During your career in networking, you will frequently need to interpret network drawings, if not create them yourself. Although seasoned networking professionals use software to help them depict a network, many designs start with a simple sketch. To familiarize yourself with network components and layout, in this project you will draw some simple network diagrams. Use MS Word to insert the topology pictures provided (inset picture and then simple crop to the topology the numbered question tells you to use). You may use your own diagrams or what I have provided, up to you.

1. On your computer insert a basic bus topology picture with four computers attached to the backbone, or bus. Label the computers A, B, C, and D (use MS Draw).
2. Now imagine that the user at computer A needs to open a file on computer D, in a peer-to-peer fashion. What path do you think the data will follow from A to D and then from D to A? Add this path, as a line (choose any color for the line), to your network diagram.
3. Next insert a star topology with four computers attached to a central connectivity device. Label the workstations E, F, G, and H.
4. Imagine that the user at computer E wants to open a file that on computer H’s hard disk, in a peer-to-peer fashion, draw a path you think data would take between these two computers, again using colored lines.
5. Now add a printer and a server to your star-topology network drawing. With the addition of a server, you have change the network from peer-to-peer network to a client/server network. The printer has become resource that all the workstation users can share.
6. Suppose the new server is configured to provide all necessary services to the entire star topology network, including print and file services. Now if computer G sends a document to the printer, what path do you think the document’s data will take to the printer? Draw this path as a line on your network (using a different color line).
7. Often, modern networks are not simple star, bus, or ring topologies. Sometimes two or more star-shaped networks are connected via a bus to create a star-bus topology. Insert a second star topology network that consists of three workstations, labeled I, J, and K, and is linked to a central connectivity device.
8. Now insert a line between the two connectivity devices to indicate a bus-style connection between the star-based networks. You have now designed a hybrid star-bus topology network.
9. Suppose the workstation J wants to print to the printer you added in Step 5. Using another line, draw the path you think workstations J’s document will take to the printer. Remember that the server still controls all print functions for that network.
10. Of the three different kinds of networks you worked on in this project, which one do you think would allow for the easiest expansion?

Sample Solution