Local Area Network (LAN) Design Considerations (IT professionals only)
Person accepting this assign=ment must use VISIO. Plagiarized is not acceptable and will require a refund. It’ imperative that all directions are followed. Reply with fee
Complete the following modules in the Pluralsight course, “Network Architecture for CompTIA Network+ (N10-006)”:
Understanding WAN Technologies
Installing and Terminating Network Cables and Connectors
Differentiating Between Common Network Infrastructures
Implementing a Network Addressing Scheme
Understanding Routing Concepts and Protocols
Introducing Unified Communications Technologies
Comparing Cloud and Virtualization Technologies
Review the following module in the Pluralsight course “Network Architecture for CompTIA Network+ (N10-006)”:
Implementing a Basic Network
Background: Hugh Generic of Generic Financial Services has hired XYZ Systems Consulting to help with the LAN design of two offices. Mary Prince of XYZ Systems Consulting met with Hugh Generic and a transcript of their conversation can be found in the student download section on the right within the XYZ Systems Consulting folder.
Resources:
To gain additional insight on how to analyze network needs and possible vulnerabilities, download and use NMap which also contains Zenmap GUI as the graphical interface to show scan results. NMap is a free open source tool used to gain additional information on how to review network traffic and determine additional hosts, operating systems being used, scan ports, and application versions used on a network. The instructions for use can be downloaded using the link under the materials section on the right. Be sure to follow these instructions and then review the types of information provided.
Assignment:
Determine how use of this tool can be used to make decisions and provide the modification needed for this LAN Design project.
Prepare a LAN design using Visio® for service request SR-mf-005 & SR-mf-007.
Name your project “005_LastName_FirstInitial” and choose Create an Empty Scenario.
Materials (These tools must be used to complete assignment)
NMap – (Found online at NMap.com)
NMap User Guide – (Found online at NMap.com)
XYZ Systems Consulting Transcript – (Attached)
XYZ Systems Consulting SR-mf-005 & SR-mf-007 – (Attached)
Toolwire®: Personal Student Desktop Access (NOT sure if can be accessed online)
Pluralsight: Network Architecture for CompTIA Network+ (N10-006) – (online at Pluarsight.com
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Educat ion Group, Inc. ©2015 Apollo Education Group, Inc. Copyrights are retained by their owners.“
College of Information Systems and Technology
College of Information Systems and Technology 1 XYZ Systems Consulting: SERVICE REQUESTS: SR-mf-005 and SR-mf-007
XYZ SYSTEMS CONSULTING
SERVICE REQUEST: SR-mf-005 LAN Design- Boise Office
Requester
Hugh Generic
Description
Create a Requirements Document and a Logical Design for the LAN for
Generic Financial’s Boiseoffice.
Location
Boise, ID
Background
Generic Financial has completed the tenant improvements on its Boise, Idaho office and is
getting ready to formally open its office there. Mary Prince met with Hugh Generic and
discussed the company’s needs. A transcript of the conversation can be found in the student
area. A formal requirements document and a logical design, based on Hugh and Mary’s
conversation, need to be prepared and approved before work on the network can
proceed.
Expected Results
A Network Requirements document. A Logical Design for theLAN.
U nauthorized use, duplication and/or distribution of the content contained in this document are hereby prohibited without the written consent of Apollo
Educat ion Group, Inc. ©2015 Apollo Education Group, Inc. Copyrights are retained by their owners.“
College of Information Systems and Technology
College of Information Systems and Technology 21 XYZ Systems Consulting: SERVICE REQUESTS: SR-mf-005 and SR-mf-007
XYZ SYSTEMS CONSULTING
SERVICE REQUEST: SR-mf-007 LAN Design- Sioux Falls Office
Requester
Hugh Generic
Description
Create a Requirements Document and a Logical Design for the LAN for
Generic Financial’s Sioux Fallsoffice.
Location
Sioux Falls, SD
Background
Generic Financial has signed a lease for its Sioux Falls office. Tenant improvements will begin
in the next few weeks. Mary Prince met with Hugh Generic and discussed the company’s
needs. A transcript of the conversation can be found in the student area. A formal
requirements document and a logical design, based on Hugh and Mary’s conversation,
need to be prepared and approved before work on the network can proceed.
Expected Results
A Network Requirements document. A Logical Design for theLAN.
College of Information Systems and Technology
College of Information Systems and Technology 1
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Education Group, Inc. ©2015 Apollo Education Group, Inc. Copyrights are retained by their owners.
XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic
XYZ SYSTEMS CONSULTING
CONSULTATION: XYZ Systems Consulting and Generic Financial
Transcript of conversation between Hugh Generic (HG), of Generic Financial Services
and Mary Prince (MP) of XYZ Systems Consulting discussing the computer network
needed for Generic’s planned offices.
