Networking

Introduction to Networking and Security

This course provided an overview of current networking concepts and technology with the objectives of 1) describing fundamental concepts, technologies, components, and issues related to communications and data networks, 2) describing basic network architecture, and 3) applying knowledge of network technologies to design and construct a working network.

Designing and Building a Simple Network: This assignment is business plan that shows a diagram of a simple network and the proposed budget for the network. This first assignment shows simple networking concepts that is expanded on throughout the year, and one of the first “business plans” I have created and learned from.

Wiring Constant Hall Part 1: This assignment was one of two assignments involving wiring ODU’s Constant Hall; the goal was to create a reliable network while limiting the budget. Beforehand, we were taught the difference between different types of cables and how long their connections can run, even though the length of the runs should be as short as possible to prevent attenuation given we were using copper cables. I used a combination of switches and routers to achieve connectivity on both floors. This floor plan also shows both star and extended star topography depending on how many rooms were in a given vicinity. This assignment also provides a budget table with links to the equipment I would use to complete the network. On the networking side, what I learned from this assignment is how to combine the different topographies to optimize a network; however, there is definitely still more work that I can do to clean up the diagrams and maybe even lower the cost. Creating this assignment also taught me about how to create a business plan: I tried to create easy to read slides while still providing the necessary information to complete the assignment, and I learned that there was more to work on concerning the presentation-style that I addressed in the second part of this assignment.

Wiring Maury High School: The final project for this course was wiring a local four-story high school. This assignment combined topics that were taught throughout the duration of the class, including networking hardware, firewalls, and network topology and configuration. This assignment is put together in a presentation style that aims to explain the concepts learned in this class in a way that people outside of cybersecurity and IT can understand.