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HS1011 Data Communication and Networks - Holmes Institute

Assessment - Critical Thinking and Topics Research

The purpose of this assignment is to exercise and develop skills required to analyse and design networks to address the need of clients.

Students will be able to:

1. Understand the concepts and principles of technology related to electronic data communications and computer networking for information systems.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of the terminology of network communications technology, network operating systems and network applications and appreciate the need for different types of networks

3. Define, prioritise and evaluate the requirement of the business to provide data communication and networking requirements.

PART 1 activities give you critical thinking challenges. They give you an opportunity to use the skills you have learned to perform a task without step-by-step instructions. Case projects offer a practical networking setup for which you supply a written solution. Then you will have to evaluate the solution provided through the reflective report writing. (600 words Total)

Challenge One (Extended Star Topology Network)

In this challenge, you build an extended star network in which the computers are connected in a physical star; the computers form the outer arms of the extended star. Build the network with as much equipment as you have available, distributing computers evenly around the outer edges of the extended star. Draw the final topology and label the devices. Then answer the following questions:

1. What type of devices are the computers attached to?
2. How many of those devices you need to build the network?
3. How many collision domains are in this network?

Challenge Two (Adding Wireless Access to the Extended Star Network)

Add wireless networking to the extended star network you built in (Challenge One) using an access point or wireless router and some wireless NICs. Expand the drawing to include the AP or wireless router then answer the following questions:

1. Which device in your extended star did you connect the AP to and why?
2. Which wireless mode are you using: ad hoc or infrastructure?
3. What logical and physical topology does adding wireless bring to this network?

Challenge Three

Holmes Corp.'s facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire, are two office buildings 400 feet apart, each with its own LAN. To connect the two networks, you plan to dig a trench and lay cable in conduit between the two buildings. You want to use fibre-optic cable, but your budget- conscious facilities manager wants to use 100 Mbps Ethernet over twisted-pair cable.

Which of the following reasons can you use to justify fibre-optic cable in this case, and why?

1. Twisted pair will not span a 400-foot distance.
2. Fiber-optic cable is cheaper and easier to work with than twisted pair.
3. Twisted pair is a conductive cable and can therefore carry current based on the difference in ground potential between the two buildings.
4. Fiber-optic cable leaves more room for growth and future needs for increased bandwidth than twisted pair does

In PART 2, you will be given different topics that include useful tools which you need to search on the net and install to learn about then provide an explanation about their use, features, advantages & disadvantages and other useful details. (900 words)

Topic One

Wi-Fi scanning tools allow you to easily locate visible wireless networks and their corresponding information Wireless. For this topic we will be learning about a scanning tool called (inSSIDer - Defeat Slow WiFi).

Download and Install a wireless scanning tool (inSSIDer) on a computer with a wireless NIC. Once installed, start a scan of your wireless network to look for access points then write a summary explaining about the following:

1. Three features that (inSSIDer) provide.
2. The approximate wireless networks did inSSIDer find
3. The wireless channels that are the most heavily used

Topic Two

Network Protocols

You learned about network protocols. To prepare for this topic, do some search and write a summary explaining about:

1. The meaning of a network protocol?
2. Also provide a brief summary about the need, the use and the characteristics of the following network protocols:
a. IP -Internet Protocol
b. FTP -File Transfer Protocol
c. HTTP-Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

Topic Three

You learned about supporting a Small-Business network. Do some search and write a summary explaining about:

1. The tips that help you build the best network for a small business
2. Computer manufacturers who maintain small-business solution centers
3. Some of the most common applications that small businesses use