Brian Ghilliotti

September 30th, 2016

Computer Networking Internship Journal
Professor Christopher Parden
(Quinnebaug Valley Community College, Danielson, CT)
Supervisor: Michael
Location: Plainfield High school, Plainfield Central School
Time Spent: 5 hours

On the first day I was directed to Plainfield high school. There I met some of
the IT staff who support the Plainfield school district. They were working on setting
up Google Chromebooks, which are small laptop computers that are issued to
students for the purposes of facilitating lesson plans and doing homework. They were
discussing purchasing issues and setting up these Chromebooks for general distribution
to the students. This was apparently a new initiative.
I then met my supervisor, Michael. He showed me the Main Distribution Frame
(MDF) room by Andy office, who is the school districts General IT Director. Michael
explained that the school network was set up in a hub and spoke design, with the high
school forming the central locus of the spoke network. There is at least one
Independent Distribution Frame (IDF) for each building in the school district. It was
mentioned that the high school has more than one IDF, given the size of the building.
We discussed the various servers found on the high schools MDF frame. Two
servers I recall were a virtualization server, which handles all network virtualization
issues. Another server, called a Windows Deployment Server (WDS) has been

specifically set up to process updates for Windows 10, which are continuously being
pushed out. Michael mentioned that the constant stream of Windows update traffic
puts significant burdens on a schools network. The server acts as a way of buffering
and controlling large volumes of update traffic. In some cases, it is preferred that
updates are held off for later distribution during non-production periods.
Michael then described various content servers, which have been set to keep
network data requests internal instead of generating data requests to outside
resources. This sustains the 80%-20% rule, which holds that in ideal circumstances only
20% of network data should be received and distributed externally from outside
routers, while 80% remains within the LAN.
Other content servers he mentioned included a file server that manages
student school accounts and data allocation issues. There is also an Acellus server,
which provides testing and tutoring services for students. Also, a Discover Access
video content server acts as a means of storing and relaying video media to students.
All of these content severs act as a means of preserving outside bandwidth by keeping
data requests local.
The schools network is sanitized by a Barracuda firewall server, which,
amongst other things, controls e-mail spam and archives e-mails. For the wireless side
of the network, this is handled by a Fortinet Server. This has some filtering capacities,
but the majority of wireless filtering and security is handled by the State of
Connecticut.

We then drove to Michaels main office at the Plainfield Central School facility.
I was shown the IDF unit there. He explained that one of the functions of the local IDF
unit was to localize online authentication processes, so it can control the amount of
these types of data requests going to the main hub of the network at the high school.
He also showed me a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video and Mouse switch) which has the
capability of allowing two computers share the same monitor and keyboard,
controlled by a switch.
We visited some of the classrooms and examined newly installed touch screen
lecture monitors (there was no chalk board in the school that I saw). He was checking
up on the quality of the installation, which was handled by contractors from the
company that provided these systems. We then briefly discussed Power Over Ethernet
protocol.
This was followed by going into Michaels office, where he showed me the
schools website blocking system and how they detect computer usage infractions. He
also explained how help ticket requests were processed. We then concluded the day
by opening up boxes of Google Chromebooks and getting them ready for integration
into the schools network.