(MP) Good morning Hugh. Tell me a little about your company.
(HG) Generic Financial Services is going to be the preeminent provider of low cost
mortgage services in its region. We will offer mortgages to homebuyers, specializing in
first time buyers and problem credit clients. We’ll make our profits by strictly controlling
costs. Rather than having a large staff of brokers and secretaries to sell financing
packages to each customer, I will keep the staff small and rely upon technology to let
the customers sell themselves on the mortgages they want. Customers will need to
enter their own mortgage applications online and approvals or denials will be sent
electronically. The loan decisions will be made at the home office by the lending
committee; However, committee members will not always be in the office and will
need to access the database from wherever they may be on a daily basis.
(MP) How many offices will there be?
(HG) Eight. The first two will open in Boise, Idaho and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Boise
location is the home office.
(MP) Where will the other office be?
(HG) One in Montana, two in Wyoming, two in North Dakota and one more in South
Dakota in Rapid City.
(MP) How many people will be in the home office?
(HG) To start, three brokers and two admin assistants to handle administrative issues
company wide.
(MP) How many people will be in the other offices?
(HG) Each office will have 2 – 3 brokers. Each of the brokers will work on commission
and will provide their own laptop computers. The company will provide the networks,
Internet access, printers, fax and telephones for each office. In addition to the brokers,
each location will have an experienced receptionist in the office from 8am – 5pm
Monday through Friday to open and close the office, greet clients, answer the phone
and take care of local record keeping.
College of Information Systems and Technology
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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic
(MP) How much physical space will the offices occupy?
(HG) They’ll range in size from about 800 square feet to around 1200 square feet.
(MP) Do you have any idea how the offices will be laid out?
(HG) Most of the offices haven’t been leased yet. We’ve identified spaces that we
would like to occupy, but the details aren’t finalized. The spaces we’re looking at are
located on the ground floor either in office parks on strip office building in the
downtown areas of the selected cities. Being on the ground floor has a number of
advantages, but, with the right location and lease package, we would consider a
space on a higher floor of an office building. For example, the Boise office is already
leased. As the home office, it needed more space since it will handle the administrative
needs of the whole company, and we’ve got just under 1200 square feet.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find that much space on the ground floor in the right
location in the city. We actually ended up occupying two spaces in the building. On
the ground floor, we’ve got an 800 square foot space where the brokers will meet the
customers. The last tenant did a beautiful job in finishing the space – a lot of oak
paneling and hardwood flooring. We don’t want to change a thing. The administrative
people will work up on the 7th floor in a space that is just under 300 square feet. We’ll
have to figure out some way to connect the admin staff with the brokers so that we’re
not running up and down the stairs or calling back and forth on the telephone to
exchange information.
(MP) How about the Sioux Falls location?
(HG) We just signed the lease on the Sioux Falls office. It is 900 square feet on the
ground floor in a strip office building. The space is just one large room right now. The
landlord has given us an allowance for TIs and we’re looking for someone to help us
with the design layout.
(MP) Do you see any areas in the offices that will be devoted to specific needs?
(HG) Well, each office will have a file storage area, a computer/phone area, and
private meeting area for client broker meetings. Depending on the office size and the
budgets for Tenet Improvements, some of the locations will have private offices, while
others will have cubes with one or two private meeting rooms. Each office will also have
a client waiting area, and each of these waiting areas will have self-serve kiosks with
computers that can be used by clients to access the company’s website and their own
personal applications. The customer area will be 200 – 300 square feet, but needs to be
designed in such a way to allow clients enough space to maintain their privacy while
entering information into the computer.
(MP) Are there any security concerns you feel need to be addressed?
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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic
(HG) Since we are dealing with personal financial information, I am quite concerned
about security. I don’t want to face a lawsuit from a disgruntled client because the
client’s identity was stolen or even get a letter from a couple telling us that their
personal information was posted on the Internet. All the technology that will be
implemented has to be on the leading edge when it comes to security. We also want
to implement some kind of internal security system so that not every employee can
access all of the company’s clients’ information. So, security is very important. We
realize it won’t be cheap to secure our information, but we can’t spend all our money
on security and not have our other technological needs met. In addition to technical
security, I am concerned with physical security of the computer systems, but I don’t
really understand how we can protect our information but still provide access to clients
in the office. Each office has to have a separate location to keep all the computers
and other equipment. I am so concerned about the various security issues because I
know that the success of the company will be based on the clients’ perceptions of how
their personal information is kept private in addition to how well I can service their
mortgage needs.
(MP) What are the surrounding neighborhoods like?
