IMPORTANT NOTICE:
THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXTRACT OF LINES FROM A REPORT SUBMITTED BY MUKESH PARTHASARATHY TO UNITEC NEW ZEALAND. PLAGIARISM IS A SEVERE OFFENCE. KINDLY USE CITATIONS IF YOU ARE REFERRING TO THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR PAPERS OR WEBSITES.
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1. Propose a strategy for internet/intranet technology to meet the objectives required by the Board of Management of UNZ Grammar secondary school.
2. Propose a basic cost benefit analysis for the strategy.
3. Identify the management issues relevant to the services in the proposed strategy.
4. Select and evaluate an architecture including:
Hardware
Operating system
Applications (email and web)
Content development tool(s)
Application development tool(s)
5. Compare two alternatives for Operating system and provide a summary of the product features and a justification for selection, noting where they solve or contribute to the management issues. [Giving particular attention to the management issues identified in Requirement3]
6. Provide a brief plan for managing web content on the internet website.
This report takes into consideration the implementation of internet technologies at the UNZ Grammar secondary school whose current technical profile is provided in the appendix section of this report.
After going through the current technical profile of the school, it is obvious that the school management wants to adopt internet technology to radically change its methods of teaching and communicating. In his capacity as a technology coordinator for the school, this writer has come up with appropriate methods, suggestions, and guidelines in order to cater to the six requirements given in the previous section.
The following implementation aspects will be undertaken at UNZ Grammar secondary school:
1. email accounts for every staff and student (both on and off campus)
2. 24 by 7 internet access for staff on campus.
3. Controlled internet access for students on campus.
4. Web servers to store learning materials which can be accessed both on and off campus.
5. Design of a website for the school which promotes the school.
6. Online forms for staff to submit leave applications.
In order to undertake these six implementation aspects keeping in mind the six requirements, each implementation aspect will be provided with the requirements- strategy, and relevant management issues. Once this is done, solutions to the last three requirements will be offered. Finally the second requirement, namely, cost benefit analysis will be provided for this entire project.
The email accounts of staff will be of the format: staffname@unz.ac.nz and the email accounts of students will be of the format studentname@studentmail.unz.ac.nz
The storage space for the staff will be 1GB and for students it will be 25MB. Staff can send heavy attachments with their accounts to around 10-15MB but students can send attachments only up to 5MB. The email accounts can be accessed from both on and off the campus and all the data resides on the UNZ servers. This helps the students to keep in touch with the staff through email while they are away from the school. The email accounts are provided with inboxes and junk folders that filter off unnecessary emails. Most of the features of the email accounts will be modelled around leading email providers like MSN Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and GMail. The email can be configured with popular clients like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird.
The email server is connected through gateway and will be compatible with other servers such as POP, cc:Mail, GroupWise, and other email servers. The email is joined to the internet through TCP/IP and Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP).
“As long as your email message passes over a network that is equipped to handle the protocol on which the message relies- TCP/IP and the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), for example – you will not have any problems. But when one network speaks TCP/IP and another speaks a different protocol, such as Novell’s Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) protocol, then trouble can arise. The solution requires that email messages be folded, spindled, and mutilated in order to get them safely from one network and email gateway to another.”(Shimmin, 97)
The email of UNZ Grammar secondary school needs to take care of the issue of security. This could mean password theft, spam, and phishing mails. The management must be eager t adopt the latest anti-spam and anti-phishing technologies. Password theft is another important issue. In fact, insecure networks which “leak” the messages propagated is another issue to be reckoned with. Hence the management of UNZ Grammar secondary school must adopt the usage of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. SSL is slow but it uses public key encryption technique on both client and server side and hence is the most safe way of sending and receiving emails. Another issue is the fact that attachments sent through the email system needs to be scanned for viruses before opening them. Hence the management can subscribe to leading anti-virus tool providers like Norton anti-virus, MCAfee, and incorporate it into their email system. This writer who is the Technology Coordinator at UNZ Grammar secondary school strongly recommends Norton Anti-Virus. Every day backup needs to be made of all the email accounts of all the users. This helps in case if the network is down.
