Computer Networking

TASK 1

In today's global environment people go through with the higher studies so that they can easily achieve their target. The concept of virtual classes created a global capacity that allows the individuals to easily access the internet to participate in different degree and modules. For this purpose, a virtual university is created that needs to complete all the expectations of the students. They are required to create a general computer network through which individuals can attend virtual classes at time more suitable to meet their needs in their locations. In order to develop a general network solution Virtual Private Network can be used (Sarkar, 2006). It extends a private network across the public network. With the help of this network university can enable different computers to send and receive data across public networks. It is a point-to-point connection which can be used through the use of dedicated connection or traffic encryptions. It provides remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organizations network. It will help the university to directly get connected with all their students in different countries. It uses a shared network and also maintains an additional level privacy. These networks secure the overall connection and not only encrypt the data but also the originating and receiving network addresses (Hall, 2010).

Virtual university can share various live material such as seminars, group discussions etc. from using public share networks. There are various learning tools and material which can be integrated with the virtual world. All the academic facilities within the different learning experience would be available within the virtual university. Great observation of all the students and giving them various feedbacks helps them in increasing their market share. VPN networks helps them in stay connected with each other all the time and guarantee that all the data that has been send and receive is fully encrypted and secure from all the way (Kleinjohann, 2002). Students can assess the different academic facilities or various resources on their network when they are not at home or travelling. Students should carry out the network solution with the set of Cisco routers and it helps them in assessing all the services remotely. It supports the worldwide connectivity and it resolves the issue of using traditional classes with the day time patterns. Individuals can access different tutorial and any of the study material any time with the help of internet.

VPN Implementation for the virtual university

While developing a network solution, university needs to facilitate control access to all the academic resources and information. The solution must allow the remote clients to connect to LAN resources and solution allows the remote offices to connect to each other in order to share different information (Puus and Mets, 2010). There are mainly two types of connection:

Site-to-site VPN: There is a VPN connection between two sites over the internet and data is encrypted from one gateway to the other. All the resource sharing as well as document sharing has been done with the help of VPN link.

Remote access VPN: There is a VPN connection between a remote users and a VPN gateway over the internet. It makes possible a secure connection and user will be access everything from their offices.

A server mainly required with a public IP address and it should be run 24/7. With the use of public IP address it can be reachable from distant access points not in the same networks. Different routers, firewalls, switches etc. are the major requirements and VPN client should consider an open source (Barrett and King, 2005). There are various options that need to be adopting for the internet connection such as TTCL broadband, Fiber optic. It provides easy access to the internet via HTTP and FTP. This network also helps in configuring different web server and email system through which virtual university can easily get connected with all their students. In order to configure this system it is essential to set out the existing network infrastructure and security policy. A well designed VPN provide different benefits to the virtual university such as:

1. Improve productivity
2. Extend geographic connectivity
3. Appropriate bandwidth for streaming videos  
4. No risks of virus and hacker attack to the whole organization
5. Provide global network opportunities
6. security, reliability and proper network management
7. In order to configure a connection to a virtual private network it is necessary to connect the private network from anywhere that user has an internet access (Kurose, 2005).   
8. Connect using windows/vista by clicking on start and then click on control panel
9. Double click the network connections
10. Create a new connection
11. Click next in the network connection wizard
12. Go through the connect to the network at my workplace and then click on next
13. Virtual private network connection and then click next
14. If an individual is using dial-up connection for the internet than click on the automatically dial this initial connection or while using the full-time connection such as cable modem, click do not dial the connection.
15. Type the descriptive name of the connection and click next
16. Type the internet protocol (IP address) of the computer that user wants to connect
17. Click on the my use only
18. Select the add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop
19. Click No, at the time if you are prompted to use
20. In the window of network connection, right click on the new connection
21. Click properties and then configure for more options.  

The above given process helps the virtual university to easily configure their computer network and allow all the students to securely access their home internet while travelling or with their home networks. With developing this it is also necessary to consider the pervasive computing so that business can continuously grow (Smed, Kaukoranta and Hakonen, 2002). Pervasive means existing everywhere and also creates various smart products that communicate unobtrusively. All the data that they gathered is easily available and the overall consideration of implementing VPN computer network and the use or pervasive computing helps the business for their continue presence and growth potential.

TASK 2

There are various computer network security policies that need to adopt by company in order to meet the challenges and its unique operational characteristics. These policies can be determined as a document that outlines the rules, laws and practices for computer network access. Virtual university needs to maintain the security for all their computer networks. It will help them in increasing their student base as no other university can easily threat their data (Guodong, 2013). It mainly provides a baseline from which university needs to configure and audit their overall computer network access. There are different policies for the virtual university that help them in defining their enterprise security control. It also reserves for right to inspect and he configuration of computer and network resources for compliance with different policies. They also have the rights to enforce their provisions without prior notice to the user. They are not liable for the inadvertent loss of data and it is essential for them to maintain the privacy, integrity and security of their overall computer networks. It includes:

Password policy: The length of password already has been set which defines it maximum and minimum length. How often it may be changed so that user can change their password at any of the situation

Network login policy: it can be defined as a password policy and also determines all the bad logins attempts. It may also include in the password policy and kept all the data secure (Howard, 2007).

