Network Design

This assignment should be done in pairs utilizing the Wired Lan Modelling feature at the WebLan Designer. Images resulting from the modeling process can be copied and imported into any drawing program, that can be used to add on the lines and labels needed.
A brief recap of switches, hubs and routers can be found at Routers, Switches and Hubs, and a lengthier and more complete one at http://www2.edc.org/cope/networkprimer/primch5.pdf.

Bear in mind, when making your design decisions, the costs of all components involved, remember that routers are more expensive than switches and that these are more expensive than hubs. Also include, whenever necessary, proxy servers and firewalls. The assignment should be completed today within the lesson, so you should not leave the room without checking with me that I have received them.

1) A school has two small campuses that operate at different physical locations, 10 km apart. The North campus has a computer lab with 9 workstations and a printer that are connected via a Token Ring Network, and 4 administrative computers and two printers that are networked to each other. A file server and colour printer are accessed by all computers in this campus, which are also connected to the Internet by means of a dedicated cablemodem. The South campus has two computer labs with 6 and 8 computers respectively, plus 5 other computers that are used for teaching and administrative purposes. There is one file server and network printer that must be accessed by all computers in the network. The North Campus will access the Internet via a dedicated cablemodem. Both campuses must be linked.
Draw a detailed diagram of how the network is set up and configured, and write down a brief rationale that explains your network design.


2) A multinational company has branches in Argentina and the US. The Argentina branch has 8 networked computers that are used to handle customer requests and post-sale service, whereas the US office deals with sales and production through 12 computers. Each branch has two network printers and a file server, and they must be connected to each other. Design a network that satisfies the requirements and explain which hardware and/or software solutions you need to adopt.

More on networks

Today we will be working again on networks. Initially, we will be revising some of the concepts we learned on Wednesday by means of the Ethernet Tutorial at TechNick. Once we go through this tutorial and we learn more about network toplogies and how to improve speed, our objective will be to try to answer the Multiple Choice Quiz within the WebLan Designer Project.

You need to research and find the answers to questions 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,19,21,22.

Networking

The next topic that we will be dealing with is networks. We will be analyzing the fundamentals of networks, different topologies and other technical concepts as a first step towards discussing the implications of networks on society and individuals.
We will start, as an introduction, by watching the following animation that depicts graphically how Internet works:





Then we will cover the basics and fundamentals of Networking through How Stuff Works.

How Ethernet Works

Presentation

We have covered several technical topics lately, and this assignment will focus on discussing some of the implications on individuals and societies of the their technological applications.
Working in groups of 3 students, you will develop a PowerPoint presentation that addresses one of the following topics/statements:

- Users are forced into buying expensive computers in order to sustain operating systems that do not give extended functionality. Open source operating systems would not require a constant upgrading.
- Most organizations or firms do not adequately address the issue of ergonomics and as such millions of dollars are lost every year as a consequence of repetitive stress injuries.
- In the future, most people will work from home and many important social interactions will be lost, as well as the ability to function as a team.
- Passwords are an unsafe and inadequate method to gain data access. Biometric recognition will be the standard in the near future, since affordable and accurate biometric recognition methods are now available.

Each presentation must address the above issues including external links, at least two multimedia elements (videos) linked from the presentation, and arrive at a conclusion with respect to the statement presented. You must email your finished presentation to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Wednesday, April 22nd.
During the first lesson, the plan for the presentation must be drawn up and approved. You will not actually start working on the presentation but rather identify how you will tackle it as well as finding the links and resources that you plan to include.

Teleworking - Biometrics - Ergonomics

During the next few classes, we will be discussing some general issues related to technology use and access, as well as their implications.
Ergonomics: is the application of scientific information concerning objects, systems and environment for human use (definition adopted by the International Ergonomics Association in 2007). However, the field of Ergonomics is mostly associated with the design of hardware in such a way that it prevents commonly known repetitive stress injuries RSI. Healthy Computing is a web site that contains interesting and easily readable information on Ergonomics as applied to computer software.
Teleworking: Globalization and recent changes and technological advances have made it possible for an increasing number of people to be able to work from home. Managing Strategies For Telework - The Virtual Workforce is an article that provides a good summary of the advantages and disadvantages of working from home.
Password Protection – Biometrics: Any organization that possesses valuable information needs to put into effect some sort of validation process that ensures that only authorized users can gain access to relevant information. There are many different authentication methods, from the very simple and straightforward Passwords) to more complex ones based on biometrics. We will watch the following two videos to jumpstart our discussion:

Assessment 1

Answer all questions, save them to a Word file, name it with your surname and submit it to itgs.sass@gmail.com DO NOT LEAVE THE LAB UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED THAT I RECEIVED THE FILE.

The questions have been written so that you are able to analyze and respond by demonstrating your mastery of the topics. PLEASE DO NOT COPY FROM WEB SITES.

1- A student at our computer lab is typing in the address www.yahoo.com. Explain in detail the internal process that takes place from that moment until the student gets the page loaded on the screen.
2- What criteria would you use to validate a web site?
3- A friend of yours wants to create a new search engine. Explain to him what he would need to do, including advice on how to make his search engine efficient in retrieving results.
4- What criteria are used to rate a search engine?
5- Can search engines be manipulated to individual or an organization’s advantage? How is that done?
6- What are search engine designers trying to achieve in terms of future capabilities of search engines?

Some technical concepts

During this subsequent unit we will cover some technical topics that we need to cover so as to afterwards be able to discuss and analyze the implications of computer systems on individuals and societies.
We will approach this unit by first reading about these issues and then working on a series of assignments that will let us derive and infer their implications based on a sounder technical base.
Analog and digital data: How Analog and Digital Recording Works, from HowStuffWorks, an interesting tutorial on analog and digital recording that covers well the difference between analog and digital data. If you Google “analog and digital data” you will come across many reliable sources that will yield information on the differences between both types of data.
Difference between data and information: Again, a very clear distinction can be made between data, that is, recorded numbers, readings, etc. which in themselves are meaningless as opposed to information which can be derived from the processing and analysis of that data, in our context through computer software in a process known as data processing. There are abundant sources on this topic, a well-summarized and concise reference can be found at Understanding the Difference Between Data and Information.
Operating Systems: After watching the following introductory video:

We will once more be referring to HowStuffWorks for a general introduction on How Operating Systems Work. It provides a good and thorough introduction to this very important concept.

Recap for Evaluation

During this first part of our course, we have studied search engines, their underlying mechanism, characteristics and some of the potential implications on individuals and society of their manipulation.
The topics that we have covered include:
• Basic knowledge of the Internet, servers and clients, protocols, data packets, IP, DNS.
• The nature of search engines, their four main characteristics, indexing algorithms, what makes a search engine better than others.
• Validating sources.
• A brief glimpse into the nature of search engine algorithms. Search Engine Optimization. Pagerank. Google bombing.
• How search engines can be manipulated and their potential effects on individuals and society.
• User constructed search engine queries, search engine design criteria, tendencies, differences between novice and advanced users.
WARNING: I will not be doing this in successive units, since one of the learning objectives of this course is to be able to distinguish relevant and non-relevant information as well as developing the ability to sort out data that is not necessarily in written form.