networking.

<p>This is an account of my experiences as the network administrator of Selaiyur hall's IKC.
The year started off on a completely hopeless note. There was no proper transfer of documents and information from the previous cabinet. </p>

<p>This should have been a problem, but i was determined to make the best out of the chaos and implement the many ideas that i had in mind. Easy enough except that i needed a plan. </p>
But it was not simple enough.... and the plan didn't come easily. I had initially planned to integrate the entire connections through a server network that would give me enhanced monitoring edge over last year progress. Unfortunately i had over looked the elements of cost and residents reactions. Both of which turned out to be on the opposing side. </p>

<p>Still not to worry, i could manage with out a server. If the server had come then i would have a hard time setting it up... initially of course. Anyways that would have to wait. To make matters worse i was entirely new to the concept s of administration. The LAN terms like 'routing' 'ip-address' 'default gateway' and such things completely baffled me. Now that you know the truth. I must ask you to keep it a secret. lol. </p>

<p>So finally after a lot of google-ing around and some pretty bad experiments on my part, which resulted in  some drastic results, i finally got it. The configuration was simple, essentially there was a modem, a router, an 8-pot switch and a tangled heap of LAN cables. Now that i had the resources at hand, i had to figure out a proper way to connect all of them to make a sensible and working network.
After finding out the working of the many devices that i had at my disposal, a little bit of common sense  gave me the correct configuration. Modem > 8-Port  switch > desktop computers > Router and then all the wireless users. Seems simple enough?? Well not exactly, to figure it out in the beginning I actually had to do a lot of reading and configuration works before I got it right. Then there was the question of having to monitor the users and get their usage data which was impossible under the given resources.</p>

<p> The worst of my problems actually came from the ISP. Frequent network failure was the biggest among them. One night of heavy rain would ensure that the net was out for another week. There was 3 connection that we had to manage. Two of them had frequent problems and refused to show constant performance. It became difficult to convince the residents that the ISP was responsible, They wouldn't buy it anymore. Cant blame them, even I found it difficult to believe myself.</p>

<p>One very difficult thing to do is to divide one home connection and distribute its bandwidth among 20 users. The per-person bandwidth would reduce like unbelievable. The solution ?? Well i didn't actually have any solution. Well in theory yes but in practicality, it had to be decided by the residents. I was thinking of going for a corporate plan. And a long range enterprise router. But like i said the elements of cost and resident opinions kept far from reality.</p>

One semester has gone by, and now the many ideas and visions that i had initially seem gone and the network is in a big mess, mainly due to the many external factors. Much of the resources of the network are old and obsolete many have outlived their useful life. Purchasing new ones aren't that easy. It is my hope that some miracles happen soon. Or else we could always continue to follow in this scheme of things. It would hurt. But Selaiyur Hall has always been known for its creativity and innovation.</p>