BIT503 Fundamentals of Information Technology Assignment 2 Tasks

BIT503 Overview 

This assignment is worth 40 per cent of your total course mark. 

The assignment consists of 11 tasks. 

This assignment focuses on the following learning outcomes.

4. Apply fundamental networking and internet concepts to a given scenario 
5. Apply the processes and procedures necessary for hardware and software diagnostic testing, maintenance, technical and customer support, and installation and configuration of systems and business application. 

Instructions

You’re required to complete tasks relating to the fundamentals of information technology. Please ensure you have completed all topics and activities from the modules before attempting this assignment.

All work submitted must be your own. This assignment has three parts which assess hardware and software diagnostic testing, maintenance and customer support process and procedures, together with networking and internet concepts.  Please read each part carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Submission

You must submit your assignment in MS-Word, or compatible application to complete this assignment.  You are required to submit a zipped folder with all the necessary assignment files, including any documentation. Your solution document containing answers should be clearly labelled with your name, the number of the assignment and your student number. 

Remember to check that the folder does not contain any other material that you do not wish to submit.

Part 1: NZ Consulting

Brief

NZTech Solutions is a mid-size company which works with some of the most well-known distributing companies around the world. They provide the best technology solutions for businesses in the South Pacific region. In addition to providing complex technological solutions, the company also has a department that sells IT hardware and software. The sales department also has a small technical support team.

Your role

You are one of the IT support consultants in NZTech Solutions. Your primary job is to provide technical support to the clients of the company. In providing the support, you are expected to investigate and resolve issues in a timely and efficient manner with a customer-centric approach.

Task 1

A chain of events starts with a user calling to explain that their computer, provided by your company, has died. The chain ends with a resolution.

After speaking with the caller, you determine that the most likely underlying problem is their hard drive has failed. Explain the processes applied to diagnose the problem and leave the user satisfied.  

Include:

• the next 2 to n-1 steps.
• examples of spoken text such as, user calls in which the customer is extremely frustrated: ‘My computer is broken!’ By the end, the user advises ‘I am back in business.

Thank you very much.’ (15 marks) 

Task 2

A chain of events starts with a user calling to explain that they can’t access a business application on their computer, which was supplied by your company.  After speaking with the caller to gather technical information, you determine the most likely underlying problem is not hardware, but a service update for the business application from the previous week which included an undiscovered bug. Explain the processes and procedures to diagnose the problem, apply the solution, and leave the user satisfied.

Include:

• the next 2 to n-1 steps
• examples of spoken text such as, ‘It asked to install an update’, ‘It never said to configure’.   (15 marks)

Part 2: Internet Consulting Group 

Brief  Internet Consulting Group employs around 120 consultants and staff. The ICG office is in a downtown building which has three floors with several rooms. All the floors as well as the rooms are connected using a single wired network which connects them to the internet. They also have multiple wireless access points configured to provide Wi-Fi throughout the building. In addition to the dedicated desks, they have several hot desks where employees can connect their computing devices to the wired network. They use a wide variety of computing equipment, including Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). 

Technical support is challenging for the wide variety of BYOD devices, which adds extra complexity. Your role You are working as an infrastructure manager for Internet Consulting Group. Your technical support team is spending most of their time resolving issues in BYOD. Your CEO asks you to apply different strategies to manage the company’s computing infrastructure.

Task 3

Write a report for the CEO describing four strategies you applied, or will apply, to effectively manage a fleet of computing devices. Your report should explain how applying these strategies would contribute positively to company profit. The report must also explain how BYOD causes problems and the impact it has on user support. Your report structure should include an introduction, body (explanations and discussions), a conclusion, and should be around 1500 words.

The report must use language appropriate for your audience, be grammatically correct, and contain accurate spelling. Ensure that you use appropriate APA references to support the arguments discussed in the report.

Part 3: WebDev 

Brief  You, along with two of your university friends, had a novel idea and decided to start a web-based start-up. At this moment in time, the start-up has a team of 3 staffs (including you) and you are the only one who knows about networking and the internet. Your team is now discussing the all the requirements to set up the office network. 

The office space and other related equipment’s will be hired or bought after and according to the outcome of the discussion.

Task 4

Describe the differences between hosting client websites remotely versus hosting their websites locally. Outline five trade-offs to the other team members that must be considered within implementation  (10 marks)

Task 5

Compare and contrast web-based software versus locally installed software. Consider whether web-based software should be implemented, or locally installed software should be applied. Provide rationale. (4 marks) 

Task 6 

Outline at least three ways you would like the clients to approach your team for support. (3 marks)

Task 7

Create a diagram that shows how two remote hosts can communicate when they share the same protocol. (4 marks)

Task 8

A denial of service attack (DOS) has the potential to remove your client’s web presence. Describe how DOS and Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks work. (4 marks)

Task 9

Explain how you can detect whether DOS and DDOS attacks are occurring.  (3 marks)

Task 10

Explain what concepts you can apply to keep your client’s services online if DOS and DDOS attacks are occurring.

Task 11

Create a diagram for your start-up’s network architecture. At a minimum, you plan to have five workstations (including laptops), a web server, backup server, and any other equipment needed for connectivity, load balancing, and security. Along with the diagram, prepare a report which describes why each of the components in your network diagram is needed. The report must describe how you have applied the networking and internet concepts you learnt in the module to ensure redundancy, security, and scalability. For this network, you aren’t required to use remote hosting or cloud services. Your report structure must include an introduction, body, and conclusion. The report should be approximately 1500 words. Ensure that you use language appropriate for your audience, that your report is grammatically correct, and that your spelling is accurate. Ensure that you use appropriate APA references to support the arguments discussed in the report. 
 
Your report structure must include an introduction, body, and conclusion. The report should be approximately 1500 words. Ensure that you use language appropriate for your audience, that your report is grammatically correct, and that your spelling is accurate. Ensure that you use appropriate APA references to support the arguments discussed in the report.