• Central File Storage Area on network for all documents required by all staff, with regular backups.
• Web Server for Staff Intranet
• PBX Server for phone extensions
• Bluetooth for file transfer from staff phones
• Wireless for access from portable devices and external buildings.
• Network Printer to enable printer from all computers connect to the network.
• SQL Database for CRM System.

What network technology is required?

• Server with Windows Server 2012
• File Server with Linux Centos
• 10 PC Workstations
• 10 Mac Workstation
• 20 VOIP Phones
• Bluetooth Dongle
• Printer

I choose the client server network due to the many features offered by it, however there is a larger cost than a peer to peer network associated with it as well as the expertise required to setup and maintain it, I feel like that the advantages of using it are greater than the disadvantages.

The following diagram will be used as the main setup for the network.

In my first assignment I will be choosing the type of network I’m going to develop for Bradley Bodoni, he’s a graphic designer who has recently expanded and has brought another company and acquired resources from them which includes a Windows Server and a Linux Server, up in till now he has been using a peer to peer network which although having carried out all the functions that he requires is not adequate enough to remain has his only type of networked systems and he required something with a little bit more power and more functions, despite the extra cost and expertise required.

I’m now going to explain the advantages and disadvantages of both a client-server network and peer to peer network.

Peer to Peer network

A peer to peer network is an easier, less cost and less expertise system to setup and maintain than a client server network.  However it is not as advanced and doesn’t offer as many features’ that Bradley Bodoni will require.

On a peer to peer network there is no requirement for a server, and that means it doesn’t require a network operating system like Windows Server 2012, Mac Server or Centos. Instead of the main server, the files are stored on each other’s computers and every computer can be access the files, this saves the cost of having an expensive server, however this is also a disadvantage as it could slow down the performance of the computer as well as the network because of the amount of traffic on the network. As there’s no server, and the files aren’t centrally stored on the server but all over the network, there is no way to carry out a backup to a backup server or external hard drive. A peer to peer network is where all the computers are connected to each other or/and to the router and it doesn’t require a server, With so many employees the staff may be moving around a lot and may have to login on several computers, with servers you can have roaming user profiles which let you logon to any workstation on the server.

Backups cannot be centrally controlled on a peer to peer network and they take longer to set up, whereas with a client server network, the server manages and automatically configures and runs the backup on the server.

Traffic control on the network can monitor what users are doing on the network and monitor the traffic flowing on the network, such as capping downloads if the user is downloading a large amount of files that may affect other users internet and network speed.

You also don’t need many resources to set up a peer to peer network such as equipment and staff expertise. If you need a simple home network you don’t need a fancy server which takes up a lot of

A lack of security is a high consideration with peer to peer networks, as users can access each other’s files although you can set a certain degree of security.  There is also no user control meaning no user is in complete control of the network. There is also no usage control which means users can log on at any time to any workstation.

A peer to peer network is flexible than a client server network which allows the easy addition of more workstations to the network which doesn’t require setting up, whereas with a client server solution the workstations have to be set up to work with a server, but this is the most advisable solution with a company as big as Bradley’s Bodoni’s.

The cost involved with employing network technicians to manage the server can greatly change the decision of the company as the average salary of a Technician is £27,00.00 which takes a huge chunk out of the  profits of the company, however with such a large company such as Bradley Bodoni’s you need to have somebody to manage the IT Systems and Networks, this is because although peer to peer networks are more easy to set up and maintain, a lot more experience is required for client server networks. Files aren’t stored on a “shared” drive, instead there are on individuals computers requiring you to such for the file. Peer to peer networks are often more vulnerable to inside security attacks and normally don’t have much security, viruses are also much more easily introduced to the computers.

Client Server Networks

Client server networks have a server with all the machines connected to the network, there is a lot more control with client server networks than peer to peer such as Security, Permissions, Users, Backups, Traffic. You can also have a web server along with mail. With a client server network you connect to a server and work on workstations that connect to the directory service which allows users to log onto the server from any workstation and have their files accessible to them, and have a central shared access unlike peer to peer when you have a trawl computers looking for the files.

A client server network is more difficult to set up although has a lot of advantages over peer to peer which is why it requires specialist knowledge as well as servers are normally expensive, and you need wireless infrastructure as well.

With a client server network you can have many services running on the main server for Bradley Bodoni, an intranet will be set up to enable employees to view the latest information about the company and this will link to the SQL Database powering the Customer Relationship Management System. This could be run on a peer to peer network however it will require a separate. computer for this as well as the file server as well as the SQL Server because the computer wouldn’t be able to cope with the amount of pressure is put on it.

