The lessons

Lesson 1 - Introduction

This lesson serves as an introduction to "LAN Administration". It will attempt to set LANs in a historical perspective. In addition, it will look at the advantages and disadvantages that come with setting up a LAN.

Lesson 2 - Hardware Components

This lesson deals with most of the components in a local area network (LAN). Servers are especially emphasized and important points such as buses, memory and disks are taken up. We will also look at workstations, printers and other hardware for the LAN.

Lesson 3 - LAN Adapters

This lesson starts by looking at data communication theory and then explains how a netwok card functions in a computer/network. Firstly, we will go through the network card's functions. After that we'll take a look at some factors that significantly affect for the cards'/network's performance. Lastly, we will go through ways network cards can be configured and talk about some of the newer types of cards. The objective of this lesson is for the participants to get a little deeper understanding of network cards than one can get out of sales catalogues and understand why one chooses the type of network cards one does.

Lesson 4 - LAN Operating Systems

The goal for this lesson consists of two parts. First it shall illuminate the general functions a network-operating system (NOS) has; we are going to look at operating system theories in this part. Secondly the lection shall give an overview over the best known NOS and their strengths and weaknesses. Finally in this lesson the impossible question is illuminated: "Should we choose Novell or NT for our NOS in our Network?"

Lesson 5 - Novell NetWare and Windows NT

This lesson is split in two important parts:

  1. Novell NetWare is one of the most used network operating systems in the world (probably the most used). In this lesson we are going to discuss some of the most central topics in NetWare NOS. Topics like NDS and SFT will be discussed, a few examples of managing Novell networks will be shown. A short discussion over communication protocols (TCP/IP and SPX/IPX) will also be included here.
  2. This other lecture is going to talk about Windows NT both as operating system for isolated computers (NT Workstation) and as the networkoperatingsystem (NT Server). NT has gotten a lot of attention lately because a quick development of a complete networkoperatingsystem.

Lesson 6 - Installation and planning

Installing a network consists of more than disk swapping until a server is up and running. Planning the network is a bigger and more important task than the installation. The plan consists, among other things, of signing a contract with a dealer, get good service and support deals and, last but not least , lots of documentation. When the installation is finished, You have to learn yourself and all the users to use the network. This can also be considered a part of the installation.

Lesson 7 - Intranet and groupware

The meaning of "groupware" has been under a lot of change lately. Groupware was first presented a few years ago as the solution that would make a business' information management and distrubution more efficient. For about one to two years ago the future was bright for a product like Lotus Notes. Lately intranet has gotten a lot of attention, and has conquered big parts of the marked that earlier was traditionally dominated groupware (like Lotus Notes).

Lesson 8 - Management and security

This lesson discusses one of the more imporant principals concerning administration of a local area network. Keeping a high level of security within the network is the most important task an administrator has. In this lesson we will discuss which security functions that normally exist in a local area network, and how these functions work in Novell NetWare 4.1. Novell has put a lot of effort into this in their last version, and the result was a large set of securty functions.

Lesson 9 - The Printing Environment

This lesson discusses the printing environment in a local area network. Often the most important reason for investing in a local area network is exactly the possibility to share printers. As in the previous lessons, we will only be discussing the general principals of the printing environment. Important principals will be emphasised to give you some ideas about what is happening in the background of a network print-task. Ending the lesson, we will discuss briefly how Novell NetWare organises its printing environment, and how this is connected with the NDS.

Lesson 10 - Backup

Backups are one of the most important tasks of a system administrator. The top priority of any normal system is to have a fully operational backup-system. This is because the network has become a central part of a business' information system. In this lesson we will discuss how to make a good backup -strategy /-routine. We will also discuss catastrophe plans and in the end of the lesson we will discuss software for backups.

Lesson 11 - Management philosophies

This lesson concludes our discussion over local area networks. In this lesson we will discuss how a local area network is managed. We will avoid the details, and try to discuss the general levels. In the end of the lesson we will take a look at a TCP/IP-protocol that has very much to do with administration; SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol.

Lesson 12 - WWW Server Management

Web-servers have had a tremendous development lately, and they becoming increasingly easier to set up and administer. With the arrival of the servers for Windows NT and Windows 95 arrived, being a web-master became easy. In this lesson we will discuss different platforms for web-servers, and we will take a look at some different web-server platforms, before we investigate one specific server: WebSite 1.1.

Back to: [LAN] [MECPOL]

03.06.97, Arne B. Mikalsen