ISB+Network+Tour+Questions+and+Summaries

Tour Questions
In the space below (above the line), write the questions you would like to ask Ai Dong during the tour (there should be a mix of hardware/software/infrastructure questions along with questions about the different issues that come with managing a network.


 * What are the major difficulties in maintaining the ISB network? What are the top two?
 * Have there been any crashes/failures in the school network before? If yes, when, what, and why?
 * If no to question above, how are you preventing these problems from occurring in the future?
 * On a monthly basis, which problems occur the most within the network.
 * How is the network organized in a way that students and staff can easily access and use it?
 * How many levels of restrictions/access are there? Why is this an effective way of network management?
 * What type of software and hardware is ISB using to run the network?
 * What are some compatibility issues with the Windows and Mac servers? How does the school deal with them?
 * How is the school approaching the spam problem? Why is it difficult to solve this problem?
 * Have there been any students damaging/misusing the network in the past? What are the consequences?

P.S. user:taco99's mu qin ezzz uber sexcccccc...

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Why is the internet in school currently so slow? Is it possible to increase the speed of the internet within our school system? How often are each of the various systems (servers) updated?

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Summaries
After the tour, write a summary of the overall experience and Ai Dong's responses to the various questions. Paste your summary below. Be sure to both write your name and digitally sign at the end of your summary with the 4~.

The ISB server room is composed of many different types of switches and servers. Some are responsible for data transfer, some for emails and some for storage. There are 2 UPS which are fully charged and ready to be utilized at any moment. Aside from that there are the PA system and the clock system which manages their respective functions. At the back of the room, there are the Phone boards which control the ISB phone system and there is a computer that tracks all the calls made with the phones in ISB. After going in to the server room, I can say that the slow internet connection has actually nothing to do with ISB's network. The switches all use fiber optic cables which travel at the speed of light. The problem is coming from the Chinese government because they control the quality of data transfer.

Despite the awesome array of technology seen in the server room, computers were not meant to last forever. Therefore the tech department needs to replace the hardware about every 3 years and the software every new update. Software is crucial because with new viruses coming out, Norton needs to come out with new protection. How does the viruses come from? Usually from spam and exe files. ISB's network has a structured hierarchy that limits the amount of access to different levels of users. Therefore students and teachers are not allowed to download any exe files that may contain viruses. This method also relieves bandwidth so the connection in the school can be faster. As to limiting the spam, all the tech department needs to do is to tighten their firewall. Crashes in the network do occur often as with all networks. Sometimes it is due to mechanical failure as Mr. Ai Dong has noticed that the ports on the switches are dying one by one. Students have also been known to cause problems and misuse their privileges in the past. Although the number has declined because I believe that not many people here are as smart as Amanieu. As with the consequences, that is up for the school to decide. The tech department is actually grateful that somebody manged to mess up their system because they now know how to deal with them and other weaknesses in the network. 1201310563

The tour of ISB's server room, despite being my second time there, was very informational. Last time I visited was with my Computer Science class so we mainly focused on the hardware that was there and not any issues that may arise in the network. I think Ai Dong did a very good job showing us what each piece of equipment does and thoroughly explained many of the features each piece of hardware has. One thing I appreciated was that he showed us the CAT-5 wires and the fibre optic cables and explained why they used each one for a certain purpose. Though we did have a focus on the hardware in there, such as the different servers, the 2 UPS's, the PA system, the internet connection, and the phone system, there was more interest in the problems that arise while running a network.

Before the tour, as a class, we thought of different questions to ask Ai Dong during the tour. We went through all of these questions during the tour and focused in on them more towards the end. The difficulties, in Ai Dong’s opinion, that are the hardest to deal with are real-time monitoring of internet use and how you choose to manage the network. Crashes in the network are also very common, said Ai Dong. In a year he said 5 hard drives will crash. Also, product failure is another issue he has to deal with. To prevent or make the failures less devastating they back up the system every week. He even said next year they are aiming for daily back ups. For the major problems that involve the ISB network he stated that password changes and print credit were among the most common he has had to deal with. The network is organized in a way that everyone in the school can easily access it. They’ve set up a wi-fi network throughout most of the school so it can be accessed even by laptops from outside the school. Restrictions are also very important for the network; without them anyone would be able to do anything. With security and safety in mind, they’ve chosen to block certain tasks from being done by different levels of power. With the lowest probably being student and the highest probably being a system administrator. This is very effective because it allows more computer knowledgeable people and more responsible people to do more with the computers, thus making it safer and securer. The hardware was shown to us during the tour and it included the UPS, servers, and phone system. The software, on the other hand, used by the network is various antivirus software, a firewall software, and a network management software. The school has also set up some Mac servers for the Macs in the school. They’ve set up a way where you can access both from either type of machine but there are still some communication problems. Every year, on average there are 5 major cases of students misusing the network. Though, in a way, this does help the IT office find flaws in their system and prompts them to fix it. Finally, the policy on updating the system is as follows. They update the hardware, usually, every 3 years. They update software whenever they can, usually every 3 months or so. 1201510634