The staff at UNZ grammar secondary school will be provided with 24 by 7 internet access while being on campus. This helps them to be online and contemporary. The staff can check their email, browse for latest information regarding their subject. The internet access is through broadband connection and not through dial-up connection. This helps in downloading multimedia faster from the internet for the sake of supplementing their teaching. A typical broadband speed of 1mbps and above would be sufficient for the daily operations. Modems can be installed at appropriate points in the network.
The broadband providers in New Zealand offer a variety of packages and UNZ Grammar secondary school can subscribe with leading providers like Woosh or Telecom as their ISP is most reliable. A custom package can be obtained for a year from one of these which can preferably include unlimited upload size and unlimited download size. Speeds of 1mbps and above can be chosen.
The students of UNZ Grammar secondary school are provided internet access only during select hours or classes. And to take care of this, each student will be provided with a user login name and a user password. Upon successfully entering the login name and password, the student is able to access the internet.
The student services are monitored and unwanted websites are blocked on the browsers. The student is made to enter his login id and password every time he visits an external website. The network administrator manages the cookies the different websites set on the browsers and sometimes may not give permission for certain websites to set cookies.
“Servers play a defining role in campus LAN design. After all, they’re the devices that provide services to all or part of the network and control access to its resources (such as disk drives and printers)” (Andry & Haller, 98)(pg-13)
The webservers of UNZ Grammar secondary school will store all the teaching materials such as power point slides, sometimes audio and video content, other teaching resources which can be accessed by the students online from both on and off campus. The strategy here is to use a combination of enterprise servers and distributed servers for the campus network.
“Enterprise servers and distributed servers both have their advantages. The best situation is to have a mix of both. That is, use distributed servers where you can localize the application; use enterprise servers where you have the common applications that everyone needs to access, such as e-mail or public web pages.”(Andry & Haller, 98) (pg16)
The UNZ Grammar secondary school currently uses a HR system and an accounting system. This can be incorporated into the distributed system.
“Distributed servers (also known as local or work group servers) support a specific group of users. For example, the distributed server containing payroll information typically supports only the Accounting or Human Resources group.”(Andry & Haller, 98) (pg15)
All the online learning services and other services such as web pages, e-mail reside on the Enterprise servers.
“Enterprise servers (also known as centralized servers) support all or a majority of network users. An e-mail server would fall into this category because its users can access the server to read and send their e-mail, no matter where on campus they’re located.”(Andry & Haller, 98)(pg13)
In addition separate drives will be created on the servers and each student will have a unique student drive where he can store his files.
Some of the issues that the management at UNZ Grammar secondary school needs to be concerned with are the issue of acquiring licenses for software and the creation of directories on the server.
“Before installing software, it is essential to develop a plan for organizing the directories on the file server. Without such a plan, directories will quickly get out of hand. No one will know what software is where, which directory contains the most recent version of a program, or what software is mingled with other software in a given directory.”(Palmer & Rains, 91) (pg 197-198)
Once the directories are created, the next step is to install the software. And before installing software, UNZ Grammar secondary school must have acquired the license for the same.
“When the purchaser buys an application package, he or she is given a license to use the software only according to the vendor’s stipulations. Normally the license does not include the option to alter the software, to make copies for use by others, or to run the software on more computers than the license authorizes.
When software is purchased, read the vendor’s licensing restrictions and plan to follow these restrictions. Even when LAN-or site-licensed versions are purchased, know and follow the vendor’s licensing restrictions. The same applies to shareware and public domain software.
Take steps to prevent software from being copied from the network. This is done by setting flags and trustee rights. Software not intended to be copied can be flagged “Sharable Read Only” (SRO), and the trustee rights for users in that directory can be set at “Read Open Search” (ROS). These flags and trustee rights permit several people to use the software, but not copy it from the network.” (Palmer & Rains, 91)(pg199-200)
The domain of the website is unz.ac.nz and it need not have any sub domains as the school is of small size and does not have any branches. A maximum of 10 pages can be designed for the school site. The site is developed using HTML, Java, JavaScript, ASP, CGI, and Perl. Graphics and animations are done through Photoshop and Flash. Pages would contain profile of school, staff members, and other information that are of academic concern.
The online leave application would ask the staff to key in his name, department, staff id, and title, years of service etc in separate text fields. Upon hitting the ‘send’ button the application gets submitted. The ‘clear’ button provides the option for clearing the form.
