Question (50 – 70words)

A company with an in-house network support team that currently administers and maintains the network, wishes to compare alternative methods of network management. A solution currently being considered by management is outsourcing combined with a service level agreement. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution.

Outsourcing saves companies a lot of money and leads to increase competition amongst companies and therefore cheaper prices because they can receive work and services from a range of people from around the world. However there are issues concerning the quality of service and products provided, hence the service level agreement (SLA) is created. The SLA is a legal tool which ensures that the quality of service is at the highest standard if they are not there are more legal grounds to prove that the work was unsatisfactory. However if there are misunderstandings then problems can arise.

Question 2 Extended Answer - (25 marks) 300-400 words Surf Life Saving is conducting its annual National Carnival at Scarborough Beach. There will be four main event areas. Each event area will consist of a competition tent manned by surf life saving officials and judges. The event areas are: 1: Swimming. Competition tent 2: Beach events. Competition tent 3: Rescue boards. Competition tent 4: Surf boats. The National Carnival has over 18,000 entrants. The carnival will cover an area of 1 kilometre of beach near the Surf Life Saving clubrooms. The carnival will run for 2 weeks. The results from the competition tents need to be sent as quickly as possible to the clubrooms so that the carnival officials can update the result sheets. These updated results sheets are required at subsequent events, such as finals. (a) Describe the topology, hardware and software components of the networked environment that would enable Surf Life Saving to run the carnival. (10 marks)

The topology used in the surf life saving competition would be a star network. This is because the star network will not go down if one computer or device fails like in the ring network. It also allows for greater distance then the bus network would allow for. The bus network also only relies on one major cable and if this cables is broken then the entire network will go down. This is less likely to happen with the star network and reliance is very important for the competition. For the star network a switch or router would be required to control the network and the movement of data across the network. Then there will need to be a computer for each station which will need a NIC (network interface card). They will also require the router/switch to have wireless capabilities due to the surfboats not being able to have a wired connection The software required would include application software for recording of the times/winners and utitually software including a virus scanner, security software as well as backup software

(b) Due to the harsh environment of the carnival the efficiency of the network may be adversely affected. Recommend five troubleshooting methods that could be used to prevent or minimise any potential problems created by the environment. (5 marks)

- Ensure that the cables have protection around then to ensure that no sand or water can get into them (put cables in plastic piping to ensures they are protected)

- Place the router/switch in a protective case or bag (as long as the cables can still get in) to ensure that no sand or water can get to it as the network runs of this device.

- Ensure that no one can walk or drive on the cabling by placing it underground highlighting its presence in the area so people can avoid it.

- Ensure that there are backups and hardcopies of the results information in case of equipment breaking or the network going down.

- Train staff so they use the equipment safely and don’t damage the equipment. - Theft is also a problem especially with expensive computers and other equipment and so

someone will need to ensure that none of it is stolen.

(c) The Carnival has two age groups competing; seniors, who are 18 years of age and over, and juniors who are under 18 years of age. The carnival officials want to place digital photographs of competitors on the official carnival website. Identify two ethical issues, which may arise with the placement of images of competitors on the official carnival website. Recommend how these issues may be addressed. Two issues with place photos of competitors on the internet are privacy and paedophiles. If competitors photos are published on the internet the privacy can be intruded as the images could be used for such things as stalking and identify theft. There is also the issue of paedophiles. With children’s images being placed on the site it may attract the paedophiles to the site which is quite dangerous as many of the children will be in bathers due to being at the beach. One way to address the issue is to get the permission from the competitors and for those who are under 18 get permission from their parents. Teens may not want their photo phblished incase they are skipping or their against the wishes of their parents.