It Networking

A small lab has recently expanded to seven computers and is trying to design and layout their network across their two-room facility.

In the main room, each of the five researchers has their own computer, and one printer is shared among all employees. The printer can be connected to a computer and shared with the other computers or connected directly to a network hub. In the lab room, the other two computers are specialized systems that control lab tools.

The five researchers commonly work from their computer and use a remote desktop session on the specialized lab computers to manipulate experiments in the lab.

Respond to each of the project requirements and submit all work to the Dropbox as a single file.

Project requirements:

1. For the client situation described in the Discussion/Project Topic above, use Microsoft Visio 2007 to generate a diagram for a proposed network topology. Write a 1-2 page proposal for the research group explaining why that design would best meet their needs.

The question stated they are using a network "hub." My first suggestion is to use a managed switch in place of the hub. This increases security, as it isolates machines from packets that are not addressed to them. It also increases the available bandwidth.

My second suggestion is to place another managed switch in the lab. This reduces the wires that must be run from the main room to the lab. It also makes future expansion much, much easier. We run one or more Cat 6 cables between the two switches. If we run more than one cable, we have some redundancy. Most managed switches (e.g., 3Com SuperStack III switches) can combine several Cat 6 cables into a trunk line. If the extra wires cost real money, I would not suggest them, but there is very little additional cost for running four cables through a single hole compared to the cost of running a single wire through that same hole.

The computers in the main room are connected to the switch in the main room. The computers in the...