(HG) The Boise office is in a downtown area of Boise dominated by different banks.
There are a few trendy restaurants and coffee shops nearby. The Sioux Falls office is on
the edge of a residential neighborhood. It is along two main streets that have a number
of insurance companies and mortgage brokers in store front offices. There are some
coffee shops and a number of fast food restaurants nearby. There is a hyper market
store about a block away. Both offices are fairly close to Interstate highways.
(MP) What kind of technology are you envisioning?
(HG) The plan is to have a company website that can be accessed either from the inoffice
kiosks or online that customers can use for self-service until they can be seen by
one of the office brokers. This website will need to have access to the latest interest
rates, financial calculators and other information that a person applying for a home
mortgage might be interested in accessing while waiting for their broker. Each office’s
network should be connected to the home office, but I’m not sure of the best way to
accomplish this interoffice connectivity. I want to be able to be in any of the offices
and be able to access the data the same way, no matter which office I happen to be
in. Another reason that offices’ networks must be connected to each other is that we
will create our own client database and I want to be sure that each mortgage
application is stored in a central location so that it can be reviewed by the committee
wherever we might be. However, I’ve read about what happened to the companies
directly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and am concerned with
disaster recovery. We must have some kind of redundancy in each office. I know that
there are several levels of redundancy; That each computer can have redundant
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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic
components to improve its availability; And that each network can have duplicate
parts to allow automatic failover should a problem occur with a particular component.
I want to be sure that we don’t have a system problem just because one piece of
equipment failed. Some of the committee members are interested in wireless
computers, but as I said earlier, security is our chief concern. I mean, how can I tell my
clients that their data is secure when people in other offices could access my network?
So, unless you can really demonstrate that wireless is secure, I’m not interested in
hearing about how great wireless can be. I know a little about databases, so I want to
have a powerful one that can help increase the profitability of the company while at
the same time be easy for the employees to access the information they need. The
database needs to be fast enough so that no one is waiting too long for the computer
to respond with the information needed to answer a client’s question. Since the
database will contain virtually all the information about the company and its clients, we
need to have it backed up regularly in case something happens to it. In addition to the
database, I’m sure that we will have lots of other files and things that need to be
backed up. I once had a computer crash and lost all my important files because I
didn’t understand that I was responsible for backing up my data. Someone once told
me that there are two kinds of computer users, those that have lost data, and those
that will. I guess I’m now a ‘have lost’ and don’t want to have that experience again. I
think I want to have a website that is connected somehow to the database. I was
reading on a flight to Boise a few weeks ago just how easy it can be, but as I continue
to research the topic, I begin to wonder if it makes sense to do that at all. I have a
sneaking suspicion that if people that enter the data can later retrieve it, that people
that didn’t enter it could retrieve it as well. For instance, let’s say a couple goes to an
Internet café and fills out their application online. What would happen if someone used
that same computer immediately afterwards? Another concern is hacking. How do we
protect our website from being hacked?
(MP) We’ll figure out a way to protect you. What about Email?
(HG) We’ll need Email, but I want to be sure that someone else can’t read our
messages. We should have our own Email name; You know – Hugh Generic@
GenericFinancial.com and our own server to send and receive our Email. I’ve read
about spam and viruses, so I want to eliminate as much of that junk as possible, but not
be so restrictive that potential clients send us Email that we never receive.
(MP) Do you hand any specific hardware needs?
(HG) Well, we’ll need printers, both black and white and color. I’d like to be sure that
we don’t miss a fax that comes in. I have heard about fax machines that can be
connected to the network, but don’t understand how that would work. A guy I golf with
sometimes says the he can actually send a fax without printing a page and I’m sure
that would save us a bunch of money, both in time and in supplies. I’ve also seen ads
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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic
for some copiers can be used as both a printer and a copier and can scan and even
Email a document without having to go to a computer.
(MP) Who will support the company’s network?
(HG) I expect that the employees will have basic computer skills and will be able to
change toner and ink cartridges and reboot computers when necessary. However, all
technical support will be outsourced to you XYZ’s System Consulting. I know XYZ’s does
not have offices in the cities where Generic’s will be located so we’ll have to have
some type of remote support. I am not sure how that will work, but I have spoken with
other people in the mortgage industry back east and they tell me that they have
people fix their computers who aren’t even the same city. For instance, one company
has its headquarters in Atlanta, and offices in South Carolina. The computer guys in
Atlanta can call a user in South Carolina and then make the mouse move and type on
the computer so that the user in South Carolina feels like a ghost has haunted the
computer. That sounds like something that could help us, with the people from XYZ’s
Consulting being able to see what we did wrong and fix it without us having to pay for
them to come to North Dakota.
