Local Area Network Management, Design and Security: A Practical Approach

How to use LANs to help your company grow  A vital component of today’s business, Local Area Networks (LANs) allow organizations to link their computers together for maximum work sharing, collaboration among geographically disparate teams, and other essential business functions. This book helps system administrators and IT professionals set up LANs and Intranets in a way that will contribute to their company’s growth and success. Beginning with the theoretical foundation for LAN operation and design, it covers the applicable data communications principles, then goes on to explore both LAN hardware and infrastructure design, network operating systems, LAN management and security. The book also gives a practical introduction to the world’s most popular network operating systems—Windows 2000, Novell NetWare, and Linux. Finally, the book takes an in-depth look at business and management issues, with special emphasis given to the impact of Intranets on business goals.

Table of Contents:
Preface xiii Objectives xiii Structure of the book xiv Target readers xiv Long distance learning xv Thanks xv Chapter 1 - introduction 1 Terminology 2 History 3 Mainframe/minicomputers and networks 3 Microcomputers and local area networks 4 Local area networks, Ethernet and internet 4 Classification of local area networks 5 Local area network (LAN) 5 Metropolitan area network (MAN) 5 Wide are network (WAN) 5 WANs and the Internet 6 Intranets 6 Why local area networks? 7 Resource sharing 7 Communication and cooperation 7 Security 8 Costs 8 The life cycle of the local area network 8 Analysis 9 Design 10 Implementation 10 Integration and system testing 11 Operation and maintenance 11 Conclusion 11 Part 1 Chapter 2 - Data communication in local area networks 13 Models for communication 14 A layered model 17 Communication tasks 18 OSI 22 TCP/IP 28 Conclusion 34 Media and Physical layers 34 Media 34 Topology 37 Point-to-point or star topology 37 Bus or tree topology 38 Ring topology 39 Hubs and switches 39 The telephone network and modems 40 DTE – DCE 41 Types of connection 41 Capacities 42 Fields of application 42 How a modem works 42 Serial interface and standards 44 Flow control 45 Error correction 46 Compression 47 Command set 47 Null modem 48 ISDN 48 ADSL 50 UMTS 51 Access methods 51 Contest (CSMA/CD) 51 Token passing 53 Local area network standards 53 IEEE 802.2 LLC – Logical Ling Control 55 IEEE 802.x MAC – Medium Access Control 55 FDDI – Fiber Distributed Data Interface 61 ATM 63 IP networks 65 The protocols 68 IP addresses 69 IP datagram format 72 Assigning IP numbers in local area networks 75 IP routing 76 Transport layer in the TCP/IP suite 82 TCP – Transmission Control Protocol 86 TCP protocol details 90 UDP – User datagram Protocol 95 Application in TCP/IP networks 97 SMTP Simple mail Transfer Protocol 97 HTTP – Hypertext Transfer protocol 99 DNS – Domain Name System 100 Encryption and security 103 Traditional encryption algorithms 104 Encryption with public and private keys 106 PCP encryption 107 Part 2 Chapter 3 - Hardware in a local area network 111 Servers 112 File applications 113 SCSI 115 Hard disks 121 Buses 124 Memory (RAM) 128 Motherboards 132 Processor 134 Chipset 138 Case 139 Hardware for backup copying 141 Magnetic tape 142 Other media 143 Network interface cards 143 Introduction 143 Arhilecture 144 Examples of network card setup and installation 148 Workstations 150 Homogenus networks 150 Diskless workstations 150 Other factors 15I Cables 151 Twisted-pair cables 152 Coaxial cables 155 Wireless networks 158 Conclusion 158 Exercises 159 Chapter 4 - Designing local area networks 161 Introduction 162 Topology 162 Bus 155 Ring 165 Star 167 Segments [Ethernet] 168 Traditional interconnection components 169 Repeaters 169 The 5-4-3 rule for connecting segments 170 Bridges 170 Routers 173 Switch technology 175 Mode of Operations 177 Type of switch 178 Port switching and segment switching 180 Combined speed 181 Structured cabling 182 Cabling and patch panel 183 Hubs 185 Wireless networks 187 Speed Spectrum transfer 188 Infrared transfer 188 VLAN 189 Routing between VLANs 193 Paperwork and documentation 194 Two strategies 195 Negotiation of contract 196 