IT 340 Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric Overview: The final project for this course is the creation of network recommendations for a potential new office of the Newton Ad Agency. To help you succeed in this project, you will complete two final project milestones that provide the opportunity to draft key sections of the project. Here in Milestone One, you will compose the first and second sections of the project, the Introduction and the section on local area network (LAN) topology. In this guide to Milestone One, you will review the final project scenario involving Newton Ad Agency, review the prompt, consider the critical elements that your work in Milestone One should include, and study the rubric that will be used to assess your work. Final Project Scenario: The Newton Ad Agency is an advertising firm with offices in Austin, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and New York City, New York. The offices in Austin include a headquarters and a satellite office located two miles away in a rural area. The Austin headquarters is home to the executive team and 750 employees. The headquarters also stores the corporate data and is the corporate internet backbone. It hosts the IT department that centrally manages all LAN services, including the wireless LAN. The IT department also manages the wide area network (WAN) that connects all of the offices via site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. The Minneapolis and New York offices host about 200 employees each. Approximately 50% of these employees are mobile (i.e., travelling more than 80% of the time). The New York office focuses on producing and disseminating large advertising media content to clients. For this reason, the New York office hosts the corporate media and web servers. The rural satellite office in Austin focuses on billboard ad designs and is connected to the corporate WAN with a wireless point-to-point bridge to the Austin headquarters data center. The rural office is home to 100 employees. To hire and retain the best talents, Newton Ad Agency allows employees to work from home. This removes the constraint that employees have to live within commuting distance from the firm’s offices. Remote and mobile employees are provided access to the corporate network via a VPN client. The VPN client requires employees to have access to reliable internet services to allow for effective collaboration across teams, and for access to media content. The company provides all employees with a laptop with full disk encryption, data loss prevention (DLP), and antivirus software. The IT department manages all corporate laptops and has the ability to log into all systems for support. This means that all laptops are centrally managed by the one IT department. Due to an increase in opportunities for expansion to new markets, Newton has embarked on an initiative to hire and train new college graduates to support the company’s Vision 2020 program. Vision 2020 focuses on global expansion. The initiative is to hire graduates into the marketing, finance, and IT departments. You were hired as part of the Vision 2020 program and have been working at Newton for some time now. You have spent a considerable portion of your time troubleshooting and analyzing the organization’s computer network to keep it running smoothly. Your direct supervisor and lead network administrator have been very impressed with your skills and fast learning abilities. In order to determine if you are ready to take on more responsibility, you have been asked for your input in regard to the new office location setup project. Newton is considering adding a new office and is exploring potential locations in Tacoma, Washington; Rochester, New York; or Fayetteville, North Carolina. Your task is to choose one of the possible locations and deliver a report to the team with key considerations and recommendations for the setup of the network infrastructure at the new office. This office will be home to 50 employees, including the new executive vice president of sales and marketing. All the possible sites have offices located on the third floor of an office building with access to fiber, cable, and T1 internet service providers. In addition to the standard network, the site must support live video teleconferencing calls with employees based at the other sites, as well as reliably send print jobs to billboard printers located in the satellite office in Austin. Prompt: How would you approach setting up the network at the location you have selected, and what considerations are key in informing the systems and resources necessary to meet the organization’s needs and support the business goals and objectives? Keep in mind that your work in Milestone One involves only Sections I and II of the final project. Therefore, for Milestone One, the modified prompt is as follows: Explain the key considerations, or “must haves,” and constraints of the networking project at the location you have selected. Then, make a well-reasoned recommendation of LAN topology. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: I. II. Introduction: Summarize the key considerations of the project, being sure to identify your chosen location. For example, what are the “must haves?” What are the constraints? LAN topology A. Describe possible LAN topologies that could be used at the new location. B. Compare the identified LAN topology possibilities based on their relative strengths and weaknesses in regard to support practices. C. Based on your comparison, determine the appropriate LAN topology for this location to allow for optimal support practices. Be sure to explain your reasoning. Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your work must be submitted as a 1- to 2-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and APA formatting. Critical Elements Introduction Attempted With Minimal or No Functional Issue (100%) Summarizes the key considerations of the project and identifies a new location Attempted With Significant Functional Issues (75%) Summarizes the key considerations of the project and identifies a new location, but summary is cursory or inappropriate Not Evident in Submission (0%) Does not summarize the key considerations of the project Value 20 LAN Topology: LAN Topologies Describes possible LAN topologies that could be used at the new location LAN Topology: Strengths and Weaknesses Compares identified LAN topology possibilities based on relative strengths and weaknesses in regard to support practices LAN Topology: Optimal Support Articulation of Response Determines the appropriate LAN topology for the location to allow for optimal support practices, explaining reasoning Submission has no major errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization Describes possible LAN topologies that could be used at the new location, but description is cursory or contains inaccuracies Compares identified LAN topology possibilities based on relative strengths and weaknesses, but comparison is illogical, lacking in detail, or contains inaccuracies Determines LAN topology for the location, but topology is not appropriate or explanation contains gaps in logic or accuracy Submission has major errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas Does not describe possible LAN topologies 20 Does not compare identified LAN topology possibilities 20 Does not determine the LAN topology for the new location 20 Submission has critical errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas Total 20 100% IT 340 Module Four Troubleshooting Assignment Guidelines and Rubric Overview: “We’ve run into a bit of trouble with the Network.” As a junior network administrator, you have been asked by your managers to perform a series of tasks to support the functionality of the network at Newton Ad Agency. Now you have been given responsibility of managing and troubleshooting some networking issues between Austin and Minneapolis. Recently, there have been reports of intermittent network connectivity between Minneapolis and Austin that have resulted in several router restarts with no resolutions to the problem. Jim and Jenna have task you with identifying the root cause of the issue. In this assignment, you will write a paper that explains in a clear, convincing manner the steps you would take to identify the causes of this problem and what you would do to correct it. Scenario: Network professionals often find that issues with a network reflect particular conditions specific to a business case. Therefore, a great way to approach this troubleshooting assignment is to reflect on what you have learned about Newton Ad Agency and its networking conditions. Again, here is the Newton Scenario that informs your work throughout the course: The Newton Ad Agency is an advertising firm with offices in Austin, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and New York City, New York. The offices in Austin include a headquarters and a satellite office located two miles away in a rural area. The Austin headquarters is home to the executive team and 750 employees. The headquarters also stores the corporate data and is the corporate internet backbone. It hosts the IT department that centrally manages all LAN services, including the wireless LAN. The IT department also manages the wide area network (WAN) that connects all of the offices via site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. The Minneapolis and New York offices host about 200 employees each. Approximately 50% of these employees are mobile (i.e., travelling more than 80% of the time). The New York office focuses on producing and disseminating large advertising media content to clients. For this reason, the New York office hosts the corporate media and web servers. The rural satellite office in Austin focuses on billboard ad designs and is connected to the corporate WAN with a wireless point-to-point bridge to the Austin headquarters data center. The rural office is home to 100 employees. To hire and retain the best talents, Newton Ad Agency allows employees to work from home. This removes the constraint that employees have to live within commuting distance from the firm’s offices. Remote and mobile employees are provided access to the corporate network via a VPN client. The VPN client requires employees to have access to reliable internet services to allow for effective collaboration across teams, and for access to media content. The company provides all employees with a laptop with full disk encryption, data loss prevention (DLP), and antivirus software. The IT department manages all corporate laptops and has the ability to log into all systems for support. This means that all laptops are centrally managed by the one IT department. As you review this scenario, check to see how the reported trouble with the network may arise from what you know about Newton and use these observations to inform your answer. As you compose your work on this assignment, be sure to clearly identify and list troubleshooting steps and proposed solutions. You also need to explain your to reasoning in a clear manner that others can easily recognize. This needs to be your best writing—clear, concise, well-reasoned, and well-supported. While academic sources are not required for this assignment, be sure to cite them correctly APA style if you use them. Study the rubric below as it shows the critical elements that your instructor will expect to see in your work. Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your troubleshooting assignment must be submitted as a 1- to 2-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. If you use citations, cite them in APA style. Did you know you can access basic information on APA style, and other style systems, at the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University? Explanation of Troubleshooting Steps Attempted With Minimal or No Functional Issue (100%) Accurately identifies troubleshooting steps that respond appropriately to the business case Explains and supports troubleshooting steps with clear, coherent reasoning Identification of Proposed Solution Accurately identifies proposed solutions that respond to potential root causes Explanation of Proposed Solution Explains and supports proposed solutions with clear, coherent reasoning Articulation of Response Submission has no major errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization Critical Elements Identification of Troubleshooting Steps Attempted With Significant Functional Issues (75%) Lists troubleshooting steps but these steps may be incomplete or may not fit the business case Explains troubleshooting steps, but the explanation may be incomplete or may lack persuasive reasoning Lists proposed solutions, but these may be incomplete or may not respond to the root causes or the business case Explains proposed solutions, but the explanation may be incomplete or may lack persuasive reasoning Submission has major errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas Was Not Evident in Submission (0%) Value Does not identify troubleshooting steps 25 Does not explain or support troubleshooting steps 20 Does not identify proposed solutions 25 Does not explain or support proposed solutions 20 Submission has critical errors related to grammar, citations, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas 10 Total 100%
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