As Bradley Bodoni as approx. 20 employees at the moment and is a rapidly expanding business with plans to employee more staff in the near future, we will implement a PBX Server on the Server as this will allow for multiple phones to be joined to the network and then each employee wil have their own extension and allow for answer phones as well as recording the phones to analyse staff customer service performance, this has could be set up a peer to peer network but again would require another machine.

The control offered with a client server networks is so more advanced and suitable for Bradleys Bodoni’s specification, it allows for usage control which means that some users cannot log on at a certain time which isn’t available in a peer to peer network.

One big advantage with running Windows Server is that we can enable network boot which allows user to logon to the network using their network username and password on any workstation and access their files, however if they install an application on their main machine and then log on to another network machine that application will not be there as application don’t run on the server but install are installed direct to the workstation which means any user that logs on to that workstation can run that application unless their security permissions don’t allow them to exe apart from a secure white list.

Each user has permissions for what they can and cannot do on the server, some users can access the control panel and command prompt but other users are restricted by Group Policy Editor. Which manages the permissions of what users can and cannot do, some users can only edit files that they created or have access permissions on the shared area or file server.

With a client server network you have one big powerful server to run out of your services on and maybe other smaller servers for running additional services such as a file server or web server.

However there are disadvantages to the client server network, they need more resources and expertise to set up with then means higher cost, however the features you’re gaining outweighs the disadvantages.

Explain to Bradley Bodoni (Graphic Designer) the typical services offered by a network operating system directory service. Hint: You should be looking at account management, permissions, file locking, file sharing.

Account Management There needs to be appropriate account management in place for users and groups. Some networked systems with a variety of users in many departments, all the users in one department can be put in a departmental group in the account management system, each group can be assigned access to different resources, only be allowed to log on at a certain time, some users can only access a shared drive for their department, or access their printers. Some groups may only have read access for files whereas the administrators may have read, write and execute permissions. When users move from workstation to workstation, or site to site, they logon onto the central server which means their files and settings follow them as well as any access permissions or security measures. Your account will have a entry in the network directory which contains a variety of information, personal details and system details for your user accounts such as:

• Full Name and Account Name e.g. Ben Dyson and your network username ben.dyson12345 << that network username is fake by the way…
• Your password in a encrypted format, this can in some cases be accessed by certain software that tie in with the network directory, for example; Moodle VLE.
• The date in which you need to change your password and how many days your password can stay the same for.
• A list of all the groups you’re in, e.g. by default users aren’t in the remote desktop connection group which means their cannot connect via RDC.
• Directories and Files you have access to, along with the permissions you have to those files.
• Servers, Printers and Network Devices you have access to.
• Times and Computers that you can and cannot log onto, some systems can block your access to a range of IP addresses.
• Websites you can and cannot view, most commonly used in schools for blocking inappropriate.
• Your email address, in Windows 8 you can logon with your Microsoft account, though I’m not sure how this works with networked systems. Connect to Outlook exchange mail server.
• Additional options such as whether the user account is disabled or what scripts to run on logon, such as a .bat file.

Accounts are added when people join an organisation, for schools this is commonly September when the new term starts. You can also control users permissions via the Group Policy Editor.

Permissions

Permissions control what users can and cannot do, in any company there will files that certain departments or people do not want other people to have access to such as staff pay information or financial or business documents, some people may only need READ access to certain files or they require READ and WRITE access, in some cases you may want users to drop files into a directory that they have WRITE access but may not have READ access, this could act as a confidential drop for files that only management can open and read.

File Sharing

Networked systems allows use users to share files either by use of a shared area on an internal network, an companies intranet where files are placed using the Content Management System or using the standard File Transfer Protocol commonly abbreviated FTP. FTP access can be controlled via the use of a username and password and is commonly the main way to upload files to a web server. You can also have anonymous FTP which lets you browse files that have been openly shared. File sharing systems use software such as Bit Torrent to download torrent a type of file sharing, most commonly associated with the illegal The Pirate Bay. Other sites such as Mega allow you to upload your files to their web server and give people a download link. You can also share files using IRC. Skype also allows you to share files. Email can send files as attachments. Although since the days of dial up where we now have broadband, downloading files can also take a lot of time and downloading and uploading a lot of files is time consuming, so files are often grouped together and compressed such as .ZIP or .RAR. File sharing can also be achieved over peer to peer networks via sharing a folder on your computer.

File Locking

I’ve mentioned briefly before about my interest in gamification  and in particular Open Badges from Mozilla, I’m currently completing a course “101 Open Badges” on P2PU, an online learning environment.

Here I will be documenting my learning about Open Badges and Gamification.

