Network Security Problem, Research Paper Example

The interconnection between two or more local networks can be achieved through a number of techniques. The most appropriate when the number of networks to be interconnected is less than five is the campus area network. This allows for the interconnection of LANS within a significantly large geographical area. This project involves a comprehensive elaboration of the implementation process of such a network within the school of health sciences in the University of Chicago. The networks include the interconnection of their different local area networks classified as the administrative staff, student’s network, and the academic staff networks.

Administrative staff network

This is the first network of the campus network. It is pertinent to note that the administrative staff network offers the core opinions of the institution. The entry to this network should be highly restricted to ensure high data integrity and traffic flow. The network contains all the persona l details of the students as well as course description for each of the students. The backbone of the network is a 4Mbps token ring topology. This isolates each staff in the network. The NIC cards used by tab independent staff sites, which amount to around fifteen, are also 4Mbps. The network interface card is instrumental in supporting the communication from a computer to the network. It is pertinent to note that the protocol used to access the server containing the student details is telnet, which is considered as unsecure, unlike the SSH (Hardjono, & Dondeti, 2005).

The academic staff network

This local area network is based on a 4 Mbps token link backbone. However, it is larger than the administrative staff network since it serves about thirty individuals. It is pertinent to note that the academic staff does not have a direct access it the student details server. However, they can get the information through an administrative staff on request. The core requirements for this network is to allow the academic members of staff to publish different course documents and avail them to both the students and the administrative staff for quality control. Moreover, the documents can be published to enable distant-learning students to access them easily in remote locations over the internet. It is pertinent to note that the role of the academic staff is isolated room that of the administrative staff and their process must be verified by the administrative officials. Their internet course publication should be limited to authorized individuals according to the university policies. Secure web applications have to be used to ensure that there is secure traffic flow from the web application servers and the users: this prevents interception and enhance data integrity. The remote users include teachers and students: they should be provided with usernames and passwords to log in into the system (Elahi, & Elahi, 2006).

The student network

This local area network provides students with different online applications. The network is accessible from the computer labs. Each of these labs has a capacity of thirty personal computers. With about two hundred students to be served by the antiquated asynchronous network, the data speed requirements are high. It is pertinent to note that each of the student users is allocated a hard drive capacity of 5 GB. Within every laboratory, there is a dedicated print as well as storage server. The personal computers in the labs are installed with Asynchronous NIC. However, there some of the computers with unique half-duplex Ethernet cards.

Some of the applications that students commonly use include ward possessing applications, medical health applications as well as other Microsoft office applications. It is pertinent to note that a standalone application and access plan is implemented within this network. This is where every computer is installed with all the applications that a student needs. The maintenance of these applications takes up a significant proportion of the technician’s man-hour time.

Wide area network considerations

The university has multiple campuses located in different geographical location. Five campuses are located within the concerned region, with three of them being located in the same locality commonly considered as the main campus. The network requirements indicate that all of the five campuses must be interlinked and be served with a single-mail server. Moreover, internet connectivity must be provided to all of them. The different sites must use a single mail server for the purposes of minimizing the delay before delivery of mails.

Network topology

The network topology proposed for the network is the star network topology. This topology has multiple advantages when compared to other network topologies. It is proposed that Ethernet network architecture is implemented. The Ethernet network should be able to support gigabit speeds using CAT 5 cables. Moreover, the network should operate in full duplex mode. The use of gigabit Ethernet switches for the interconnection between the three local area networks is suggested. This will ensure first data flow as well as a high level of reliability. For scalability purposes, 24 port gigabit switches will be used across the network. However, secondary switches in instances where the users are more than twenty-four (McFedries, 2008).

The main campus will house a network hub, which will have most servers. The servers housed in the hub will include a mail server, Microsoft active directory server, web application server, DHCP server, storage server as well as database systems server. These servers will be protected from external attacks using a firewall. The firewall is the entry and exit point to the server hub and allows only authorized users to access the network resources. It is pertinent to note that the mail servers operated within the university domain name. An internet connection from an ISP will be provided at the hub center (Blacharski, 1998).

The network is classified into two. There is the local area network domain and the wide area network domain. The LAN will adopt a star topology where the center will be the server points as well as the switching points. This enables user management through a centralized network administration. However, implementation of virtual local area network is instrumental in ensuring that there is a clear demarcation of traffic from administration, students, and academic staff. Access lists will be used to restrict the access of the traffic within one network.

A virtual private network will be used to connect the university with other remote locations. This is where the university will use a leased line from the internet service provider to connect to its remote site. The traffic between two remote sites will be encrypted and a dedicated space secured for that purpose within the ISP cloud. At every remote site, a router will be configured accordingly to receive information.

References

Blacharski, D. (1998). Network security in a mixed environment. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide.

Elahi, A., & Elahi, M. (2006). Data, network, and Internet communications technology. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Hardjono, T., & Dondeti, L. R. (2005). Security in wireless LANs and MANs. Boston: Artech House.

McFedries, P. (2008). Networking with Microsoft Windows Vista: your guide to easy and secure Windows Vista networking. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que.