Some of the HTML tags used are:
• …
•
• …
•
• …
“The sample code is typical in that much of the HTML serves a cosmetic purpose. Users are accustomed to paper forms with neatly aligned fields; it’s a good idea to mimic this online. Two techniques can help.
The technique used here is to set off the form code in a
tag pair. This causes the browser to display text, tabs, and spaces in a fixed width font. Designers can use the uniform length of such features to line up the elements in a form.Another technique is to place form elements in the cells of an HTML table. Table layouts are more complex than preformatting, but provide greater design versatility.”(Casselberry, 1996, p.245)
The server administrator must take into consideration the risks associated with CGI scripting. One of these would include leaking out confidential information from the server such as passwords or registry files. Another significant risk is spoofing the CGI script to execute system commands to do damage to the site.
Some of the precautions the server administrator could take are:
“
• Keep all CGI scripts in a single directory (eg.,/cgi-bin) that only the web administrator can write to
• If possible, use compiled executables rather than Perl scripts and avoid shell scripts altogether for CGI processing. (This includes *.BAT programs on NT-based servers.)
• Never trust input data. Variables populated from a web form can contain strings that break unwary scripts, causing them to execute unauthorized operations.”(Casselberry, 1996, p.284)
Three types of architecture are possible while constructing a campus LAN network. They are:
1) Barebone network
2) Scalable network
3) Complex network
Hence we need to choose one of the networks for our architecture.
Complex networks consist of 300-15000 nodes. Scalable network also consists of 300-15000 nodes. However a Barebone network would consist of not more than a few hundred nodes.
“The barebone design presents a blueprint for designers who do not have many network requirements. It is appropriate for a stable campus LAN that is expected to grow or change very slowly over the next five years. This design is also appropriate for environments in which network downtime does not adversely impact users’ productivity.”(Andry & Haller, 98, pg.263)
Based on the above facts, going for a barebone network seems to be a feasible solution.
The following factors are also considered for selecting the architecture:
• Economical cost
• Network is not highly utilized
• Minimum or no multimedia applications
• Applications are generally not bandwidth-intensive
• Minimum internet connectivity
• Downtime of the network does not affect/impact users’ performance
The architecture would include the following:
• Servers- enterprise and distributed(for HR and accounting)-DHCP, DNS, PROXY
• Hardware- Routers, Switches, Cables-fibre optic, PCs and Apple computers, Printers
• Operating system- Novell’s NetWare Operating System Netware 4.x
• Applications- UNZ student mail, blackboard software for accessing learning resources, a website promoting the school, IE and Firefox Browsers, MS Office, other packages
• Content development tools- Macromedia Flash for animations, Adobe Photoshop for graphics, Macromedia Dreamweaver for designing pages, Java programming language for programming
• Application development tools- Exchange 4.0 for messaging, SQL server 6.5 for database, NT 4.0 with IIS 2.0 for internet, SNA server, Systems Management server, Catapult proxy server, Tripoli index server.
“When selecting a file server, one must first select an 80286 or 80386 computer that has been certified by Novell. Hardware vendors can “hire” Novell to certify that their hardware works with Novell’s operating systems. Novell publishes overall results of the tests, specific configuration results, and any qualifications regarding certification. [For example, the CPU functions at a clock speed of 12MHZ, but not at 16MHZ]
Before deciding on a hardware platform, one must determine if the computer is certified by Novell. The same applies to file server components such as disk drives. File servers can be purchased fully configured with hardware, or the 80286/80386 computer can be purchased and configured by the network installer.
Once the file server is one site, the vendor’s hardware diagnostics should be run before the NetWare operating system is loaded. These diagnostics test the memory, disk drives, monitor, and keyboard. Normally, the diagnostics are run for a 24-hour “burn in” period, which allows sufficient time to detect any problems.
Selecting disk drives should be the first decision for configuring the file server. As the name “file server” implies, the primary function of a LAN is to provide shared disk access for applications and data. The disk drive may not be a large initial dollar investment, but the disk will soon contain thousands of dollars’ worth of application software and perhaps tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of data files. Therefore, it is advisable to select only Novell-certified disk drives, or drives that are shown to be reliable in network environments.
