Implementation of LAN in CICT Rooms

Since last year, our college has remarkably undergone lots of improvement and exceptional changes. Facilities were upgraded, services were improved, and new curriculum has been developed. Moreover, the rooms in 3rd and 4th floor of the new academic building were now being used as computer and lecture labs intended for all CICT students.

All CICT rooms in the new building are fully equipped with new PCs. There are lots of workstations allotted per room in order to accommodate all the students within a class. In order to ensure the security and performance of all the PCs, implementing a Local Area Network for each room is one of the focal project plans of CICT this year. Engr. Jason Villafuerte is the person who facilitated the construction of a network design plan in each room and the one in-charge for the execution of this project. All CICT rooms are specially designed to have its network (LAN). Last semester, the network in three rooms IT 4, IT 5 and IT 7 were already completed with the help of some senior computer technology students from our college. Due to other top immediate priorities that the CICT should focus on, the implementation of network for all other rooms are delayed but is soon to be continued.

According to Engr. Villafuerte, having all the workstations networked, the optimum performance of the PCs and the power of computer networking will be effectively utilized. Through networks, files can be copied and sent from a single workstation. Faculty can monitor students closely as they perform activities, and it can reduce (if not eliminate) the spread of viruses through a single-point entry, which is the server in every room. Moreover, centralized server administration will surely help each faculty technician ease their burden of maintaining large number of PCs in several rooms.

The student organizations (ACTS, SWITS, & Cursor), CICT Faculty, CICT-PTA, and the BulSU administration, through Dean Hilario, were helping in obtaining sources of funds for the completion of this project. Ma’am Josephine Bayonito had also approached Engr. Villafuerte that it would be possible to make some request from the PTA to purchase several devices needed for building the network.

As for the design, “The plan for the rooms is simple. All the rooms shall have its own LAN, connected to the proxy server at the faculty. A hierarchical star topology shall be used because it is easy to install and configure, and the network materials are easily available once we have additional funds. However, we already have our temporary wireless internet connection in the faculty room” , Engr. Villafuerte stated.

Aside from having a specific personnel or faculty technician assigned for the maintenance of each labs, Engr. Villafuerte fully explained all other factors and important points to be considered in order to sustain and ensure the functionality and security of the network.

He proposed that every computer room should have its server running Windows Server 2003 or Fedora Core Linux. Windows Server 2003 features Active Directory, in which students are assigned their own login username and password, each having a set of permissions (or privileges) they can have in using a PC. Moreover, students are restricted to alter computer settings and transfer files to other workstations freely which could somehow eliminate viruses since the only entry point of the network is the server accessible only by the teacher. Alternatively, reduction of virus infection is more highly expected in using the Fedora Core Linux since most of the viruses propagate in Windows environment, and not in the Linux kernel. Utilizing this kind of server could also make the students be familiarized of the Linux environment and its evocative advantages.


--Grace San Juan--

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