Network Upgrade, Essay Example

1. Hardware Components

Disks Drives

The data and other files are stored in disk drives. The transferable disks that can transfer data from one work station to another are called as “Floppy disks”. These Floppy Disks comes in two sizes such as 31/2 and 51/4 diameter. Moreover, they help to store data. In fact, the data can be written into disk and can easily be read from the disk. Floppy disks are easy to use as the disk can be inserted in the given disk drives. After inserting the disk a light present on the disk drive indicates that the data is being accessed. Furthermore, it is important to never remove or insert the disk while light is still blinking. This may cause damage or loss to the disk as well as, the data present in the disk.

Hard Disks

The hard disks are present inside the workstation and are capable to store a lot more data than the Floppy Disk. The Hard Disks are also known as “Fixed Disks” as they are fixed inside the system unit. The operating system of Hard Disk is much like the Floppy disk as they both are used to store data. In addition, the storage range of the Hard Disk is much larger than the Floppy Disk as their range varies from 10Mb till several hundred Mb. In fact, the access time i.e. to read the information is much faster as compared to the floppy disks. Therefore, Hard disks are more compatible in terms of their access time and their capability to store data.

The type of information that is stored on disk is in the form of files. The files stored can be in any form such as program files or word processor document. However, these files are grouped together on disk in ‘Directories’.

Another advantage of hard disk is that they are sealed in the unit hence; they are less exposed to physical damage. Therefore, data that is stored in hard disk are much secured than Floppies. On the contrary, disk failure may cause severe damage to data thus backup files must be carried out on regular basis.

CD ROM Drives

The music that is played in your system is via CD player. In fact, not just music playing, CD rom drive also helps to read digital information that is stored in computer CDs. now days many computer programs, games and software comes in CD instead of floppy disk. It is also due to the larger amount of data containing by software applications. It would take 20 floppy disks to store a software application. On the other hand, one single CD can store this data easily. Thus, this reduces cost and makes installation trouble free.

In order to differentiate them from music CDs, the computer CDs are known ad CD-ROMS. The abbreviation for CD-ROM is “Compact Disk-Read Only Memory”. The rewritable disk are also available that enables the users to record-delete and re-record data.

Ports and Expansion Slots:

There are several sockets and pockets are given at the rear of the PC. These sockets enable the keyboard and the monitor to connect. A number of computers also include parallel port that is basically used to connect printers. The other two serial ports are usually used to connect mouse, plotters or with other system.

There is also a system box called as ‘Expansion Slots’. These slots enable an additional hardware to be connected using circuit boards, cards or plugs. The slots are connected through bus into the CPU. Moreover, this bus is a set of wires that helps to transfer data.

Motherboards

Motherboards are often referring to as the key component that is present in computer to control all the computer functionalities. The CPU is commonly related as the brain of the computer. The motherboard is the most important part of computer. It is important to understand the functions of motherboard. The power cord supplies electricity to the motherboard. Moreover, it also serves two major functions. The first function is it pulls electricity from the outlet i.e. 120V AC and converts it into the required voltage that is used by the computer i.e. 12V DC. Secondly, the cooling fan is turned on that helps to prevent the system from overheating.

The motherboard is considered as the base of computer. The critical components that are run by the motherboard are

• Subsystems
• CPU
• System chipset
• Memory
• System I/O
• Expansion bus etc.

Generally, the inter links that connects all the above components together are built by the motherboard. Moreover, all the transactions that are held between the CPU and peripherals are managed by motherboard. It houses the CPU and its second level cache, the chipset, the BIOS, the main memory, the I/O chips, the port for the keyboard, the serial I/O, the parallel I/O, the disks, and the plug-in cards.

 Connections: Ports

• Parallel: In order to connect a printer, this port is used.
•  Serial: an external modem is connected via this port.
• Universal Serial Bus (USB): an external connection that is easy to use and portable.
• Fire wire (IEEE 1394): it is used to connect digital video devices to your computers. For instance, camcorders/ digital recorders.

Connections: Internet/Network

• Modem: It is the standard method to connect Internet.
•  Local Area Network LAN Card: The LAN card is often used by the office networks in order to connect with each other.
• Cable Modem: In many homes, cable modem is used to connect to the internet within home.
• Digital Subscriber Line DSL Modem: This connection is the high-speed connection that works on telephone lines.
• Very high bit rate DSL (VDSL): Fiber optic cables that are connected on phone lines are used to connect DSL or VDSL (Cioffi, 2003).

 2. Hardware/Software Comparison 

3. Fictional Company

For the fictional company, different hardware components are identified for each department. The human resource department comprises of systems with Windows based operating systems, 500 gigabyte hard drive space, 2 gigabyte of RAM with 3.0 gigahertz processor. Likewise, finance department workstations comprise of Linux based operating system with 200 gigabyte of hard drive space, one gigabyte of RAM with 3.0 gigahertz processor. The other remaining department shared a Windows based operating system with 250 gigabyte of hard drive space, 1 gigabyte if memory with 3.0 gigahertz processor. As far as applications are concerned, human resource department was utilizing windows built-in applications for office automation, finance department is working on ‘open database’ and ‘open excel’ applications and the other remaining department are utilizing built-in windows applications. There are total 7 servers as shown in fig 1.1. Wireless access points are also demonstrated along with switch and router connectivity. Moreover, Apache services considered as an open source web server (Apache.2011) is used for eliminating compatibility issues between the two platforms i.e. Linux and Windows. These services synchronize these machines to understand each other and work as a team in providing network services to the end user. Switches are compatible with full duplex mode supporting gigabit Ethernet speeds on a CAT 5 cable. However, the number of port depends on the number of workstations required in each department. Department having large number of workstations may utilize more than one switch or may be two. Lastly, for ensuring business continuity UPS is also installed for handling emergency power outages.

Work Cited

Apache.(2011). Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, , 1.

Computer memory. (2007). Network Dictionary, , 116-116.

Cioffi, J. (2003). Very High-Speed Digital Subscriber Lines (VDSLs). Encyclopedia of Telecommunications, 5, 2779-2807.