The ISB server room is not surprising very complex! It is usually prohibited to students due to its importance to the school. The ISB server room has many switches, in which one is especially important, the center switch. If it dies, the whole network dies. It is protected by a large seal gate, which if it’s opened, then it’ll immediately send message to Ai Dong’s cell phone. The ISB server room is also composed of servers which has identical jobs. Some are responsible for backups, which updates weekly and each takes as long as 1 day. While others might be responsible for storing all the student’s record. At the back of the room, there are phone boards which is able to track every single calls made in ISB except cell phone. Ai Dong told us that just recently, they have successfully linked the Mac servers with other servers. During our talk with Ai Dong, he kept emphasizing the point that back up is extremely important. Currently, their backups are done weekly, in the future; he hopes to change it to daily. ISB has about 200 hard drives in total, in which 5 will die every year. This is reasonable since ISB is a populated school with tons of information transferred each day. To prevent virus from entering the school network, ISB has different level of access. Admin can download exe files and stream online videos, while students cannot do both. This is due to the fact that if students are allowed to download exe files, then the library will change to a popular gaming zone. One of the main question came up during our tour is “Why is the internet so slow”. Ai Dong explained that this is due to the quota that the Chinese government gave to our school. During this tour, Ai Dong also mentions that their hardware is updated every three years, and once a week for software. In the near future, Ai Dong hopes to implant Wi-Fi around next year, where every student will be able to bring their laptops to school and access the internet everywhere. 1201523164

ISB’s server room tour was fascinating to me. I had been there once before, but it was quite a few years ago and I don’t remember any of it. There were many servers in that room, some were for data storage, some for the networks, some for the internet, and perhaps one or two more. There were also phone boards at the back, which allowed all the rooms connect to each other. I was surprised to find out that the government controls the quality of our line,, the Macs and PCs have been connected recently, and that all student actions were logged. Ai Dong told us that all data and files are kept for 2 months, and the backup (which is done online and offline weekly) takes around a day to do. If anything goes wrong in this room, certain tech department staff will get an SMS and a small alarm goes off in that room.

We also asked Ai Dong questions about things we wanted to know. First, he told us that real time monitoring of all systems is hard, especially when something goes wrong since all settings school-wide need to be changed. He also said that product failure is a problem because it can be hard to find the source of the problem. It is very important to keep careful maintenance of all hardware and do regular backups just in case. Some other issues are print credits, password resets, security access levels, and compatibility issues, which all bring problems to the tech department. Last year, 95% of the emails coming to ISB were spam, and only 5% of the emails were useful. I was somewhat surprised to find out that there had been students in the past that misused the school computers seriously before, but he emphasized that it’s not his job to penalize the student, just to fix the problem. Lastly, Ai Dong told us that the hardware is updated about every three years, while software is updated when there is an update, although it is tested first. Overall, I found this an extremely informative tour, and I learned a lot about our servers. 1201568224 (Roderick Yen)

The network center in ISB is the main control center for most of the technologies used in school. There are different sections within the center and they can be determined by their colours. The hardware sections include the internet connection, network connectivity system, telephone and telecommunications system, PA system, world clock, and two UPS’s. Throughout the tour, information was given about the following sections.

We have two internet lines connecting into our school campus that connects to the main server network allowing all the computers in school to be able to go online. The reason why there are two lines is to increase the packs being received as one is six years old and the other one is newer; each line is located in two different places as it only transfer 2MB due to the cost. Back to the network system, besides having internet connection, a WAN is built for school computers to go online, print, access their personal documents, connect to the student-share/faculty-share, collect and drop folders. There are boxes that are servers and 200 hard-drives for the network to save information into. The school backs up the files on a weekly basis and it is done internally. Within the network system, there are network switches that control several locations within the school to be activated or not using cables and fiber-optics, and a central switch, which is also called a ‘third layer switch.’ If the central switch dies, the entire network will die too. Since we also have Apple computers within our campus, it was only recently that they have linked Macintosh and Windows together in the same network system. The telecommunication system controls the telephone operating system, which can track and trace incoming and outgoing calls made by the land phones within the school campus. The PA system is a voice box that plays recorded audio clips such as bus announcements on a defined time. Next to the PA system, there is a massive container that only deals with the school electronic clocks that are built around the school. These are all synchronized and it connects to the satellite as it is based on the international time. Finally, the UPS box which is the power supply for the entire network center. An interesting design for this system is once the UPS port is opened, a red light signal will activate and it instantly sends a text message to the mobile phones to send out warnings.

