Business Data Communication and Networking - Coursework Example

Business Data Communication and Networking WAN Star network layout This by its nature becomes the most common computer network design. The star network design consists of a one central switch, hub or computer. The central switch usually functions as a conduit to transmit messages. It entails a central node; all the other nodes are always connected to the central node. The central node is responsible for providing a common connection point for all nodes through a hub. In this type of network, every computer workstation or any other peripheral whichever the case is always connected to a central node called a hub or switch. The switch is normally the server and the peripherals form the clients. normally, a graph with the topology of a star is formed from the hub and leaf nodes, and the very transmission lines running between them. An active star network has an active central node that usually has the means to prevent echo-related problems. This kind of topology reduces the damage that may be caused by line failure on the process of connecting all of the systems to the centrally located node. Therefore, all peripheral nodes can actually communicate with all other nodes through transmission to, and reception from the centrally located node only. Incase of the transmission line failing to link any peripheral node to the central node, the entire peripheral node will be isolated from all other nodes, though the entire t systems will remain unaffected. The star topology is also designed with each node (file servers, workstations, and peripherals) connected directly to a central network hub, switch, or concentrator. Usually the information and data on a star network tend to pass through the hub, the switch, or the concentrator before continuing on the way to its destination. All functions of the network are normally controlled and managed by the hub, switch, or concentrator. These three components may too at time act as a repeater in aiding the flow of data. The configuration discussed here in most cases occurs with twisted pair cable. The star topology tends to work and perform better as it prevents the passing of data packets through an excessive number of nodes. Usually, only 3 devices and 2 links are involved in any communication between any two devices at a maximum level. Although this topology places a huge overhead on the central hub, with adequate capacity, the hub very high utilization by one device without affecting others. In a star network design, each device is inherently isolated by the link that connects it to the hub. This leads to the isolation of individual devices straightforward leading to a disconnection of each device from the rest. The isolation described too prevents any failure of non-centralization from affecting the network. Increasing the capacity of the central hub or connecting additional devices to it will increases the size of the network very easily as the central hub seems to be the bottleneck. Traffic inspection through the network is also aided by Centralization. Hence the traffic and detection of any suspicious behavior is analyzed. It is easy to detect faults and to remove parts of star topology too. No disruptions to the network when connecting or removing devices. To add on these, Installation and configuration is easy since every one device only requires a link and one input/output port to connect it to any other device(s). In any network design, solid planning and design can help reduce the potential for security breaches. It is generally argued that Network security is one of the most critical functions of information system, below are some of the security plans that can help secure a network design. In most cases, organizations work hard to secure their networks without stopping to review their network security plans. It is evident that security threats in the modern technology are constantly evolving, therefore the need for any given security architecture to evolve too. This can only be accomplishing through a regular security reevaluation. There is need to open more firewall for a network. Although it is factual that opening excessive number of firewall ports is bad, sometimes opening ports is unavoidable. For instance, take if you happen to pick Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and you got plans to provide external access, you will be required to at least open a dozen of it. To add on this, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 assigns a wide range of ports dynamically. The administrator will then need to make use of a reverse proxy an example of a reverse proxy is the Forefront Threat Management Gateway for Microsoft. Normally, a reverse proxy is situated just between the Internet and the server that requires the various ports to be opened. This helps hide the server from the outside world and helps ensure that malicious requests do not reach the server. Moreover, it can be presumed that the other most single biggest threat to a network security is the workstation. A number of organizations tend to secure their network servers but practically neglect the work stations .it is true that if the workstations themselves are not secured or locked down in a secure manner, then the users or even malicious Web sites can easily install unauthorized software with unknown consequences. We all know that a Web site needs to use SSL encryption at any given time particular user is going to be feeding in sensitive information. Such information may include a username and password or even a credit card number. Ignoring this, a number of organizations has made some bad decisions when it comes to their Web portals security. The most common security flaw I include insecure content which appears on a secure page. The occurrence of this always makes the user to receive a prompt asking whenever they want to display both the secure and also the insecure content. The above occurrence always gets users to involve the use of Internet Explorer permission to give insecure content. Another less obvious but more common problem in networking security is the failure of organizations to protect or encrypt critical pages within the Web sites. To be more sucure, I would advice that any page on a website that is providing or is perceived to be having security information, contact information or security advice, should be SSL encrypted. These does not mean that these pages are more sensitive, but it really means that the certification used by the encryption process makes the users aware that they are on access to a legitimate Web page rather than a page set up by someone to act as a phishing scam. Currently, some organizations tend to completely neglect the importance of SSL encryption, in order to cub this, Microsoft has then begun an option for an inclusion of a self-signed certificates on a number of its products. With this in place, Web interfaces can be used together with the SSL encryption no matter whether the organization has acquired its own certificate or not. It should also be clear that the self-signed certificates are not in place for use to relieve or either substitutes a valid SSL certificate from certificate authority that is rusted and certified. The Self-signed certificates are therefore then meant only for primarily use in order to boost a networks security until that time an administrator will secure a properly security control measure. Another barrier to this is that some SSL-based Web services like ActiveSync are not compatible with self-signed certificates because of the trust issue. Avoiding Excessive security logging is also a mechanism to secure the network. In spite the fact that it is important to log events that occur on your network. Several logging can make it difficult or even render it impossible to locate the security events youre really interested in. a focus to only logging the events that are really meaningful and avoiding each time logging is itself a security measure Use of dedicated virtualization hosts for any Internet-facing virtual servers. For instance, if you have three virtual servers that provide services to Internet users, you need to consider grouping those servers on a virtualization host, but dont put infrastructure server like the domain controllers on the host. This approach will help reduce an escape attack where a hacker can escape from a virtual machine and take control of the host. It is believed nobody has figured out a way to perform a real-world escape attack yet. Advising users to install updates from their ends is also a good strategy A common security flaw for a network design is also depending on users to deploy security patches. Network deployments are currently adapting the use WSUS to patch network workstations. Switch Switch Switch Switch The free lines are networked to different departments for each branch Works Cited Roberts, Lawrence G.; Wessler, Barry D. (1970), "Computer network development to achieve resource sharing", AFIPS 70 (Spring): Proceedings of the May 5–7, 1970, spring joint computer conference, New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 543–549, doi:10.1145/1476936.1477020. your network, its also important not to go hog wild and Existing (Oct 23, 2009) Groth, David; Toby Skandier (2005). Network+ Study Guide, Fourth Edition. Sybex, Inc. ISBN 0-7821-4406-3. ATIS committee PRQC. "mesh topology". ATIS Telecom Glossary 2007. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. Retrieved 2008-10-10. Chiang, Mung; Yang, Michael (2004). "Towards Network X-ities From a Topological Point of View: Evolvability and Scalability". Proc. 42nd Allerton Conference. Inc, S., (2002). Networking Complete. Third Edition. San Francisco: Sybex Bicsi, B., (2002). Network Design Basics for Cabling Professionals. City: McGraw-Hill Professional "Meshdynamics : Highest performance Voice, Video and Data Outdoors". meshdynamics.com. Retrieved 2008-02-23. Robert Lee Lounsbury, Jr. (September 2007). Read More