I’ve started my course at Plymouth College of Art and Design, evening course in Game Design and Animation. Me as well as one of my mates are doing it, the trouble is though we don’t get an actual qualification and have nothing to prove we’ve learnt something, this is where Open Badges from Mozilla comes in. The definition of Open Badges is:

Learning today happens everywhere. But it’s often difficult to get recognition for skills and achievements that happen online or out of school. Mozilla Open Badges helps solve that problem, making it easy for any organization to issue, manage and display digital badges across the web. – www.openbadges.org

I’m going to approach them with the idea of implementing Digital Open Badges in their evening courses to reward learners for their work and knowledge gained. I’ve also been discussing with college different extra-curricular activities as well other stuff which can be shared in the near future.

With PCAD in the first 5 weeks we’re learning about create Game Design Documents, Character Design, Environment Concept Art then finally 3D Modelling. My idea is to have a badge for using different software or learning about Concept Art or 3D Modelling.

My Microsoft SkyDrive Learning Tracker:

Qualifications and Open Badges

As mentioned above, my evening course doesn’t offer a actual official recognised qualification for Game Design and Animation, which while they could cheaply implement Open Badges like many communities are doing, does it really represent and mean anything to future employers?

I really like the idea of Open Badges, and feel they are a easy way to recognise learning without the cost or official of qualifications. I would much rather have an official qualification accredited by Ofqual, evening if its a Level 2, as employees count these as they are official.

Do employees accept Open Badges as a recognition on knowledge?

Next year is going to be amazing, I’ve got plans for a new metro style website as well as hopefully getting a new bedroom with a industrial feel to do Computer work in. I’ve applied for a job and have some freelance IT work for Kernow Delivery Service.

I’m taking a Microsoft 70-480 exam which includes HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. And I’m doing a evening course at Plymouth College of Art and Design.

Happy New Year,

Ben

Metro Style App Developers Website

Quite happy with this concept. Example of what an app developers website could look like using the metro design language.

I’ve not only designed the product but designed a brief product brief of what it does and how and how it make revenue for Microsoft. I think it is safe to say that the last couple of years Microsoft haven’t been at the forefront of Technology, Apple, one of the most influential technology giants have been so successfully and have several innovative products including iMac (I own an 2010 iMac), iOS devices and more. This is mostly thanks due to the late Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who was forcefully made to leave the company he created in 1985, in 1996 after Apple was not the great profit making company it once was he was brought back when Apple brought Pixar, another company Jobs created after being fired from Apple.

We’re now in 2012, and Steve Jobs is no longer with us and no longer the technology giant he got so emotional about, I have to wonder whether they can stay as innovative as they once were. Microsoft on the other hands why Steve Jobs was at Apple, wasn’t doing very good especially after the failure that was Vista. The last couple of years though for Microsoft have been good releasing several different innovative products and re-forming their branding to create a more “sexy” and “innovative” company rep like their rival Apple.

My concept art is a design for a new service of Microsoft Learning, and could be used as a great marketing tool, help people learn new skills as well as improve the companies ethos. It’s called ‘Microsoft Learn’ and as a student would love to use and see Microsoft designing something like this. You learn how to use Microsoft products and services, with subscriptions with more benefits such access to more resources, reduced exam fees, longer trial versions of Microsoft products, could be targeted towards young people and students, perhaps integration with the ‘Microsoft UK Students’  Team and work with technology evangelists.

You can learn Microsoft tools and services including, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Azure, Windows Server, Microsoft Office, XBOX, and web development including HTML5, CSS, Javascript.

It could be integrated  into Mozilla Open Badges, in which I will be discussing later on.

Thanks for reading,

Ben!

This first post is probably going to be about, me! Don’t worry it won’t be long and you’ll get to know me, and learn things about me like the fact I live In Cornwall, England. I decided to get this blog to have a place to vent my annoyance at the world, nah I would like a place to showcase my thoughts about the latest technology, my hobbies and other random stuff I decide to put on here. (I have to be careful though, this website is listed on my CV).

I like playing with electronics and have an Arduino and would also like a .NET Gadgeteer although it is pretty expensive. Graphic Design is another one of my interests along with Programming and Game Design and Development; I would love to have a go and designed the environment for games such as Battlefield 3 or COD MW3. I know VB. I’m also a Cadet with St John Ambulance.

I’m also interested in diorama modeling, Urban Exploration; I would also like to study the idea of freeganism as it interests me. Parkour is good as well.

I love Windows 8, WP8, and most things Microsoft but I also have an iMac.

Thanks,

Ben

Why not send me an email? hello@bendyson.me.uk