WAN design

[paras]

Hi there. Here is some information that I have for a networking class assignment. Can you help sort out the issue for me. What I need most is the network diagram, the hardware and software required, connectivity etc.

Here's the information:

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Network Design Project

An entrepreneur, Sheila Tuglue, is planning on opening a chain of fast food French restaurants (The Flaming Frappe) at four locations in Columbus. The owner has extensive experience in fast food and traditional restaurant operations and has worked for both McDonalds and Burger King. She clearly understands the value of fast and accurate service and the need for cost control.

Since she does not have the time to develop a complete order-entry and inventory management system, she has asked for your assistance in designing the system for the four stores and corporate headquarters. Corporate headquarters will be located near one of the restaurants. Your task is to develop the entire system of hardware and software and to assure that it meets her business needs. You have been given wide latitude in your selection of systems.

Here are some of the parameters:
· The terminal systems at McDonalds and Burger King are excellent examples of rapid order entry with little training. However, she has not worked with the more current versions and wants you to recommend the appropriate turnkey system. Her traffic analysis indicates that each restaurant will most likely need four terminals. The system should provide security and the software should generate usage reports. You are to provide the terminals, software, and the system to run the terminals.
· Inventory shrinkage is a concern. Items that are not logged in can be loaded in someone's truck. Items left too long in the freezer may spoil. Accountability and inventory turns are important. That means inventory control is very important. She talked to her suppliers and found that most include UPC's on the their products, but many do not. She has a handheld IPAQ that claims it can read bar codes with the appropriate accessories. One of her friends manages a pharmacy and they use a handheld scanner. She is sure that there is someway to automate inventory checking and hopes that you will find the appropriate solution. The solution should be easy, require minimal time and labor, and be easily connected to the management information system.
· Instantaneous management of inventory and sales is not required, but she does expect weekly management reports. This means that the system requirements will not require you to create a MAN or contract with a carrier for specialized networking services. However, data transfer via disk is not acceptable.
· Your proposal should include an estimate for the labor hours required to install the system and all supplies. You are also expected to provide training and warranty service on the system. Your proposal must include a detailed price and product list. Your billing rate for installation and training is $100/hour. You earn your profit from the labor costs and the discount you obtain from the vendors. You sell at retail and buy at wholesale.

Only one proposal can win the bid. The best bid will be selected based on price, completeness, and fitness for the specific need. Hence the lowest price will not necessarily win the bid.

The bid should therefore be extremely clear, make an excellent presentation, and be free from typographical and technical errors. The appendices will contain printouts of vendor materials. These materials must clearly indicate features. The appendices substantiate, but do not substitute for what you say.

The organization of the bid is up to your team. However, a good proposal will have the following features:
· A cover page identifying the bidders,
· A cover letter indicating the purpose of the document,
· A table of contents,
· A clear specification of hardware and software features and prices,
· Any and all warranties,
· A clear statement of work to be done, and
· A completion time line.

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Help of any kind would be appreciated.

[moRt]

I had this problem too once doing a case study for a course I was doing.

Reading the curriculum and researching hardware worked for me.

[paras]

hi.

been a long time since i posted this thread. since then the design has been analyzed and developed.

thanks anyway for getting back to me with your input.

have a nice day.

[paras]

hi damhna.

well quite strange that you feel that way. i was just thanking moRt for making the effort to reply to an old query.

"petulant sarcasm" is something i surely would not use for someone who had to say something about one of my queries.....my sarcasm is reserved for people who are too lousy to talk to normally.

incidentally i do go over posts now and again but do not contribute much because i feel that i have as yet not acquired sufficient skills and expertise to answer queries that come over here.

so don't get upitty over something that is not existant. I for one am surprised at your response.

and you too have a nice day.

[moRt]

then t'would be an idea would it not to complete your case studys on your own; to aquire such knowledge that when the next individual studying for an industry standard certificate can get their case study without any work?


have a nice day

[paras]

well that went over the head for me.

anyway guys, i won't ask nor give give one explanation. internet connectivity is not cheap for me.

see ya i'm having a nice day

[Tobmello]

I think I speak for quite a lot of "newbies" here who are very grateful for all the help we get from the real MCSEs and pros on this board. I say "real" because I have an MCSE and still have wide gaps in my knowledge. However, I do pledge to support this forum and try to help out whenever I can. I check these boards at least once a day to see if anything I could possibly know would be of any help to anyone here. Its important for everyone to contribute to, and not just "use" this board.

