Computer Networking For a Small Business - Assignment Example

Computer Networking For a Small Business 0 Introduction Having a small business in your case where you involve several people doing different tasks can be difficult and expensive in terms of buying equipments. There can also be repetition of work been done which is possible to reduce considerably if the equipment available are shared (Yusung and Ikjun 2013: 2465-2482). A Local Area Network is a computer network, where computers are connected and share resources like software and equipment. With a Local Area Network, you can get more out of the equipments that you have in this case, John’s laptop which has a large image processor, the printer which Sally has and other equipments to be discussed to have an effective network (Subharthi, etl., 2014). This will reduce the wastage of time involved in duplication of work which occurs like copying work to be done by Peter and Sally. With a network, not only do you share an internet connection, you are able to share files across computers easily and also resources like diaries. Peter would be able to access the data base and also the Microsoft excel program being used by Sally. 2.0 Wireless and Wired Local Area Network When setting up a Local Area Network, you can choose from either going wireless or wired. Each is has its advantages and disadvantages. Many businesses these days are turning to wireless networking because of a number of reasons. These reasons include, the price involved in setting up has drastically reduced and also the setting up of a wireless network has become easier to set up and use. Wireless network allows the users to have a safer office environment in addition to being an attractive alternative compared to wired net work. The networks also allows flexibility as you can use your computer from anywhere in the office. This would be a good alternative for everybody involved in the business (Dennis, etl. 2014: 91-103). In this case Sally who waits for Peter to come in order to be able to access the internet, and also for Peter who visits every month to help with the bookkeeping. The downside of a wired network is that the wires do not look attractive in an office setup and can also be a potential for accidents in the office. However, the wired type of network can still have an advantage over the wireless in reliability and faster connection speeds and lower cost. The down side of wireless is that it can be affected by the thickness of walls and sometimes by the weather. Setting up the network should be easy Microsoft Windows systems which are widely used have networking capabilities in them. This is also true for Mac OS and other recent versions of computer operating system. This makes it easier should you choose to do it yourself but networking personnel is recommended. Some of the equipments that would be required are Ethernet Cables for a wired network to link up computers, a wired router to connect the network to the internet. If a wireless network is preferred, a wireless router would be required to also be able to connect to the internet which would be connected to the main computer. In this case John’s powerful computer would be suitable to act as the main computer in either type of network to be chosen. This would allow Sally’s computer to access the internet if networking equipment is attached or integrated in Sally’s computer by joining the Local Area Network of the business. For Peter to be able to access the Local Area Network, the router which connects to the internet must have a public Internet Protocol address which is usually assigned by the Internet Service Provider (Pantelis, Thomas and Stavros 2012: 182-197). A network professional can map the private Internet Protocol of the network to Wide Area Network so Peter can access the network and be able to do his accounting of the business. Internet Service Provider is a company that offers internet services to individuals and business at a fee. Internet Protocol is a number assigned to each device in a network to enable it communicate in a network with other connected devices. This number is important in that it enables the location of the device. The IP address can be assigned by the Internet Service Provider or manually by the network administrator. You can use your net work to store and also back up your storage on a Network attached Storage. It would be advisable to use it to keep your data safe and from loss. This device most often has their drives which are their own (Vlado, 2014: 410-477). They are easily accessible through a browser allowing you to manage them from your personal computer. A wide range of devices can be used like scanners, printer and cameras should the business acquire more of the equipments. 3.0 How to Secure the Network When the task of securing the network is completed, time should be taken to secure the network from the outside. This is done through the security settings in the operating system or the router. You can secure your network through the available technology like the Wireless Encryption Protocol which uses a password to protect the network. This is for the wireless network. Other measures include use network and Windows logins and passwords. This would be to limit access to only the authorized personnel (Subharthi, etl., 2014). Other measures can be added like disk encryption and finger print recognition devices if security is an issue. Browser security settings should be looked into to better protect the network. 4.0 Business Website Setting up a website for the business has advantages as all the information regarding the business is conveyed for everybody to read especially the customers. This would be useful in getting new clients if a powerful search engine is employed. A well designed website would win customers from competitors and build credibility (Yusung and Ikjun 2013: 2465-2482). A website would be able to tell all about the business and use tools which the potential customers can contact the business, for example through emails and telephone. It is useful in that it anticipates customer needs by provided useful information like the business location and products on offer. A website developer would be highly recommended to develop a good website for the business. A domain name would be required in order to well locate it. A domain name is a unique name used to route all enquiries to a specific computer. Your website will need to be hosted in order to be visible on the internet. When choosing the company to do the website hosting, some things would need to be considered like the speed, technical support throughout the whole day, data storage and reports on visits to the website. Web hosts are those companies that provide some space on their server for fee to their clients. Mostly web hosting is included as a package by developers of a website. Conclusion Setting up a net work would be good for the business so that the activities involved would be reduced and this would lead to effectiveness. This would make sure that Sally together with John are able to share the peripheral available reducing the cost of buying for each one of them. John would save his work in his computer and Sally would be able to access it through the network to work on it. Peter on the other hand will be able to access the network and do his work. For a growing business, it is necessary to have a website and this would advertise the products and services offered by the business. So I would recommend the business to publish a website. 6.0 Reference List Subharthi P, Raj J, Mohammed S, Jianli P (2014), Application Delivery in Multi-Cloud Environments using Software Defined Networking, Computer Networks, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 22 February 2014 Vlado D (2014), 11 - Networking in CCTV CCTV (Third Edition), 2014, Pp. 410-477 Pantelis M. P, Thomas D. L, and Stavros N. D (2012), How to improve the peer review method: Free-selection vs assigned-pair protocol evaluated in a computer networking course, Computers & Education, Volume 59, Issue 2, September 2012, Pages 182-195 Yusung K, and Ikjun Y (2013), Performance analysis of in-network caching for content-centric networking, Computer Networks, Vol. 57, Issue 13, Pp. 2465-2482 Dennis C. F. Kristen E. D. John T. B. and Mark C (2014), An extensible micro-world for learning in the data networking professions, Information Sciences, Vol. 264, Pp. 91-103 Read More