

thanks again.