The Setting

A small, independent, business/home/life insurance company consisting of an owner, a manager, an administrator, and five agents decides to implement a network. The company occupies half of a small building in an office park. Their volume of business has been stable for the past four years, but has been increasing lately. To handle the increased volume of businees, two new agents.will be hired.

Everyone in the company has a computer. When the employees share information, they do it verbally or copy the information to floppies and swap disks. In general, agents handle only their specific clients, and the information their clients provide is confidential. The office administrator has an eight-year-old laser printer. The agents all have their own dot matrix printers.

As part of the migration to a networking environment, the company has decided to purchase a high-speed laser printer.

The Problem

You are tasked with designing the network for this company. Answer the following questions to simplify your task of choosing a solution.

Your Solution

Underline the most appropriate answers to the following questions:
1. What type of network would you suggest for this company?
Peer-to-peer
Server-based

2. What network topology would be appropriate in this situation?
Bus
Ring
Star
Star Bus
Star Ring
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Suggested Solution

There are no completely right or wrong answers to this problem. The suggested answers and explanations are only a guide.

1. Server-Based
Although there are only eight people in the entire company at present, and a peer-to-peer  netowrk would seem adequate, the company is experiencing growth. Some of the information to go on the network is confidential. It is better to invest in a server-based network which can accommodate growth and provide centralized security than have growth make a peer-to-peer network obsolete in a year or two.

2. There is no single correct answer.
The most commonly installed networks currently are the star bus and the bus.
A hub-centered star bus seems to be the best choice because of the ease of troubleshooting, and ease of reconfiguration.
A bus network might be chosen because of cost or ease of installation considerations, although it does not offer the centralized troubleshooting or administrative advantages of a hub.
A ring is probably more complex than necessary for this network.