I do have a problem (not really a problem, but an interesting situation) here at work. No one needs to resolve this, but its a good braincruncher for anyone who likes to troubleshoot name resolution issues.

Two computers - one a win2k DC (in test environment connected to the network on its own subnet), and the other my workstation (win2k pro) on a different subnet. I can ping my own cmptr's IP from the other cmptr but I can't ping its name. However, if I do a "ping -a" cmd it does resolve my computer's name. Now since Ping is an icmp request using Winsock (DNS), I can't figure out why the -a switch resolves the name when the regular cmd will not. The source computer (the DC) is not using WINS (so no netbios over ip), its only using DNS. You can't run any netuse commands from it using my computer's name. I checked the DNS tables on the source's DNS servers (including its own of course) and can't find my computer's entry in there anyway. It can't be using broadcasts to resolve the name since the routers won't pass them across the subnet. I'm pretty stumped. How is it resolving my computer's name using the -a switch????

(the original reason I needed to have the DC resolve my computer's name was I was using ntbackup to try and remotely back up my machine on the test DC, but ntbackup only seems to use computer names to map to, not IPs) I know a DNS entry for my machine will solve the problem, however I just wanted to post this scenario to see if someone could enlighten me

[Tobmello]

Hey Damhna,

definitely no lmhost files anywhere on the network. Somehow its gotta be getting it from a DNS entry somewhere. The source cmptr is only looking at 2 DNS servers (itself and another one) for name resolution. The destination cmptr is configured to look at a WINS server and a DNS server altho since the destination cmptr is a 2000 box its only going to register itself with DNS (right?). Therefore maybe the source and destination's DNS servers are configured to look up each other's records altho for the life of me I can't find that anywhere in the DNS database. And since its a test DC I doubt it was even set up to communicate with non-win2k segments via DNS/WINS at this point. Also, even if the two DNS segments are sharing info this way, would that explain why a ping fails but a "-a" works? Does Ping use regular netBIOS name resolution methods at all or does it only use WINSOCK/DNS?

[paras]

hi tobmello.

ok. i can answer that last question you have.

Does Ping use regular netBIOS name resolution methods at all or does it only use WINSOCK/DNS?

i am sure that Ping uses Winsock (with DNS help) to do the name resolution.

you should go and read this article. it is quite enlightening on the differences of WINS and DNS.

WINS & DNS

meanwhile let me put this problem before other guys and see what ideas they come up with.


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i just went and did a bit of thinking on your problem.

correct me if i am wrong but this is how i understand your situation.

you do not have WINS and you can ping your system's IP but it doesn't resolve its name. however, if you Ping -a your system's IP, it resolves the name and displays it. right?

well, if this is the case, then i think the answer is this:

when you use Ping name, the source system doens't use WINS and so there is no NetBIOS resolution. hence, the system cannot find the resolve the addresses. but when you ping the IP of your system with the "-a" switch, what it does is this. the "-a" switch tells the system to retrieve all information about the destination system. so first it will go and find the destination system and then pick up the information (including it's netBIOS name) from the destination system and then display it.

i think that is what is happening.

[ 22 May 2001: Message edited by: paras ]

[Tobmello]

Hey Paras, thanks for that link, its a great resource! The WINS/DNS stuff was authored by none other than Mark Minasi.
With regards to whether or not the "-a" switch uses NetBIOS name resolution still makes it tricky to explain why it resolves my cmptr across the router. Since the source cmptr isn't configured to use a WINS server, it would have to broadcast out to the network in order to resolve my computer's name. And since my machine is on a separate subnet, that request would likely die at the router. Oh well, either way, I'm sure its using either wins or dns in some strange capacity, im just not sure exactly how. Thanks to you and damnha for trying to brainstorm on this.

[Joxman]

Wow! trolling and flaming on these boards in a gentamenling way [refer to early posts]. Amazing! I'm impressed. After viewing many threads on these forums and others I've never come across such politeness in the trolling/flaming departments. wow! I actually thought cybertechhelp was immune to such things. Just my two cents worth. Have a nice day

[paras]

is it not?

[Joxman]

Hee hee

[Joxman]

Hee hee

[Joxman]

Hee hee