Remote access policy: It determines that how remote users can connect with the organizational network. It also represents the overall requirements for each of their system before they are allowed to connect. Protection against all the spyware and malware is necessary. For this purpose all the remote users needs to use the different anti-virus program and how often it must be updates. Users can connect with each remotely with the use of VPN. There are various methods that must defines that how to deal with the various attacks. While using VPN the protocols used for this will be defined.

Internet connection policy: While using any of the private networks it is essential for each and every organization to take approval from their IT department (Stoyles, Pentland and Demant, 2003). Virtual university easily set up their computer network but they needs to take prior permission. Approval from the IT department is necessary and it requires all the connections by modems or wireless media. In order protect the connection organization needs approval from their IT department such as the operation of a firewall etc. it also defines that what system will be used to prevent the unauthorized viewing of these sites.  

Approved application policy: In the overall university various computers are connected via computer network and it is necessary to take prior approval to operate different applications in those systems (Powner, 2011). It helps them in keeping all their data secure as different applications can detect different threats which are harmful for these networks.  

Asset control policy: This policy is one of the most important policies that are requiring keeping all the information safe and secure. Different student login through the site of virtual university from the different places in order to gather the appropriate information. This policy determines that how different asset such as computer can be tracked. With the help of this policy administrator will allow the location and users of all assets to be tracked. Network administrator can easily protect the network of whole university and they will know that what user and computer are at what station in the case of any worm infecting the network (Gupta, 2013).

IT resource acceptable use policy: It defines how many users can use IT computer resources. They have full authentication to use it as their personal computer and it helps the overall company to easily detect the user of computer.

Anti-virus and malware policy: In any open or public network such as VPN the major problem that occurs is the various unknown threats. There are various files that may be blocked by different virus attacks. For this purpose there is an anti-virus policy which includes how often a virus scan is done and how often updates are done. In order to provide additional security to the mail server and anti-spam firewall will be used. It specifies that how different files can enter into the trusted network and how these files can be checked for the unwanted threats (Odom, 2004). Further, company can easily scan all the viruses in their computer networks and provide safe environment to all their clients.

System update policy: There are various updates for the clients and serves will be done within the trusted network. It is necessary to provide various security updates to all the users working with the network environment. Different applications are also checked for various security updates.  

In order to meet the challenges these policies needs to be followed by the company. It has its various unique operational characteristics such as:

Confidentiality: One of the most important benefits of using different computer network security policies are providing confidentiality. It guarantees that only authorized user can view the sensitive information. It helps the company in keeping all their users as well as company's information secure.

Integrity: Operational characteristic of using these policies is that it provides integrity of data. It guarantees that only authorized user can change the information with the use of their account (Peterson, 2011). There is the way through which administrator can detect whether data has been tampered with during transmission, it mainly provides the authenticity of data and it is the unique characteristic which helps the company to gain the loyalty of all their customers.

Availability of system and data: It provides uninterrupted access by authorized users to important computing resources and data.

The above given computer network security policies plays a crucial role in providing higher security concern to the overall computer network of the virtual university. It helps them meeting the challenges of such as enterprise and its various unique characteristics also have been discussed.

TASK 3

There are various risk management techniques and strategies that could be applied to this industry or virtual university to ensure their continued stability of all their computer networks. It is necessary adopt these strategies so that industry can easily achieve their target and gain their competitive advantage. Risk management is an integral part of today's business and owner needs to identify and manage the risk potential risk to ensure business survival (Ou, Sia and Hui, 2013). There are mainly 4 approaches that each and every industry needs to adopt i.e. Risk Identification, Risk analysis and Assessment, Risk Control, Monitoring Risk. Company can easily manage all the risks they are facing and different business strategies also rely on balancing risks. Incorporating different risk management techniques helps the industry to prevent the financial distress and maximize revenues. The best risk management techniques that can be adopted by company are:

Oversight: In order to analyze the risk strategies company can create an oversight board or committees (Mills, 2001). For this board meeting company needs to recruit the members who have experience in multiple functional business areas. These members help in reviewing the total risks involved in decision and financial strategies. It covers all the area of business and improves their customer relationship management. In the present study the owner of the virtual university needs to create a committee and with the help of this they can identify all the potential hazards.

