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Running Head: ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

ABC Software Company Network
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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ABC Software Company Network
TCP/IP Applications
TCP applications provide useable interfaces to the user that allow them to use the network in
place. It is important to establish the applications or services needed by the organization. We
have to establish what the organization will be using the network for. After identifying the uses
we have to determine the TCP/IP applications and the protocols they use.
Web Applications
The organization has web servers that host their web applications. These servers are accessed by
both clients outside the organization and staff members inside the organization. The servers will
provide their services through HTTPS protocol on port 443. This means port 443 will have to be
open for public traffic and internal traffic.
Email Applications
The organization sends and receives emails from its clients and stakeholders. For that reason, the
organization has a mail server within its premises. The network will support protocols such as
SMTP and POP to allow email communications. SMTP TLS port 587 or SSL port 465 are
encouraged.
Remote Access Applications
Some workers in ABS Software Company can work in remote locations. That is, the
organization allows workers to remotely log in to their systems to accomplish various tasks. To
facilitate remote access protocols such as RDP and SSH will have to be enabled in the network.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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Network Naming
It is important to come up with easy to remember computer name when network naming. The
easy it is to remember your network name the better. This means people will not have a problem
in searching your services by using your address. This means computer names should be simple
and easy to remember.
DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol used to resolve computer names into logical
addresses or IP addresses. One can use DNS in the internal or external network such as the
internet. There are other two name resolution services still work even today which are host files
and NetBIOS by Microsoft.
DNS relies on delegation where the top-dog DNS system delegates some of its work to other
DNS systems known as DNS Servers. These servers are arranged in a hierarchy where it in the
top we have DNS root servers and below them, we have the top-level domain servers that handle
the top-level domain names such as .com. From top-level domain servers, we have second-level
DNS servers that handle names such as google.com. The second-level server contains only IP
addresses of computer names within its domain.
ABC Software Company will have to first install a DNS server then create a domain. The
domain will allow the DNS server to have IP addresses of computers that are in its domain.
Having DNS will allow the company to enable services such as DHCP for devices that do not
need to DNS server table reducing the effort of managing network addresses.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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Securing TCP/IP
Organizational systems are always under internal and external threats. Therefore, security has to
be taken seriously up to the lowest levels. This means we have to make sure that we use secure
protocols and observe best practices at all phases of the network.
Encryption
One of the effective ways to secure TCP/IP is to encrypt data before transmitting it. This means
if an attacker intercepts the message transmitted then he/she will not be able to decrypt or
interpret it. This ensures only the intended users can decrypt the message.
SSL and TLS are one of the modern encryption that is commonly used in the OSI model in
layers 5, 6 and 7 while IPsec can be used in layer 3.
Authentication
Authentication ensures that the entity trying to access network service is what it claims to be. In
other words, it checks if the id provided by an entity is authentic.
Authorization
The authorization ensures an entity trying to access services has enough rights to do so. This
ensures all subjects that use particular services are authorized to do so.
Nonrepudiation
Nonrepudiation ensures we can determine if a particular subject performed a particular action.
Integrity
It is always important to ensure data integrity I observed. Data integrity ensures only the allowed
parties can make changes to data. In case the data is changed on its way then the data should not
be accepted and retransmission should be done.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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Advanced Networking Devices
It is important to use advanced networking devices such as VPNs and managed switches for
optimization and security purposes.
Virtual Private Network
A virtual primary network allows a device to connect remotely with others using encrypted
channels. Since ABC Software Company employees can remotely login to their workstation, it is
a must to use a virtual private network to connect securely to the office workstations and servers
for the administrators. This increases the level of security and reduces the chances of
unauthenticated devices connecting to the organization systems and access staff accounts. VPNs
also have other advantages such as masks critical Metadata information through encrypted
channels which can be used by hackers against the organization systems. There are various types
of VPNs with different features such as L2TP VPN, DMVPN, SSL VPNs, and DTLS VPN. The
ABC Software Company will have to use DMVPN (Dynamic Multipoint) since it may need to
expand its operations in multiple locations.
Virtual LAN
Managed Switches make it possible to create virtual LANs in an organization without additional
hardware. This is achieved by segmenting the existing physical LAN into multiple discrete
networks. It not a good idea to allow all organization traffic to go through a single LAN since it
creates a single point of attack compromising all the network. For that reason, the organization
will have to use Virtual LANs to isolate traffics. For example, wireless network traffic will have
to be isolated from the server network.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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IPv6
IP addressing is an important part of any network. Devices should have valid IP addresses that
allow them to communicate without problems.
IPv4
Since IPv4 was created back in the 1970s, there was no concern about running out of addresses
since there were few computers back then. Therefore, IPv4 used only 32 bits to define its
addresses yielding to about 4 billion different IPv4 addresses. However, as time goes by 4 billion
addresses have proven to be insufficient hence shifting to IPv6.
IPv6
IPv6 is an improved version of IPv4. It uses 128 bits to define its addresses yielding to 2128
addresses which are about 3.4 x 1038 addresses. That is a lot of addresses which means any
device currently in the world can be assigned one and still have a lot of unused IPv6 addresses.
It is a standard for IPv6 to have IPsec supported which means every packet that will be sent
through IPv6 will have to be encrypted. Also, IPv6 has an improved routing scheme that utilizes
aggregation.
Moving from IPv4 to IPv6
To move to IPv6 the network administrators in ABC Software Company will have to understand
the IPv6 basics such as its notation. The organization will to first enable its network interfaces to
run on both IPv4 and IPv6. Then transition mechanisms such as 4to6 will have to be used to
tunnel IPv4 network through ipv6.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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Remote Connectivity
WAN Connectivity
WAN connectivity comes a long way during the analog telephone era. The need for international
connections pushed carriers to adopt standards such as SONET/SDH, OC, and others. These
standards allowed competing carriers to be interconnected. Technologies such as DWDM have
shaped the field of voice and data transmission.
Last Mile of Connectivity
The term last mile came from the telephone industry where the branch to branch connection was
a digital connection while the last connection to individual phones remained analog (Lambrechts
& Sinha, 2019). Currently, last-mile describes the type of connection between your systems and
the internet service provider. These types of connections can be fiber, DSL, satellite, broadband
cable, dial-up, and others.
ABC Software Company will have to utilize fiber option as its last mile of connectivity. The
fiber-to-premise option will be a good option to connect the organization headquarters with the
internet. Speed of 10Gbps or more will is recommended since the organization will have to
handle a lot of traffic.
Remote Access
Due to various reason users need to remotely access resources either via WAN or LAN. ABC
Software Company will have to use VPN so users such as staff members can be able to access
files and their workstations. System administrators will be able to use remote terminals to
manage servers and other computers. VoIP will also be essential for phone communications in
the company.

ABC SOFTWARE COMPANY NETWORK

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Wireless Networking
Wireless networks allow mobility which means people can do a lot with their devices while on
the move. However, a wireless network is prone to attacks since bad guys do not have to connect
into a physical port such as a wall outlet. This means it is hard to identify attackers by just
looking. To solve security issues and performances, various standards have been developed such
as 802.11a/ac/b/g/n.
802.11n Standard
802.11n standard supports improved antenna technology which results in fast speeds. This means
multiple antennas are used to implement MIMO (Multiple In/ Multiple Out)...