IT Consultant

Given the chance to be hired as an IT consultant of the University of Southeastern Philippines, I would gladly do all my best to cater all the needs that the institution require.

So the issue here is about the improvement of the internet connectivity in the University. There are a lot of things that should be considered and must be look over to in order to satisfy what the University wanted to improve to.

The first thing that I could do is asked them about the problems they are encountering. Then analyze the problem well and present different factors that well though – out to.

The following are the things I would likely want to suggests:

Upgrading of Computers/ Hardware – before being hired as an IT consultant, I’ve been a student of the University for four years. And let’s face it, the computer units are not that upgraded in order to cater the needs of the students. The University should also pay attention to their computer laboratories. Obviously, there is a lot of hardware problems. They should allocate budget first for new computers before thinking of the problem about the internet connectivity. Even if the connection of the internet has speed up, but still the computer cannot keep up with it due to faulty and old devices, the internet connection will still be suffering for being so slow. The advancement of the computer units may be one reason to help the internet connectivity be stable. They should boost the computer speed or at least try to purchase a high-speed computers in order not to suffer with slow internet connection. Since the University have been cutting of the cost giving limited budget all over the institution, I would still suggest that if they could have at least a portion of the computer units to be improved. And also upgrade the problematic hardware so that the computers can be used comfortably by the student. With this, I can say that the improvement of the internet connectivity will not be impossible.

Software – A suggestion is already made about the hardware matter in the University, so let’s take a look about the software. The University should use software that would not allocate so much in the computer’s memory. They should select the application that will be use, applications that are light and could not affect the processing of data. There are a lot of software that could be used to speed up the loading and somehow make the internet connection faster.

Wireless Fidelity – A wireless data Internet technology that lets people connect to the Internet at high speeds through their personal or hand-held devices without needing to use cables. It has always been an issue to the University about the secured wireless fidelity connection. And to think that all the students are paying for it and have the privileged of using it, so the questions is why should prohibit the students in accessing the wireless fidelity connection. I could suggest that having the wireless fidelity to be public is one great moved for the internet connection to be faster. Wireless Fidelity has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also unobtrusive. Also If they decided to open the wireless fidelity to the public, why not just open a new internet connection provided for wireless fidelity. As I have read, if the internet connection of wireless fidelity and wired connection is shared, wireless fidelity will be useless, for there will be a tendency that the wireless fidelity connection will be as slow as dial-up connection or even worse. Wireless Fidelity has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also unobtrusive.

Network type to be use - The selection of a network type is one of the first major decisions to be made in setting up a network. Once constructed, a network type can be very difficult and expensive to change later, so it is a decision that should be made correctly the first time. Consideration must be paid to the needs of your organization right now, as well as the future of the network. Knowing more about the basic communications methods utilized by a network gives you a greater understanding the hardware involved and the problems that it may be subject to. Network communications problems can be very difficult to troubleshoot—even more so when you are unaware of what is actually going on inside the network medium. Since each type of wiring has a different bandwidth, cost, and interference limitations. the cable selected will connect to a NIC (Network Interface Card) in a computer or device that will allow it to access the network. The cables used to create a network varies, and it is important to consider all options in determining which type of cabling is best for any networking situation. As far as I know, the University have been using UTP cables and fiber-optic cables. This fact confuses me, because if they wanted the internet connection to be more faster, why not shift to a better option. Even though by far the most popular LAN cabling is Twisted Pair. Especially the University are under budget constraints and want a simple installation. But still the LAN requires a high level of security or data integrity or need to transmit data over long distances at high speeds, twisted pair should not be used. Like use totally the fiber – optic cable. Although expensive, fiber optic cabling is the choice for very high speed, high-capacity data transmission. In this type of cabling, optical fibers are used to carry digital data signals in the form of modulated light pulses. Since no electrical signals are being transmitted, a fiber-optic network is very secure. With this, another problem could be solve. I assumed that the University have great Engineering and Network Administrator people that could be tapped about this matter.

Network Topology – Topology is the design for the physical layout of a network. A Technology Coordinator needs to understand topology in order to create the school (and district’s) network components based on budget. Since we are talking about the medium to be used for the network connection, let me also examine the network topology the University currently using. Assuming, network topology is one factor of having a slow connection, I must suggest that they should use Star Topology. Especially that the whole University is a Local Area Network or LAN. Star Topology should be use because in a Star topology, all devices are connected to a central hub. The hub moves signals from any node and passes it along to all the other nodes in the network. Hubs do not filter or route data. They simply join nodes together. Star is the most common today since enables the network to remain stable, even when one cabling connection fails. If the hub fails however, the network will lose connection. It is easy to install and wire. Star Topology has no disruptions to the network then connecting or removing devices. And it is easy to detect faults and to remove parts.

Bandwidth – Bandwidth includes the range within a band of frequencies or wavelengths as well as the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. Like the highway system, bandwidth is designed to carry network traffic. The wider the highway, the more traffic that can be carried. Just like the highway system, however, bandwidth is only a potential. Since bandwidth is a measure of potential speed as well as potential data that can be carried, there can be bottlenecks in networks that increase the overall time traffic takes to get from one place to another. As an IT consultant, I would wanted to know first what must the reason why the University is encountering slow internet connection. And I’ve discovered that one reason is about the filtered distribution among the networks connection in the University. One thing that could solve this is to increase the bandwidth. I also knew that the University have already increased the bandwidth, still there’s no effect. Even if the University keep on increasing the bandwidth, if it is not properly allocated, nothing will happen. The University should allocate bandwidth properly depending on the usage. Probably, with this, the tasks require the most bandwidth can be suitably attended to. While the information and tasks that not necessarily need high bandwidth can also be attended to at the same time.

DNS Setting - Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166. Also the DNS has a software updates: many anti-virus and commercial software now use the DNS system to store version numbers of the latest software updates so client computers do not need to connect to the update servers every time. For these type of applications, the cache time of the DNS records are usually shorter. So if the DNS Setting is managed well, these would also a little help for a faster internet connection.

Computer Virus – is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can only spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer. Most personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local area networks, facilitating the spread of malicious code. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, Instant Messaging, and file sharing systems to spread. Thus, computer viruses can physically affect the performance of the computer and its processes and also the internet connectivity within a network. Resulting it to a slower connection and even worse. So as a solution, the University should install appropriate anti-virus software in all its computer units. Even for an expert, removing a computer virus can be a difficult task without the help of computer virus removal tools. Some computer viruses and other unwanted software, such as spyware, even reinstall themselves after the viruses have been detected and removed. Fortunately, by updating the computer and by using antivirus tools, you can help permanently remove unwanted software. To help avoid viruses, it's essential that you keep your computer current with the latest updates and antivirus tools, stay informed about recent threats, and that you follow a few basic rules when you surf the Internet, download files, and open attachments. Having an adequate protection for the computer is the most important thing.

People ware – we are done with the proper things and the factors that the University should consider in order to address all the problems they are encountering with regards to slow internet connectivity. So the last would be for the people who were involved with the said problem. The people are main key in order for all the good plans of improving the University’s performance in terms of internet connectivity. They should all be properly oriented about the properly usage of the internet or the computer, be it as faculty, student or staff. Even if we can already solve the problems regarding the slow internet connectivity, if the people would be the cause of delay, then all the efforts will be literally useless.

Once and for all, this is a University. We all belong to a one institution. So we should all cooperate and do all our responsibility to address all the problems that the University have been going through.

References:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/finance/wireless-fidelity

http://ide.ed.psu.edu/itsc/portfolio/itscKristinH/aect/areas/1media/1_16.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://fcit.usf.edu/Network/chap5/chap5.htm