Culture: One of the most important tasks of the virtual university is to manage their overall computer network and provide high class academic facility to all their students (Massingham, 2010). For this purpose they need to manage a strong company culture and identify all the potential hazards in order to manage their financial risk. It is necessary for each and every business to have a strong financial background. They can also create a multilevel risk management structure by installing a positive framework for risk limitation.

Policies: In order to manage the risk it is necessary to use strong policies and procedures and with the help of this individuals can access the sensitive information.
There are various tools and techniques that are used by the companies for managing risks such as: Assumption analysis, SWOT analysis, The Delphi technique, flowchart diagrams etc. Risk management strategies provide an approach through which company can easily asses, identify and manage the risk. It can be described as a process of regular identifying the updating the assessment based on the new developments (Egbuji, 2000). These strategies set a parameter for the entire risk management and usually released by the executive management of an organization. The main strategies that company needs to adopt are:

Avoidance: By avoiding an activity or risk there is a chance of a loss is easily eliminated. It is one of the most effective strategies as each part of the university operation has some level of risks and it is necessary to avoid all those risks. If the risk have been properly identified than an information decision can be made as to whether a risk should be avoided.  

Risk control: It helps in taking proactive steps to reduce the identified risks and also put various rules and procedures in that place to minimize the residual risks. It also enables the activities and operations to take place with best safety practices.  

Risk transfer: It is one of the most effective strategies and a process of transferring unwanted risks away from the organization to another association. Risk can be transfer through a written agreement or contract between two parties and through a conventional insurance policy (Jeynes, 2002).  

These are the various risk management techniques and strategies that ensure the stability of the computer network and their security.

TASK 4

Distributed and centralized computing highly impact on the education industry and all its operational consideration. These types of virtual universities business can be developed over a number of sites and also operating within the various countries and their cultures. Students can easily access different academic facilities with the use of public network. With the help of centralized computing company needs to fix the central location and it resolve all the issues associated with the traditional computing (Sarkar, 2006). In addition to this distributed computing is just opposite to the centralized computing and it represents the calculation towards the multiple computers. While using the large amount of data by company, user can divide it and send each part to particular computers. It will help in making different calculation only for their parts. While in the centralized system all calculation has been done within the particular computer and this can be called a dedicated server.

Virtual university operates in different countries and they have various operational consideration. These thoughts help them in gaining their market share and they can further increase their student base. As distributed system needs different software and provide theoretical and engineering concept to the company (Puus and Mets, 2010). With the use of distributed computing each and every organization needs to survive on its own business operations. Educational industry is directly affected by the use of these systems such as they can easily manage all their business decisions. Centralization can be described as a policy which is common between various people across different business operations. It further helps in concentrating all the decision making with those people. In the distributed computing there is a connectivity requires for the primary datacenter and remote site would host its own Email server. It also manages it backup which is very helpful for this industry in managing the overall information. There are various application supported by the distributed model and it also controls its own internet access. In addition to this all computer resources in the centralized computing resides into the primary datacenter. It includes various Email, application and share files. It allows a lower capital and minimum operational cost and greater control over the potential risk areas such as internet access (Howard, 2007). In this way it can be clearly stated that distributed and centralised computing will impact on this type of industry and operational considerations.

Conclusion

From the above report of computer networking it is concluded that managing computer networks with full security is one of the most important tasks of any industry. Virtual university can easily create a global capacity by allowing different individuals to access the internet. They can also attend virtual classes to meet their needs in their particular location. All the academic facilities within the different learning experience can be provided by this industry to all their students. They can easily access their core university system by developing a network solution of VPN. With the use of virtual private network they can control access to all the academic resources and information. The overall staff and students need to follow the different policies and procedures such as internet connection policy, access control policy etc. Further, various risk management strategies needs to be adopted by industry such as Risk transfer, avoidance etc. the above report also concluded the proper implementation and configuration of the VPN networks.

References

• Barrett, D. and King, T., 2005. Computer Networking Illuminated. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• Callahan, J. R. and Brooks, L. M., 2004.Essentials of Strategic Project Management.John Wiley and Sons  
• Egbuji, A.,  2000. Risk management of organisational records. Records Management Journal.
• Guodong, C. and et.al., 2013. A learning algorithm for model-based object detection. Sensor Review.  
• Gupta, C. P., 2013. DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND COMPUTER NETWORKS. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
• Hall, A. J., 2010. Information Technology Auditing. Cengage Learning
• Howard, W., 2007. Knowledge Structures for Communications in Human-Computer Systems: General Automata-based. Kybernetes.
• Hung, S. and Liang, T., 2001. Effect of computer self-efficacy on the use of executive support systems. Industrial Management & Data Systems.
• Jeynes, J., 2002. Risk management: 10 principles. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Kurose, F. J., 2005. Computer networking: a top-down approach featuring the internet. Pearson Education India.

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