Hello, I am studying to be a CCNA and have just about completed the 'basics' ie. switches, routing, hubs, bridges, repeaters, osi, physical mediums etc. And I am struggling to understand this exercise and need someone knowledgeable to help explain how this network should be built and what certain things mean. The exercise came with a building schematic with all the rooms for two floors, the 1st floor is all shipping department and floor 2 is all the other departments. below is all the info they gave. Farb Software Development Ltd. General software requirements: All employees issued computers must have access to: - Email - Web browsing (to the internal website and to the internet) - Word processing software - Presentation software - Calendar software For individual departments: Shipping: - Access to UPS and FedEx shipping and tracking software (web-based) - Inventory database Tech support external: - Access to bug-tracking database (web-based) Marketing: - Adobe Pagemaker - Adobe Photoshop - Macromedia Flash - Professional Videoedit (edit) Sales: - Contact Manager databse Accounting: - Online accounting system - Inventory database - Equipment database Tech support internal: - Equipment database Software Development: - Microsoft c++ - Java - Adobe Photoshop - Macromedia Flash note: the company is planning for expansion so their sales dept. will grow 35% and they will also be developing 60% more software in the future. There are seperate database servers for: software product inventory, equipment, bug tracking and contact management. There are also the following servers: E-mail, internal website, external website, DNS, DHCP, NAT and print servers. Each department must be set up on its own subnet. All internal addressing is to be down using private IP addressing using the Class A address 10.0.0.0 with the subnet mask 255.255.0.0. The company has been assigned a single class C black of addresses for access to the internet (200.1.1.0). All devices that are accessed by more than one department must be located on a single shared private subnet. Devices that need to be connected to the internet must be on a subnet with public IP addresses. That subnet will have to be allocated from the public addresses assigned to the company. There is a power and network pole at each end of the cube section. The power and network cables will be run seperately through the cube walls. The network cable runs can be shown next to the cubes. Printers in an area or in a particular rooom can be treated as workgroup printers, but everyone on the network needs convenient access to a printer. There should be a few printers that are available for all employees. ----- Where it says above 'All devices that are accessed by more than one department must be located on a single shared private subnet'. Does that mean they are all on one subnet or that each database machine is on its own subnet? Now in the schematic there are rooms with just 4 computers and one printer, and the 'memo' (above) says there will be print servers. So is a print server a computer that deals with all the print jobs or is it an seperate device? It says there will be DNS (domain name system) server(s) so will each department need one, or will there only be one for the entire building? The same goes for the DHCP server(s) will there be one for each subnet or one for all the subnets? how does DHCP work? What about the Network address translation server, is that a computer or built into a device? will I need one for every subnet? how many computers should I dedicate for the internal website? and external website? what could you suggest for the email server setup? ---- Dept. Room workstations printers workstations/printer Soft. 2.1 6 0 dev. 2.2 1 1 2.3 6 2 3/1 2.4 0 0 2.5 6 2 3/1 2.6 4 1 4/1 2.7 0 0 2.8 1 0 2.9 0 0 int. 2.10 8 0 tech 2.11 1 1 supp. 2.12 1 1 2.13 1 1 ext. 2.17 8 2 4/1 4/1 tech supp acct 2.18 16 4 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 mktng 2.23 4 1 2.24 4 1 2.25 5 2 3/1 2/1 2.26 1 0 sales 2.30 11 1 2.31 0 0 2.32 1 1 2.33 0 0 2.34 1 0 2.35 6 0 Well any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, any suggestions are welcome. thanks, Robert

Whew! That's a big post and a long question....lol. Not to be rude, but to be helpful....you might want to rethink getting cert's on Novell. My first intro to networking was Novell and there are still many things about it I like better than Windows, but Bill does have the lion's share of the market place and if you want a job, you need to be employable. With less Novell admin job's and most places running it in combination with Windows.....well, need I say more? Anyhow, having said that... Where it says above 'All devices that are accessed by more than one department must be located on a single shared private subnet'. Does that mean they are all on one subnet or that each database machine is on its own subnet? What it says, they all have to be on one subnet. I would consider an internal router and managed switches so you could use VLAN tagging for your different subnets. According to the question, they want one subnet per department and another "management" subnet. Now in the schematic there are rooms with just 4 computers and one printer, and the 'memo' (above) says there will be print servers. So is a print server a computer that deals with all the print jobs or is it an seperate device? A printer server can be a dedicated PC or server. However, it's a lot cheaper to get a print server device that you plug the printer into and the print server device in turn, is plugged into the network via an ethernet cable. Higher end printers have a built in, or add-on, NIC and print server software in them and can be plugged directly into the network. It says there will be DNS (domain name system) server(s) so will each department need one, or will there only be one for the entire building? One will do the job but for the sake of redundancy I would have a secondary DNS server. The same goes for the DHCP server(s) will there be one for each subnet or one for all the subnets? how does DHCP work? One would be plenty with VLAN's but you might find you need DHCP relay servers on some subnets if you're not using VLAN's. You would however have that server (and your DNS) on that one "management" subnet. What about the Network address translation server, is that a computer or built into a device? will I need one for every subnet? NAT can be performed by a server, router, or NAT/Firewall device. You shouldn't need more than one as it will be allowing your multiple clients to access the internet and you will only want a single point of entry here for the Internet. how many computers should I dedicate for the internal website? and external website? That depends on load. If they're going to be very busy, you would likely want more than one setup for roundrobin for load balancing. what could you suggest for the email server setup? There are plenty available. Ask for opinions on sofware, you'll get plenty as there are lots of different people with different favorites. You'll be administering it so use what you know and are comfortable with.