Support and maintenance 197 Level of support agreements 198 Installation 199 Documentation 199 Planning of location 199 Building regulations 202 Summary 202 Exercises 203 Part 3 Chapter 5 - Local area network operating system 205 Introduction 205 Peer-to-peer network 207 Functions and responsibility 208 I/O optimisation 208 Fault tolerance 212 Multiple processing and time sharing 220 Print spooler 222 Logical and physical printing 222 “The running” of network printing 223 Current network operating systems 223 Banyan VINES 224 LANtastic 224 OS/2 Warp Server 225 Summary 225 Exercises 227 Chapter 6 - Management and security 229 Introduction 229 Deciding security levels 230 Printing environment 232 Printing opportunities 232 Printer driver 239 A society of users 239 Groups 241 Physical security 243 Logical security 245 Backup 248 The need for backup 248 Wheel are the consequences? 249 Static and dynamic data 250 Full/incremental/differential backup 250 Backup routine 251 Recouvery 255 Firewalls 256 Disaster planning 257 Summary 257 Exercises 259 Chapter 7 - Novell netware 261 Versions 261 NetWare 252 NetWare 4 262 IntranetWare 264 NetWare 5 265 GroupWise 268 ManageWise 269 NDS - Novell Directory Services 269 What is NDS? 270 Object orientation 271 Object types 273 Leaf objects 274 Novell file system 275 Volumes and folders 275 System fault tolerance 276 SFT Level I 276 SFT Level II 277 SKV level III 278 The order of login script 280 Novell NetWare security 281 Login security 281 Trustees 284 Novell NDS security 293 Printing Environment in Novell NetWare 298 Queue-based printing environment 298 NDPS – Novell Distributed Print Services 302 Managing/maintenance of printing (NDPS) 304 Summary 306 Exercises 307 Chapter 8 - Windows 2000 309 Introduction 309 History/versions 310 Windows 310 Windows 95/98 311 Windows Me (Millennium edition) 312 Windows NT 313 Windows 2000 314 Windows 2000 Professional 315 Hardware requirements 316 Administrator user on workstation 317 Password administration 317 Windows 2000 server 317 Hardware requirements 318 Installation 318 Connecting workstations in. W2K network 320 Workgroups 321 Active directory 322 Important terms 322 Microsoft Management Console MMC 328 Adctive Directory design 327 Object management in Active Directory 330 User administration 331 Groups 327 File security 342 Sharing 342 Folder/file rights 346 Controlling access to AD objects 351 Policies 353 Summary 357 Chapter 9 - linux 361 Introduction 361 History 362 GNU 363 Distributors 364 LINUX structure 365 Installation [RedHat LINUX) on PC 366 Preparations 367 Installation alternatives 368 The file system and. Partitioning 369 LILO Bootmanager 371 Startup 371 Simple UNIX 371 Users and groups 371 Files and rights 373 Useful commands 375 Process handling 376 Shell programming 376 Printing environment in Linux 377 System administration 379 Graphical user interface 380 X-windows 380 Window manager 381 FVWM2 381 WindowMaker 381 Enlightment 381 Libraries 382 GNOME 382 KDE 382 Applications under Linux 383 Xterm 383 Text editors 383 Emacs 384 Pico 384 Word processing 384 Staroffice 384 WordPerfect 385 Other applications 386 Development tools 386 LINUX in networks 386 TCP/IP 386 Platform for services 386 Summary 388 Exercises 389 Part 4 Chapter 10 - Management philosophy and standards for network administration 391 Introduction 391 The fire fighting management method 391 The fire fighting approach 393 Preventive management 396 The good circle 397 Capacity planning 398 System tuning 399 Examples of tools of preventive management 401 Preventive or fire fighting? 436 Standards for network administration 407 MIB 408 SNMP 410 RMON 411 Summary 413 Exercises 414 Chapter 11 - intranet 415 Introduction 415 Intranet services 417 Conveying messages and e-mail 417 Conference system 417 Videoconferences 420 Sharing information 422 Spreading information 422 Implementing an intranet 426 Planning, planning and planning 426 Intranet tools 427 Maintenance and management 429 Summary 437 Exercises 438 Index 439

About the Author :
Arne B. Mikalsen and Per Borgesen work as associate professors at the Faculty of Informatics and E-learning, Sør-Trøndelag University College, where they teach courses in LAN management, network theories and data communication.