The management in our school network is very tough. The major difficulties in maintaining the ISB network is the real time monitoring as there are increases of traffic everyday. The good thing about the network center is that it never crashed before; however there are lots of problems that have occurred. Some examples about the problems is the print credit by high school students as $50 print credits is not enough for one month and elementary students coming in asking for a reset of their password because they can’t remember them. There are several levels of restriction within the school networks; these restrictions behave on the position of where you work as. The levels separate the students, faculties, and the network members. If you’re a student, you have no privilege to install software, run .exe files, stream videos, and many more. This prevents unauthorized areas to be accessed as it may open up worms and viruses that may damage the network system. If you are a faculty, the restrictions reduce down to only unable to install software which then leads to the network members which they have the rights to do so. There have been students that have bypassed the restrictions and the example is that the network managers didn’t block out running .exe files from CDs. It is good that the systems are being updated to prevent unauthorized activities. The updates on our school computers are usually every three years, the windows update are weekly, and programs usually three months. 1201531098

I must say that the tour put valuable knowledge into my head. Mr. Dong led the group to a server room where different types of servers were located. There were servers for network e-mails, disks, back-ups and power. One that was the most profound was the disk space server. More than a hundred hard-drives were crammed inside the huge server. One main console controlled all of the hard-drives connecting them to a network. The pre-recorded material player was another server that was connected to the network to play an audio throughout the school. The famous end-of-school alarm also is played by this server. The clock control center server is amazing as it gets the most correct time possible using a satellite. The clocks around the school are all set according to the time given to this main console. After a tour in the server room, there was an interview of Mr. Dong in a faculty cafeteria. He started with an instruction on why there is a restriction on the school computer. Worm is the main reason noted by him because a worm can spread very quickly even from one computer to thousands. The school vaccinated the problem by limiting executables to operate on student computers. An interesting story that he told to us was the crash of the network. About 1 percent of hard-drives fail to keep the data. Though, fallen hard-drives are then replaced very easily with new ones. The data is safe since the school backs up the data everyday. There were some hackers in ISB as well. One of them tried to avoid the restriction on computers by using a CD-ROM to boot to Windows. Without the restriction, the student could install CD games and play. The school might decide to upgrade its server OS system to Windows Server 2008 to improve security. The new version enables more detailed restrictions on computers. Different levels of permission are given to students and teachers. Teachers can stream videos and audios. There is a issue with being private and productive. The tech office keeps a log of what each student does on the computer logging in his user name. This monitoring of student activity prevents students of freedom to access to any content. One good thing about keeping a network is that you can mass-install any software. After you install a software in one of the computers, you can just push the configurations to other computers to install the software. 1201533075

Being that it was the very first time that i have ever been into a network room, it was definitely a very interesting and informational tour for me. In this network room which Ai Dong showed us, lies the locations of the 2 UPS, telephone lines, PA system and the different servers (not to mention the tons of different wiring with twisted pairs and fiber optics). The UPS, which already have a 50% of load, have a very interesting alarm system. If for any reason, the UPS doors were to be opened, a silent alarm would ring and all the technical staff would then be alerted via SMS. The PA system also has a very interesting feature whereby the faculty could announce something over the PA just by dialing a number. The 4 or 5 different server that is located in the network room stores all the different logs of the computer usage of students. The servers not only stores these logs but also does backing up, both online and offline. This backup takes about a day and these are stored for approximately 2 months.

After the tour of the network room, Ai Dong led us to the faculty lounge where he answered all the questions that we had asked. The 2 main difficulties in maintaining ISB's network is the over-flowing bandwidth and real time monitoring of the internet usage of students. As for the crashes, Ai Dong said that this is fairly common and that at least 5 hard drives would crash each year. He also mentioned that these 5 hard drives are the same brand, suggesting that such failures may be due to the poor quality/durability of the product/brand. Prevention of such failures would be the backing up of data, which Ai Dong said that coming August 2008, these backups would be done daily. Common issues that come up during a weekly basis are the lack of print credit (mainly HS) and the resetting of password (mainly UES). Ai Dong also pointed out that security levels in ISB's network is a very important thing. There are mainly 3 levels, the faculty, students, and guest (and then there's also the head of tech). Restrictions are given to each user, with the tightest one being students. This is an effective way because this restricts the bandwidth being taken up by students downloading stuff on the internet. The tech department has also set up a communication between the Mac and the Windows server, though there are still some compatibility problems. In regards to the number students damaging/hacking into the network, Ai Dong said that there is approximately about 5 major cases yearly. But as for the consequences of these students, Ai Dong said that it was none of the tech department's business. Finally, Ai Dong also added that ISB would update its hardware every 3 years and about every 3 months for its software. 1201539231

