Network type

[HodgeHi]

Hello each,

I am about to change jobs into a primary school where i have just been placed in charge of the whole ICT infrastructure. This is the first time i have done anything like this and have obviously been doing a little research.

Just a few questions though.

What sort of network layout has been implemented in your schools?
I have been reading about seperating collision domains and using switches with VLANs to reduce broadcast traffic. Is this going overboard. I have not yet seen how much ICT is in place so the network could be of any size.

What are usually the best practices to follow in schools when laying out a network?

I ask these questions as although they have a network, it may need to be upgraded.

Thanks in advace for any advice.

[alan-d]

The best advice I can give at this time is for you to look over what you have in place and find out what its uses will be.

Every school is different, usually because most school networks started as a project for some enthusiastic member of staff who had their own ideas on how a network should be.

From what you have asked - you could be buried with hundreds of possible solutions and still be none the wiser as to which would suit your new school best.

[richard]

Having just moved from a secondary school to a junior school I have one thing to say "keep it simple." There is no real need to start looking at using VLANS in this sort of situation.

The school here has 2 cabinets each with a single switch in it and a couple of 5 port desktop switches in a couple of areas where they have added a few additional machines recently. If you want some more info on recommendations for schools IT infrastructure have a look at the BECTA site as they produced a document on containing their recommendations on the subject. I haven't got the link to hand at prersent but I'm sure that someone here has it.

The company that did the IT support here in the past decided to play around with VLANS for some strange reason screwed up the network, though the facty that they had at one point 3 DHCP servers didn't help one bit either.

[CyberNerd]

What are usually the best practices to follow in schools when laying out a network?

the link is here:

http://www.becta.org.uk/subsections/...astructure.pdf

[richard]

Thanks cybernerd I knew someone would have it somewhere.

[Joedetic]

Keeping it simple makes the most sense as i'm sure you're aware, because there's less to go wrong.

And if you ever leave it's going to be easier to for a new techie to pick up what you've done if it's just a simple star network without VLANs and mess.

And if it's a primary school do they /really/ need VLANs? There's going to be very few students and even fewer staff (:P) that will be packet catching for data and if very large schools with 2000+ users manage ok without VLANs why does a small junior school need it? The broadcast traffic isnt going to be cripplingly (new word ) huge either.

[Ric_]

I tend to agree with others... in a primary school the KISS methodology works well.

If you have the opportunity though, try to keep everything in one central location. Find a cupboard in the middle of the school and put a large rack in there. Wire all your points back to there and keep your switches and servers in there along with a big UPS (and air-con!).

[HodgeHi]

Thanks for the replys.

Well it sounds as though it is best to keep things simple. I like that idea. I will also try and see if it is feasible to carry out your idea Ric_ and find a central point for any wiring.

As i said i have not looked at any of the network or ICT infrastructure yet so do not know what sort of condidtion the network is in or even if i would need to carry out any maintenance. I was looking at the future in case i would be implementing any additional ICT Suites.

Once again thanks for your responses.