S-72.353 Data Communications and Internetworking – Spring 2003

Case 2: Internet Service

An old mainframe computer has served a large company faithfully for many years. While the several departments and subsidiaries of the company, all of them located within the greater Helsinki area, now have their own computers and networks, the mainframe has of late mostly been used to provide  Internet-based services for the staff. It is now time to abandon the old mainframe and you are given the task to design the hardware, software and communications arrangements of the new centralized Internet service point in outline. This time, the emphasis is on software and general organisation of the service point. The service point is not expected to serve as an intermediate router on behalf of external organisations - all Internet traffic is to or from company employees.

What kind of computers and peripherals are needed? Which programs are needed, besides the operating system and basic text processing programs etc. that usually come with the computer? How are the users connected to the service? (To keep the system manageable, choose two or three of the available access methods). Draw a diagram of the setup and list the pieces of hardware and – particularly - software (programs) needed.