When people begin to work together using ICT it becomes obvious that they have a need to share. The sharing could be:

•Printers or scanners•Information, say, records of students in a school

 To pass the information between people we could use paper copies or floppy disks but there is a better and quicker way – have the computers talk to each other!

WHY HAVE A NETWORK?

 

Two or more computers joined together form a network. When the computers are in one place, whether it’s an office or a building, the joining is normally through cables. However some networks are now being created with radio links and networks going between buildings can be through microwave, infra-red or even satellite links.

WHAT MAKES A NETWORK?

If we simply join the computers together we make a “peer to peer” network. Using this we can share a printer or share files but its more common for the network to start from a central computer called a “File Server” to which the computers – called “clients” – used by people are joined.

TWO TYPES OF NETWORK

The next slide shows how our school network has grown from the file server at the centre branching out into all areas of the school

File ServersLearningResourceCentre

File Servers – the core of the network

Fibre Optic linkTo Music

Fibre Optic link toWest House

Fibre Optic link toMaths and Science

Links to Science,Languages and PE

Link toRE

Link to Humanities

English and Sp. needs

Link to Offices

Link to SID

Link to Technologyand Art

Fibre optic “backbone”

Network hub or switch

Network cabling

The internet

Wire cables are for short distances and are made from Copper. It’s a good conductor and it’s cheap but the signals need to be boosted.For longer distances we use fibre optic cables. These are made from strands of glass 0.062mm thick! They are expensive but can carry lots of signals at the same time very quickly and they don’t corrode. In school most of our cabling is copper but one very important link – from east to west – is fibre optic.

THE CABLES

People who work on a network are called “users”. Not all users need all of the information on the network so we divide them into groups. Some people belong to more than one group. Normally groups are allowed access to certain programs and files on the network; for instance:

•The technical staff have access to everything!·         the school office staff have access to administration files as well as general programs·         ICT staff have access to printing and password files as well as general programs·         teaching staff have access to certain “shared areas” as well as general programs·         students have access to their own work as well as general programs

SECURITY

In order to use the network everyone needs two pieces of information:·         A user name – for students this is based on the year they com into school and their surname·         A password – this is confidential to users and can be changed by them. Changing your password is a good thing! You do this through the “Network” button on the RM Connect window – bottom right of your desktop.  When you log on to the network using these two pieces of information the network recognises you and allows you access. After using the network you should always log off in order to: Protect your work from others and leave the computer ready for the next user.

LOGGING ON AND OFF

TOPICSOur school network is split into “topics” – groups of programs used by different subjects along with shared areas which contain any files put there for people in groups to use. The topic you need is chosen from the “RM Topic Selector”. Also included in each topic is its ….

SHARED DOCUMENTS AREA

To share files across the network – one of the main reasons to have a computer network! – each topic has a “Shared Documents” area with three folders:Homework – you can hand in work to be markedRead – Teachers can put in files for you to useWrite – You can contribute files for others