NetworkServices
From LearniT
Contents |
Setup Network Services
Introduction
Once you’ve set-up your home (or small office) network, you will want to add functionality, called network services, to the network. The first network service you’ll want to add is a printer. Setting up the printer as a network printer means that you’ll only need to buy one printer, and that printer can then be accessed by every computer on the network.
Types of other services you might consider adding to your network:
- shared network storage space (particularly RAID 1 or 5 devices, which protect against data loss in the event of drive failure)
- an ftp (file transfer protocol) server, which really is just shared network storage space that is accessible from the internet
- a web server, for serving web pages
- a dhcp server, for dynamically serving ip addresses to the computers on the network (more suitable perhaps for a small office rather than a home network)
- a database server
- a streaming video server
- enterprise router or vlan-capable switch
- others??? (proxy, email, video)
Your network will evolve naturally as your needs and sophistication evolve, and as you get more time to tinker with it. Many of these services are far easier to set-up than you might imagine, particularly by taking advantage of older computers and the free software of the open source community.
One thing is for sure: the production environment of the 21st Century is the network, not the personal computer; therefore, you will be richly rewarded for the time you spend enhancing your network to serve your needs.
Add a Network Printer
[ Theory and Background | Vocabulary | Teacher Notes | Extra Resources | Video Script ] (Gina)
Theory
One of the first services you’ll want to set-up on your home or small office network is a network printer. This way, every computer on the network will be able to access a single printer.
- As for which type or types of printers, you’ll need to think about
- do you need color printing, black & white, or both
- how much print speed do you need (printers range between 5 and 50 pages per minute
- do you do a lot of printing, or just a little (for a lot of printing, lasers tend to be more cost effective; for smaller amounts of printing, you may be better served by an inkjet)
- Our own preference on our network is to run two different printers – a color inkjet for pages that need to be in color, and a b&w laserjet for the bulk of our printing, which does not need to be in color. Color laserjets are becoming cheaper, so much so that they may become the default printer for single printer networks.
- There are two ways to share a printer across a network. These are:
- create a shared local printer – the advantage of a shared local printer is that it is easy to set-up and does not require any extra equipment besides the printer and printer cable; the disadvantage is that the computer to which the printer is connected must always be on for the printer to be accessed by other computers on the network.
- setup a print server, so that the printer is not connected directly to any one computer, but rather is connected via Ethernet cable to the network; sometimes the Ethernet port is built into the printer; sometimes a separate network print server box with both an Ethernet port and port for the printer cable is required.
Worksheets
- Network Printer Worksheet [ NetworkPrinterWorksheet ]
Hands-On Activities
- Add a shared local printer to the network[ NetworkPrinterLabLocal ]
- Add a network printer using a print server[ NetworkPrinterLabServer ]
Add Local Network Storage
[ Theory and Background | Vocabulary | Teacher Notes | Extra Resources | Video Script ] (Charles)
Theory
After adding a printer, one of the next services you may want to add to your network is network storage space. Network storage space allows network users to place important files in a shared place, so that everyone can find and use them.
Because commonly held files are usually important files, it is important to plan a strategy for redundancy and backup so that drive failure and even a catastrophic even on the network (major power spike) will not lead to data loss.
- The various strategies for network storage are as follows:
- run a RAID 1 (mirroring) or a RAID 5 (redundancy) set of between 2 and 7 drives, that can survive the loss of any 1 drive without causing data loss. The failed drive, however, will need to be replaced immediately (and a spare is usually kept on site), because RAID 1 and 5 devices cannot survive the loss of two drives without data loss.
- run a RAID 0 (striping) or single drive for shared network storage, and backukp periodically to a second drive. USB 2.0 external drives are excellent for this purpose, and even can be kept offline to protect against power events.
Worksheets
- Research RAID 5 devices and find the most cost-effective. Research also the price of a spare backup drive.
- Compare the pros and cons of the strategies detailed above (single drive with usb backup; RAID 1 and RAID 5); which would you recommend running on your home or small office network and why?
Hands-On Activities
- Configure a single drive as a shared network drive.[ Shared DriveLab ]
- Configure two drives for RAID 1 using a RAID controller (either hardware or software controller)[ RAID ControllerLab ]
Setup an FTP server
[ Theory and Background | Vocabulary | Teacher Notes | Extra Resources | Video Script ] (Ray)
Theory
The difference between LAN and WAN storage space is that LAN space can only be accessed from WITHIN your local area network. WAN storage space can be accessed from anywhere on the internet, usually via logon and password. (- User svarty - This sentence is misleading since many WANs are private. -)
One of the easiest ways to set-up WAN storage space is by creating an ftp (File Transfer Protocol) server. The ftp protocol simply allows a computer that is on and connected to the internet to receive and deliver files. The files (or data) can be of any type. They also can be of very big sizes (far bigger than you could email as an attachment.
- The components of an ftp file storage system are as follows:
- a computer connected to the internet, running ftp
- drive space on the computer with a folder or folders dedicated as ftp storage folders
- an ftp client on computers seeking to access the ftp server; these clients are free and easily configured; also, the web browser itself can facilitate ftp communication.
“Geez,” you may be thinking. “A separate computer to serve ftp files. Where am I going to get that???” FTP does not require a fast computer, and usually you can utilize the old computer that you took offline when you bought your new computer as an FTP server. Old computers, for that matter, also can function perfectly well as web and dhcp servers too.
The FTP server can be in your house, or somewhere out on the internet where you pay for someone to host it for you.
Worksheets
Hands-On Activities
- Download and configure an FTP client on a Windows or linux computer [ FTPLabSet-up ]
- Manage ftp folders
Setup a Web Server
[ Theory and Background | Vocabulary | Teacher Notes | Extra Resources | Video Script ] (Rodrigo)
Outline
- What is a web server?
- How does a web server work?
- There are 2 major choices in web servers:
- Apache is an Open Source product, used in 62-3% of web servers.
- MS's Internet Information Services (used in another 32-3% of servers and ...)
- Pros and Cons of using Apache v IIS:
- Apache is good for simple serving of pages and being able to move between OSes (Apache has versions for Windows and almost every Unix style OS.)
- IIS for Windows XP Professional is a limited version.
- (Add more to this)
- What can I do with my web server?
- Research and discuss blogging software and security concerns of that software.
- Managing security on your web server.
Worksheets
Hands-On Activities
- Setup Apache Web Server on a Windows PC [ WebServerLabApacheWindows ]
- Setup MS IIS Web Server on a Windows PC.
- Setup Apache Web Server on a Linux Server.
Setup a DHCP Server
[ Theory and Background | Vocabulary | Teacher Notes | Extra Resources | Video Script ] (Robert)
Theory
In the first chapter, there was a discussion about how to setup your network, static vs dynamic. In that chapter we spent time talking about the differences, and how to setup a computer to use either. What we didn't describe is how to setup the DHCP server the way you want it. That's what we do here, we are going to setup a DHCP Server on your personal router as well as on a linux server.
(This Section is the to be crosslinked from chp1)
There are a few new things that can be done with DHCP without changing the configuration of dhcp based computers. We have a few things we can do.
- We can setup static IPs that are dynamically assigned. This allows the configuration of a static address, without having to go to each machine and assign it an address, it also allows for you to know which IPs are assigned by looking at the single DHCP server configuration.
- We can also change the default set of IPs assigned if there is reason to (too many IPs needed, the IP set is used by something wierd)
- We can configure other network settings like DNS servers and route information.
Worksheets
- Grab stuff from network addressing?
Hands-On Activities
- Setup DHCP on your personal router to do static DHCP assignments (if possible) [ DHCPLabRouter ]
- Setup DHCP on a Linux server to give static IPs to mac addressses[ DHCPLabLinux ]