During our tour of the ISB network, I learned many different aspects of the network that our school runs. Ai Dong, the network manager at ISB, gave us a very thorough overview of the entire network and told us many interesting facts, including the benefits of running the ISB network, problems that arise, and also what the school plans to do in the future to rectify these issues. There are many advantages of using the ISB network, for it facilitates many processes within the school. For students, one of the biggest benefits is the access to the Internet. In the network room are two Chinese Internet lines connected to the school’s network, allowing students to access 4 Mpbs Internet via direct connection. Another is the Student-Share folder, which in its bare bones is simply a hard drive connected to the network, allowing students to store and share files via different login names. Other than the Student Share folder, there are also other hard drives hooked up to the network, all serving different purposes in terms of storage. The most commonly used drive is the student’s personal drive, which grants him/her 50-100 MB of personal storage space. The faculty benefits from these folders as well, for the Drop and Collect folders allow the teacher to easily distribute or collect work from students. Also, the faculty is given access to a school-based email, which is plentiful in space and easy to access. Lastly, the benefit that the network brings is the easy monitoring of student activity. The tech office can monitor what students are doing, whether is modifying files or surfing the Internet. If a student is doing something inappropriate, the tech office can immediately trace him/her and punish them accordingly, thus encouraging students to use the network in a safe and appropriate manner. Therefore, with the use of the ISB network, students and teachers are all interconnected via computer, creating an efficient and enhanced education environment. Although the network brings benefits, there are many problems that the tech workers must deal with. According to Ai Dong, the largest problem that the school faces is the maintenance of the hardware. Because the school’s network is being used the entire school day for 5 days per week, the hard drives can easily overheat. If this does happen, access to that particular drive is blocked off, thus creating problems for people tat desperately need files that are saved there. The ISB tech team has already found a solution for this problem, by putting sensors near each group of hard drives. If the temperature of one is to rise too high, an instant message will be sent to every technician working at ISB, hopefully allowing them to deal with the problem before anything extreme happens. If a crash does occur though, one thing that the network does is backup files, which acts as a fallback if data is actually lost due to the crash. This process is known as a disaster recovery plan. At ISB, files are backed up weekly, which according to Ai Dong, isn’t sufficient. In two months time, ISB will have daily back ups once faster back up speeds are achieved, thus further decreases the negative effects of a network crash. Another problem that arises within the network is student misuse. The ISB network undergoes serious misuse an average of five times per year, which can range from illicitly installing software to hacking into administrator accounts. These are serious problems, but with the network monitoring capability, the tech office can easily figure out who the perpetrator is and deal with the problem they caused. Also, Ai Dong believes that these problems are very necessary for the tech team, because they reveal the weakness and flaws in the network, allowing them to prevent future problems from occurring. As we can see, ISB’s network faces many difficulties in it maintaining process, but the ISB tech team is dealing with many of the problems that arise, thus increasing the reliability of its sue from students and faculty. By taking this tour, I was able to learn a lot of new things about the ISB network. The aspects mentioned above are only a few of the many aspects of the ISB network. The benefits that the network brings certainly help students and faculty by facilitating processes. Also, although there are many problems, the ISB tech is already beginning to deal with them, hoping to create a safer and more reliable network for the ISB personnel to use. If the tech team continues to improve and enhance the network, we can expect ISB to become an even better learning environment for students and faculty alike.

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I was very excited about this tour because it was the first time in my life that I see real servers. Ai Dong showed us the ISB server room, which contained a dozen servers, all working to make the technology in ISB work correctly. In the server room there were the actual servers: Web server, Mail server, Firewall server, Proxy server, Domain Controller, and the mighty File Server and Backup Server, with over 100 hard drives plugged into them. Each of the servers were about 2 meters tall. Beside the servers were the UPS, with enough charge to power the servers for half and hour, and the central switch, with hundreds of optic cables coming out of it, and a single Ethernet cable connecting it to the internet. After that we also saw the clock system, which synchronizes all of the big clocks in the school with a satellite. There was also the speaker control system, the voice mail and phone line management. But this gigantic system can also have problems, of which the most most common are hard disk failures due to overheating. Of course there are temperature sensors that will constantly check the temperatures and alert the administrators in case of a problem so that it can be fixed before anything bad happens. Another measure to minimize the effect of such failures is regular backups, every week, of the entire filesystem. But this is not enough, and there are plans to make daily backups. Another problem is when students hack the network. There are on average 5 security breaches of the ISB security systems each year, I already made 2 this year and I am already planning the next one. (nah just kidding :) 1203427263