Given below are some recommendations for disk drive systems:
• Select only Novell-Certified disk drives and controllers
• Select ESDI or SCSI type disk drives and controllers
• Select 40MB or larger disk drives
• Record disk drive information
• Have only qualified personnel install disk drives and controllers
• Coordinate disk size with memory.
Netware allows expansion to thirty-two disk volumes, with a single volume limit of 255 megabytes. The file server maximum is 2GB (2 billion bytes) of disk storage.”(Palmer & Rains, 91, pp 49-51)
• Netware 4.x is a product from Novell as against NTS which is a product from Microsoft
• NTS does not have a global, distributed network directory as against Netware 4.x which has Novell Directory Services(NDS) network directory
• Netware 4.x provides support for SMP architectures. Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP) architecture has more than one CPU that provide for increased throughput and parallel processing. NTS supports RAID disk arrays and disk mirroring
Netware 4.x:
• Includes NDS
• Allows replication and distribution
• Can support hundreds and thousands of users
• Provides disk compression utilities
• Provides support for SMP architectures
• Capable of auditing the network activities
NTS:
• It is more of an application server and is 32 bit OS
• Does not have global distributed network directory
• Each domain has one primary domain controller and may have multiple backup domain controllers
• NTS can be installed on FAT format, HPFS, and NTFS
Netware 4.x is easy to install as against NTS which when installed in FAT format can cause file security capabilities as the DOS file format does not support many of the file attributes. Moreover as mentioned in section 9.1 of this report, NTS does not have a global distributed network directory.
“Novell has made NDS available for NOSs other than Net Ware, so the name change was appropriate. By making NDS available to other OSs, Novell can position its product at the heart of the network, the repository of information on the enterprise network.
NDS is a global, hierarchical directory that allows replication and distribution. Some objects are subordinate to other objects. Objects that can have subordinate items are called container objects. Some of the container objects defined in Net Ware includes Country, Organization, and Organizational Unit. Objects that cannot have subordinate objects are called leaf objects. Each directory tree has a unique top-level object called the Root object or the Top. Distributed portions of the directory are called partitions. NDS is a global directory because it can span the entire enterprise network.”( Stamper, 1998, p.191)
Once the website has been created for UNZ Grammar secondary school, it has to be managed properly in order to serve the purposes of the school. Managing the web content on the internet site would involve recruiting technical staff permanently inside the school.
The technical team monitors the web content 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Some of the key activities that the technical team performs are:
• 24 by 7 maintenance of data on the DHCP server
• Keeping the DNS server current with the DHCP server
• Taking care of the performance of the Proxy server
• Processing of online leave forms submitted immediately
• Updating information on the homepage and other pages regularly
• Consistency of data on the web pages with the underlying database tables
• Browser compatibility- The web content must be compatible with all kinds of browsers. Hence perform browser compatibility tests from time to time. One such tool is provided by the web site www.anybrowser.com
• Check the web script for functionality from time to time to keep the website bug free
• Provide plug-in supports for Flash/Shockwave applications
• Reduce download time of the pages by optimizing the page size
• Provide proper navigation tools for all pages like buttons, hotspots, and sliding bars
• Allow the website to set cookies on cookies enabled browsers. This helps in efficient browsing of the web content
• Increase or decrease the number of web pages as and when required
• Provide FAQ/Help sections for easily navigating the website
• Fix broken links regularly
• Finally, the web content should not contain any objectionable material on it. The data on the website must be protected and must conform to cyber laws.
“There are no specific laws controlling data protection on the internet in New Zealand. The most significant legislative acts that have an impact on the communications over the net are related to privacy concerns and to the transmission of questionable material (the Technology and Crimes Reform Bill of 1994). The New Zealand Parliament introduced in 1994 the “Technology and Crimes Reform Bill” (NZ Technology and Crimes Reform Bill, 1994) as an attempt to legislate the use of telecommunications and networking. The emphasis of the Bill is on prohibiting and penalising the transmission of “objectionable” material, and provides for the office Files and Literature Classification to examine and classify images, sounds, and live shows “produced for pecuniary gain”. The Bill also attempts to deal with “foreign” communication services carrying the same kind of objectionable material.”(Gutierrez, 2000, p.29)
