The Retro Gaming Internet Café

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, Computer Networks, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, GCSE Concepts, Solved Challenges

A youth club has decided to transform their club into a Retro Gaming Internet Café for the week-end. Their aim is to let people join in and play online retro games such as Pong, Pacman or Space Invaders, on desktop or laptop computers.

Amina, the youth club leader, has found a box a network hardware that she will use to set up the Local Area Network (LAN) for the week-end. The box contains:

An ADSL router that can connect a LAN to the Internet via the phone line,
A firewall
A hub with 10 ethernet ports
A Wireless Access Point

HubRouterFirewallWAP

Here is a picture of the network hub with 10 ethernet ports.

Here is a picture of the ADSL router, that can connect a LAN to the Internet via the phone line.

Here is a picture of the firewall, used to make the network more secure, by blocking suspicious incoming and outgoing traffic.

Here is a picture of the Wireless Access Point (WAP).

Amina has also collected a set of computers from the members of the club. So far she has managed to retrieve:

10 desktop computers all with a ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC). These do not support wireless transmission.
3 laptop computers all with a Network Interface Card (NIC) that can connect either wirelessly or via an Ethernet cable.
An inkjet printer with an Ethernet port

Amina would like to design the topology of her computer network to find out how to connect all these computers and hardware devices together so that:

The maximum number of computers are connected to the network, either using an Ethernet cable or wirelessly, when possible
All computers have access to the Internet
The network is secure/protected from external hackers
All computers have access to the printer for the user be able to print their score sheets

She was told that, considering her equipment, she should use a Star topology for her network.

Your Task

Use our online network designer tool to draw a network design meeting Amina’s requirements.

Did you manage to connect all the computers to the network? If not, Amina can bring an extra hub which has 8 ethernet ports. Can you produce another diagram to demonstrate how to connect this extra hub to the network and find out in total, how many computers could be connected to this new network?

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