Client Server Network Configuration

The network configuration that will work best for this organization is a client server network. In a client server network "The Client/server approach has equal amounts of intelligence on both the client and server sides, which allows the work of computation to be shared on both sides." (CTU Online, 2012). This approach is a common approach in business now of days that is very efficient and easy to maintain. The servers and call manager will be based at the corporate location and the clients will be all work stations throughout the company. There will be three servers an email server, web server and a ftp server. At the corporate location the network will be wired and the other two locations will be connected to the server through the internet.

The three networks are going to be hooked up in a Large Area Network (LAN) structure. The LAN will be set up in a star topology. The three LAN networks will be connected as a Wide Area Network (WAN). The network will include many protocols to function properly. Some of these protocols are DNS, DHCP and IP routing. DNS or domain namespace is used to direct you to an IP address by using user friendly "domain names". It does this by giving the IP address a friendly domain name. We will be using this indirectly through our Internet Service Provider (ISP). DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a client server protocol used to "automatically provide an Internet Protocol (IP) host with its IP address and other related configuration information such as the subnet mask and default gateway." (Microsoft, 2003). We will be using our own DHCP server at the corporate headquarters to serve all the clients throughout our company with the necessary configuration information. IP routing is basically the protocols that determine how the path that data travels to get where it is going. This will be used on our network also as we will be working over a WAN so our packets must travel over many networks to get where it needs to go.

Justification of configurations

There are many reasons that I have chosen the configurations that I did. The first and most important is the ease of expansion on a client server network. It is very easy to add in new clients especially that we have a DHCP server at our headquarters this allows for us to add as many clients as we need with no issues on the routing information. Secondly I choose to use three LAN's that connected over the internet into one WAN this allows for easy implementation of the network.

I have also made the decision to have our own call manager that will allow us to host our own IP phones and give them their numbers. Along with having a call manager we will have a mail server that will host all of our mailing throughout the organization. We will also have a web server that will allow us to share information and resources easily.

Network