MIS 376 – Data and Telecommunications Administration

Spring 2008

Chapter 3 Assignment – 20 points

Due date: Thursday, February 7, 2008

 

Instructions:  This is a group or individual exercise.  If completed by a group, it is the group’s responsibility to ensure that each student is competent in the skills needed to complete the exercise and fully understands the material submitted for evaluation.  Grading of this assignment is based on correctness, completeness, and thoughtfulness.

 

Directions: Given the scenario below, you are to evaluation at least 4 potential network solutions.  Evaluate each solution based on the 5 criteria given in the text which include: Cost, Speed, Expandability/Distance, Environment, and Security.  The evaluation should be in the form of a table.  After evaluating each solution, recommend one solution over the others for implementation.  Provide a narrative of why you support your choice.

 

Scenario:  Sally recently moved into a house in north Fargo, not far from NDSU, and opened her own business in downtown Moorhead near the Dairy Queen on 8th Street and 1st Ave.  She is an independent consultant for regional crop insurance companies.  She examines reports, images, and video of the effects of natural disasters, such as hail and wind storms, on crops and estimates the degree of crop damage.  She does most of her work online, downloading and uploading her reports with the clients that hire her via their corporate extranet web portals.  She primarily uses an Apple MacBook Pro, but has a Dell desktop at home and at work.  She frequently transfers files between her 3 computers.  She is a member of AOL, and is using a dial-up connection but needs a faster service.  She has started looking at 4 possible solutions: Qwest DSL, CableOne Internet, i29 Wireless, and GoMoorhead wireless.  Her profit margin is pretty small right now, so cost is a concern.  She’s asked you for advice on selecting an internet service solution.

 

 

Qwest DSL

CableOne

i29

GoMoorhead

Cost:

 

 

 

 

Speed:

 

 

 

 

Expandibility/

Distance:

 

 

 

 

Environment:

 

 

 

 

Security:

 

 

 

 

 

Recommendation: