Networked Information Systems
Part 2: The Internet and Network Security 6
Option 2.1: Putting the Next Day Air Service “on the Internet” and their network security 6
Option 2.2: Installing, Configuring, and Using a Web Server 7
Part 3: Network Design and Management/Implementation 9
Option 3.1. Network Design and Management 9
Option 3.2. Network Design and Implementation 12
Important Dates
The assignment consists of three parts. Each part includes a report and perhaps code.
Assignment (Parts 1, 2, and 3) Released on Wattle: Fri 16 Feb 2018 at 4:30 PM, ACT time (week 0)
Part 1 due on Wattle: Sun 4 March 2018 at 11:55 PM, ACT time (week 2)
Part 2 due on Wattle: Sun 1 April 2018 at 11:55 PM, ACT time (week 6)
Part 3 due on Wattle: Sun 13 May 2018 at 11:55 PM, ACT time (week 10)
All parts are graded on Wattle two weeks after their due date.
Grading
“The trouble of opportunity is that it comes disguised as hard work.” Herbert V. Prochnow, 1897-1998
To gain the full 30 per cent (i.e., 100 points), you need to impress me; hard and smart work pays off.
Part 1 is not graded but submission is strongly encouraged; constructive feedback will be given to those
students who submit.
Parts 2 and 3 are graded. In total, their marking is from 0 to 100 points and forms a hurdle; at least 50
points in total required to pass the unit. Assignment points will be scaled to form. 30 per cent of the unit
grade.
Reminder from the Overview
Feedback: Students will be given written feedback.
Policies: ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that
staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. You can find
the University’s education policies and an explanatory glossary at http://policies.anu.edu.au/.
Academic Misconduct: Students are expected to have read the Academic Misconduct Rule before the
commencement of their course. Other key policies include Student Assessment (Coursework) and
Student Surveys and Evaluations.
ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS
Turnitin
The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess
assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic
Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Students may choose not to submit assessment items through Turnitin. In this instance you will
be required to submit, alongside the assessment item itself, copies of all references included in
the assessment item.
Assignment submission
Online Submission: Assignments are submitted using Turnitin in the course Wattle site. You will be
required to electronically sign a declaration as part of your submission. Please keep a copy of the
submitted content for your records. No submission (or resubmission) after the due date will be
permitted. If an assessment task is not submitted by the due date, a mark of 0 will be awarded.
Referencing requirements
Appropriate referencing is required (see https://academicskills.anu.edu.au/taxonomy/term/142). Please
follow the Harvard style. (see
Assignment Specification
The assignment consist of two major parts, called Part 2 and 3, in order to give you an option to mix
and match to fit your learning goals and skills. Part 2 of the assignment focuses on the Internet and
network security and gives you an opportunity to work either on analysing the Next Day Air Service
(NDAS) case or configuring a Web server using a Linux-based Virtual Machine (VM). Part 3 of the
assignment addresses network design and either network management or network implementation.
Remember to challenge yourself but at the same time, be realistic with your ability to deliver on
time. We do provide help and support on Wattle and in the workshops. Do not hesitate to ask for
advice in order to be efficient. However, we are here to support your learning journey; doing the
hard and smart work is your responsibility.
Also, remember that the first go at something never works and writing takes time. Schedule yourself
to spend, for example, week 3 on the first version of you Part 2 solution, week 4 on reporting it,
week 5 on improving your solution, and week 6 on finalising your Part 3 report. You could spend
week 7 on the first version of you Part 3 solution, week 8 on reporting it, week 9 on improving your
solution, and week 10 finalising your Part 3 submission.
Part 2: The Internet and Network Security
Please choose one of the following two options. Each is worth of the maximum of 50 points.
Option 2.1: Putting the Next Day Air Service “on the Internet” and their network security
President Coone has asked you to put Next Day Air Service (NDAS) “on the Internet.” You interpret
this to mean getting a Website up and running and putting Internet access technologies into the
NDAS offices.
With your knowledge of NDAS’s network, what types of Internet access technologies (e.g., leased
line, DSL, cable modem, wireless) would you recommend for Atlanta, New Orleans, and the
corporate office in Tampa and other locations as well? Why? (max 400 words, max 5 points)
Discuss some of the precautions you should take before taking the NDAS web site “live” on the
Internet. (max 400 words, max 10 points).
Use a website called “Shields Up” (find the Shields Up link at http://grc.com/default.htm and follow
it or go directly to https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2) to elaborate your answer to the question
above. Perform. a port test on the server your computer is using for networking. Report your results.
Remember to include your IP address and other analysis outcomes. (max 400 words, max 5 points)
The president of NDAS has just read a newspaper article explaining that the top security threat to
companies are NOT always from hackers trying to break in though the corporate firewall. In many
cases, companies are more concerned about things such as internal employees and social
engineering. After reading this article, he rushed down to Les Coone’s office to understand what
could happen to NDAS. Les has turned to you to prepare analysis of NDAS security.
While Les was in your office you mention that a security issue you recently learned about needs to be
addressed. Five employees in the Accounts Payable office were recently given two weeks notice of
their impending layoff due to the outsourcing of some of the Accounts Payable functions to another
company. As you understand it, those five employees are NOT happy with being released.
Outline the major security threats faced by NDAS. Be sure to identify those that you that you think
are major threats and those that are minor threats. (max 400 words, max 10 points)
Prepare a partial risk assessment for NDAS that includes their major assets, threats, and controls.
You need to make some reasonable assumptions and document them. (max 400 words, max 5
points)
Develop a set of security controls, for use in the NDAS main office and for its Website, designed to
control risks due to disruption, destruction, and disaster and unauthorised access. (max 800 words,
max 10 points)
Think about the Accounts Payable employees that are being laid off. What should be done to ensure
that they do NOT do anything (such as steal customer data files, etc.) before they leave the
company. With their access to so much accounting data and other network access, list some of the
main concerns that you may have. In addition, what will you suggest to mitigate these risks? (max
400 words, max 5 points)
Option 2.2: Installing, Configuring, and Using a Web Server
Perhaps you have created a web page and uploaded it to a site either at your university or through a
web hosting company (Figure 1). For example, I uploaded my first professional page to the University
of Turku site (http://users.utu.fi/hajasu/) whilst my latest professional page can be found under The
ANU site (https://cecs.anu.edu.au/people/hanna-suominen). I have used the
https://sites.google.com web hosting service by Google for some of my hackathons
(https://sites.google.com/site/clefehealth/) and also for my more comprehensive website
(https://sites.google.com/site/hajasu/). The benefit is, of course, that the university and Google
servers are operated for me and most of the configuration necessary for the public to access my web
content is performed for me; in the University of Turku, I simply created the page content on my
computer and uploaded it to the utu.fi server and in the other two cases this was even simpler
because both The ANU and Google provided me with a web page editor so I could create the content
directly on the server.
The Apache HTTP server is an open source web server that forms the basis for most of the
commercial web sites in the world (according to www.netcraft.com). It is a commercial grade
product that has enough features to handle the most demanding web sites. The Apache server is
configured manually using a text file, discussed later.
The purpose of this exercise is to introduce you to web server installation and configuration. We
want to be able to host a number of web pages for a set of domains, just as a web hosting company
might do. To accomplish this, we will download the Apache web server and run through the steps of
installing it on a Linux VM.
We will first install the Apache software and test it to ensure that it is working. Next we will
configure the web server to respond to requests for two company web pages (can be imaginary). We
will simulate the adjustments to the DNS server and you should then be able to see all of the web
sites using the browser on any client machine on your network.
The setup will simulate the network depicted in Figure 1. These instructions apply to Linux machines
only, although you can easily install a web server on a Windows, Unix or Apple machine by following
similar steps. You will need two computers — one will act as the server and the other will act as the
workstation that requests the web site. For example, you can use one of the CECS lab computers and
the VM that we provided you with.
You will also need two web pages—one for your own (imaginary) company and one other page (e.g.,
one by another student or you can simply create two pages yourself). Remember, that the grading
will not evaluate how pretty your pages are — the focus is on getting them published. In other
words, these can be simple pages — you need just enough to be able to identify each company’s
page. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, three sample web pages have been included in the appendix
for you. Simply copy these pages to a text editor and save them both as index.html but in separate
directories (i.e.., a separate directory for each company, identified, e.g., by their name or your ANU
7 (14)
uni number) on your VM. You can use the source code of my page http://users.utu.fi/hajasu/ as a
template. The index file that is initially served by the Apache web server. Although they all have the
same file name, they are placed in different sub-directories so that the server can distinguish them.
Download and install the Apache HTTP Server, which is freely available from http://httpd.apache.org
on your VM together with the student with whom you are sharing the VM. Remember to install the
latest version. The software is well documented, so if you need more detail about how to configure
it or how it works than is provided here, you can find answers at the Apache web site. Look for the
“Download” link for the most current release (this was httpd-2.4.25.tar.gz when I checked). When
your download is complete, you can begin installation. You must verify the installation (see
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi#verify). If everything is working smoothly, you can open your
favourite Internet browser, type in http://localhost/ and see the default website that says “It
Works!”. Make sure you have permitted the Apache web server (that is, the httpd executable) to
communicate through your firewall.
Now you want to get your company pages up and running. Please reconfigure your web server to
serve your own company page and test it locally (on the server machine) to make sure it is working
properly. If you completed the setup above correctly by creating the web pages and saving them to
the proper directories as “index.html” then you only need to redirect your Apache server so that it
serves these web pages when requested. In order to redirect the Apache server, you will edit the
text file, “httpd.conf,” which is found in the conf directory of your Apache home. Before you begin,
create a backup copy of this file that you can reopen in the event you make some mistakes. Next,
open this file with a plain text editor such as vi and you will discover that it is a lengthy file consisting
of many different entries and modules. Most lines contained in the file are commented out with the
“#” sign. Find the DocumentRoot and change it to the path that identifies the directory in which you
placed your home page. Save the file and restart the web server in order for the changes to take
effect. When the server is running again, open a web browser and type “localhost” in the address
window. The server should display your company’s web page. If it does not, make sure that you
saved the configuration file and restarted the web server.
Now that we have our own website functioning, you are ready to add some additional domains and
host the web sites for other companies (e.g., the company page of your fellow student). In order to
accomplish this, you must create “virtual hosts.” Apache supports two methods of virtual hosting.
You can either assign a different IP address to each domain (IP-based virtual hosting), or you can
assign all the domains you intend to host to a single IP address (name-based virtual hosting). You
can either modify the httpd-vhosts.conf file, which is located in \conf\extra directory or simply add
some lines to the aforementioned main configuration file. Finally, test that you can see both
company pages.
Please document the steps that you completed as a “how to” guideline with bash commands and
screen captures for someone else to repeat what you just did. Remember to include your VM details
and your own company name so we can see your html and configuration files too. (max 2,000 words,
max 45 points, see the breakdown next). Apache installed and working (5 points), your own
company page up and working (15 points), the other company page up and working (5 points),
report that covers all these three aspects and their testing (20 points, i.e., 5 points per aspect plus 5
points for the tests)).
Finally, use the website called “Shields Up” (find the Shields Up link at http://grc.com/default.htm
and follow it or go directly to https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2) to perform. a port test if your
server. Report your results briefly. (max 200 words, max 5 points)
8 (14)
Part 3: Network Design and Management/Implementation
Please choose one of the following two options. Each is worth of 50 points of the maximum.
Option 3.1. Network Design and Management
The holding company that owns NDAS has just purchased a regional trucking company called
Sunshine Trucking (ST). NDAS believes that ST offers a way to build revenues in an area in which it
has experience (package delivery), even though ST will not operate directly with NDAS. ST focuses on
large commercial shipments (e.g., food products for wholesalers, packaged goods for department
stores).
At present, ST has a very poor data communications network. Because you have done such a good
job on the NDAS network, President Coone offers your expertise to ST to help with their new network.
ST operates three regional shipping hubs: Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta. Each of these regional hubs is
responsible for taking shipping requests from customers and scheduling pickups and deliveries. Each
regional hub has about four dozen computers are networked to each other using a small LAN and
need to be connected onto a WAN. The computers access the network server (a Windows NT file
server) and the corporate minicomputer almost constantly. The current LAN is a 10 Mbps Ethernet
that is beginning to become overloaded with the network traffic. The regional hubs communicate
with one another fairly regularly via a VPN connection, usually a dozen times an hour.
The Atlanta hub also houses the corporate head office and therefore has an additional 20 computers
for use by corporate staff. This office also has the aforementioned corporate minicomputer that
processes all accounting data (a UNIX computer). There has been some discussion about establishing
a corporate Website, but no plans have been made.
ST has a series of seven local offices for short-term storage, truck maintenance, and managing the
local drivers: Houston, New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Tallahassee, Charlotte, and Memphis.
Each regional office has 5 to 10 computers that are peer networked together but need to be
connected to the WAN. These computers have fairly minimal networking requirements. At present,
each local office sends data to the aforementioned corporate minicomputer at the end of each day by
sending one diskette via overnight courier(NDAS). ST would like to automate this process so that it
can transmit the data via a network. ST also would like to enable the local offices to communicate
with all the regional hubs (and perhaps with one another) but do NOT anticipate needing to send a
large amount of data.
Based on your assessment of the large number of changes that need to occur, you quickly realise
that you do NOT have the time to design and implement the new network yourself. Thus, you
suggest that a vendor help with this project and you volunteer to create an Request for Proposal
(RFP) to be sent out to some local networking vendors for their consideration. Using the outline
provided in the textbook section 6.4.1, create an RFP for ST’s new network. Keep in mind that you
need to think about their network at the LAN, MAN, WAN, and BN levels. Also, please remember
that typically an RFP includes the following sections: 1) Background information with subsections for
Organizational profile, Overview of current network, Overview of new network, and Goals of new
network, 2) Network requirements with subsections for Choice sets of possible network designs
(hardware, software, circuits), Mandatory, desirable, and wish-list items, Security and control
requirements, Response-time requirements, and Guidelines for proposing new network designs, 3)
Service requirements with subsections for Implementation time plan, Training courses and materials,
Support services (e.g., spare parts on site), and Reliability and performance guarantees, 4) Bidding
process with subsections for Time schedule for the bidding process, Ground rules, Bid evaluation
criteria, and Availability of additional information, and 5) Information required from vendor with
subsections for Vendor corporate profile, Experience with similar networks, Hardware and software
benchmarks, and Reference list. Make sure that your RFP is not longer than 4,000 words (excluding
the references). (max 25 points, that is, 5 points per section).
The NDAS network system is finally in place and operating. President Coone has assigned operational
control of the network to the Information Services/ Data Processing Division. He believes this is
reasonable and justified because of the division’s data processing responsibilities and experience in
operating data communications equipment. In addition, his nephew, Les Coone, is running that
department and has expressed considerable interest in data communications.
The Human Resources Division originally set up the telephone system, because — at the time —
nobody else was interested in doing it. As a result, Human Resources, headed by Karen Lott, controls
the voice and facsimile communication system for the company.
One recurring problem is that two division heads disagree on which department should be
responsible for dealing with the common carriers. Each division believes it should be the contact for
dealing with the common carriers, and each thinks the other is stopping it from assuming its rightful
place within the organisation.
Because of your excellent past performance, President Coone has asked you to study certain
organisational issues pertaining to the control and operation of both voice and data communications.
He wants you to analyse the operations of both divisions and propose a method for streamlining the
organisation and fixing the problem. This analysis should address the possibility of combining the
voice and data communication responsibilities under a single manager. You may propose any
reorganisation that seems appropriate. Be sure to consider economies of scale when submitting any
recommendations. President Coone reminds you that you were a staunch advocate of
videoconferencing. He wants you to include video and image transmission considerations in your
analysis.
You should also consider the type of individual that should manage this reorganisation. Some of the
factors to evaluate are the traits and characteristics needed for successful leadership, the ability to
understand current systems, the ability to handle both data and voice networks, and the ability to
analyse and manage future growth. The results of this evaluation will help determine whether such
an individual exists within NDAS or whether the firm needs to hire someone from outside the
organisation.
Another little problem occurred last week when NDAS experienced its first network line failure.
President Coone had to ask Karen Lott to determine what failed on the circuit. After fiddling with the
problem for an hour and a half, she finally called the server vendor, who then took three hours to get
to the Tampa headquarters building. The good news is that the vendor’s maintenance employee
swapped a new network card into the server and had it fixed in fifteen minutes. Needless to say,
President Coone was NOT happy!
If the responsibilities for managing communications were to be consolidated into one division, which
one would you choose, and why? Base your answer on your knowledge of the communication
management responsibilities exercised by both the Human Resources and Information Services
Divisions. (max 200 words, 2.5 points)
Review the organisation chart for NDAS, as shown in the Week 1 materials, and then develop an
organisation chart that reflects a realignment of the responsibilities for communications. Show
separate organisational entities for both data processing and communications. Consider the pros
10 (14)
and cons of creating a new communications manager position. Discuss the reasons why NDAS should
promote someone from within the company to fill this new position. Now discuss the contrary
reasons why NDAS should hire someone from outside the organisation for this position. Which
method would you take and why? (max 800 words, 7.5 points)
Sketch out a simple network management system for NDAS. What software and hardware support
would you recommend? Be sure you justify the information items collected and reported for this
system, as well as your software and hardware recommendations. Price the recommended software
and hardware using sources of your choice (see, e.g., OfficeWorks and Harvey Norman websites) and
some assumptions. (max 2,000 words, 15 points)
11 (14)
Option 3.2. Network Design and Implementation
Let us make a flipbook animation (see, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njl-uqnmBGA) as a
website. Remember, that the grading will not evaluate how pretty your animation is — the focus is
on using networking to make it happen. You will need two computers to make this happen. For
example, you can use one of the CECS lab computers and the VM that we provided you with.
Although the goal is to present the flipbook animation as a website, you should begin with
something simple, and then, if you have time, extend the work to be presented as a website. The
flipbook could be, instead of a moving character, for example, an evolving story that is built up by
one machine sending individual words and the other one connecting them in the right order as a
sentence on the command line. Or instead of sending letters, you can generate a simple command
line drawing (e.g., pacman), dot by dot.
First, what are the bash commands needed to study addressing on the application, network, and
data link layers? Explain also at least 10 other handy commands. Remember to specify the
networking layer or layers the commands relates to and show examples with screen captures. (max
400 words, max 10 points)
Second, explain how to use the netcat command to talk from a Linux machine to another Linux
machine within your network. How could you modify the command in order to transfer files
between the two connected machines? How can you address your messages so that you reach only
two specific machines and not all connected machines? What commands other than netcat could
you use to establish this? Remember to specify the networking layer or layers the commands relate
to and show examples with screen captures. (max 400 words, max 10 points)
Third, design your flipbook animation between two machines. You will need to make some
assumptions, so be sure to document your assumptions and explain why you have designed the
network in this way. Remember to include a description of who is sending what to whom and how in
your report and also specify the networking layer or layers in question. Include illustrations of the
animation as it evolves during this machine monologue or dialogue (depending on your design
assumptions). Please focus on the top layers (i.e., application, transport, and network). Use a
software tool to to draw the network design. You may wish to choose SmartDraw (please download
and install it from www.smartdraw.com) that has a free demo version. It comes with a variety of
network icons and templates that can be used to quickly build network diagrams. (max 1,000 words,
max 10 points).
Fourth, implement your design. Please document the steps that you completed as a “how to”
guideline with bash commands and screen captures for someone else to repeat what you just did.
(max 1,000 words, max 10 points).
Fifth, go nuts; sky is your limit (or the week 11 submission deadline). Revise your design and/or
implementation add the webpage aspect. Impress your fellow students and me with what you have
created. Remember to include your revised design and/or implementation in your documentation
but do not remove the original ones. (max 1,000 words, max 10 points).