Q1---'All devices that are accessed by more than one department must be located on a single shared private subnet'. ---Typically datacenters reserve IP subnets and VLAN IDs for servers. You would config your router to route all server requests to the server vlan/subnet. Your DHCP server will sit on this subnet. Q2---Now in the schematic there are rooms with just 4 computers and one printer, and the 'memo'(above) says there will be print servers. So is a print server a computer that deals withall the print jobs or is it an seperate device? As the previous post said...Most printers have their own NIC and que their own jobs. Q3---It says there will be DNS (domain name system) server(s) so will each department need one,or will there only be one for the entire building? AD lives on DNS not WINS so every department will need access to the DNS server. Some orgs have an internal DNS server and then farm out internet DNS to their service provider who also hosts their website. Q4--The same goes for the DHCP server(s) will there be one for each subnet or one for all the subnets? how does DHCP work? Typically you have just one or two servers running DHCP that back each other up in case one goes down. Q5--What about the Network address translation server, is that a computer or built into a device? will I need one for every subnet? NAT/PAT is ussually a router, but can be a server. Basically your internal Class A address cannot be used on the internet so the NAT will sit on the router going to your internet connection. It will then translate each internal IP request into a routable internet request, as the answer returns the router it remembers which internal IP asked the question and sends the packetes on the way. Q6--how many computers should I dedicate for the internal website? and external website? All depends, most would only have one server. Q6--what could you suggest for the email server setup? In going and out going in the DNZ.

This is a "lot" more than you would need to know to pass the CCNA test . Network design and allocation is not really part of the CCNA curiculum which is basically the info you have given . If you know routers switches , vlans, routing protocols ,nat , spanning tree and I'm sure there are a few I missed you should be able to pass the CCNA .

Thank you very much for your help so far, This is the first 'case study' we've gotten, so far we have done almost all the first semester as this is a computing and networking course, the networking part is all cisco, and at the end we take the ccna. Anyway heres some more question if you can help. As I understand VLANS they are a broadcast domain in that their boundry is defined by a router. But a VLAN is a logical constuct and hosts are not necessarily groups within the physical confines of a 'traditional' broadcast domain. So in other words in a given subnet one of those computers (or more) could be in the same physical confines but actually be part of another subnet entirely. And VLAN tagging allows multiple vlans between switches. When you say I could use vlan tagging for my subnets did you mean for the departments that would have access to one of the database servers in the management subnet? (ie using the management subnet as a *VLAN*)? if so how many systems out of say 24 would you dedicate to one department that needs access to this database? typically. OR did you mean use VLAN so two or more dept's may share a switch, and just use a internal router to network them as you mentioned? For instance the software development department has a total of 24 workstations and 6 printers throughout 6 rooms. Now I can have 23 workstations on switch 1, and 1 station on switch 2. Then I have the 6 printers so that leaves 17 ports free, I could possibly use these for the next department (that needs 14 ports) and I need about 20 free for future upgrade in the software development dept. So should I share the switch used in software dev.? because if I don't do this the switch I would use in tech support will have 10 ports unused and they aren't expanding in future. Also I considered having 1 switch for the first three rooms which leaves 11 free ports, one switch for the next three rooms which would leave 13 free ports and one switch for all the printers. This allows for expansion in fact just a little extra, but without sharing the switches with the neighboring department there is a waste of 10 ports. What would be the best solution? About wiring, the second floor which holds all departments except shipping it is 61 meters X 46 meters each department is assigned a block of rooms all adjacent to each other. Would I have just 1 empty room for all the switches/routers all departments or one for each half of the second floor? OR one room for each department? what would be best? So it says every employee needs internet access, now we have 200.1.1.0 for internet access, I thought I'd have 7 border routers in the POP room, one for each of the departments. would that alright? How would you (someone who knows what he is doing) set the internet up for this scenario? Thanks again, Robert