A Guide to Networking a K-12 School District
by
Bradley H. Lamont
APPENDIX: A Definition of a URL
The acronym URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. It is a standard way of defining both a protocol and a location for information available on the Internet. URLs break down into three parts:
<protocol> :// <hostname or IP address> / <pathname>
The <protocol> tag specifies the protocol to be used. Table A-1 lists some of the possible protocol choices. The <hostname or IP address> tag contains the hostname or IP address providing the service. The <pathname> tag specifies a directory path in which the desired file resides. An example would be:
http://choices.cs.uiuc.edu/schools/index.html
The protocol used in the example is http, indicating that the requested file is a web document. The hostname is choices.cs.uiuc.edu, the name of a computer in the Computer Science department at the University of Illinois. The pathname is /schools/index.html, indicating that the specific file on the server should be returned.
APPENDIX: B Design Checklist
- _____ Develop a district technology plan.
- _____ Present technology plan to the board of education.
- _____ Present technology plan to interested parents and teachers in the district.
- _____ Receive approval from board of education.
- _____ Find outside help to aid in the development of the network plans.
- _____ Find grants and other sources of money and equipment.
- _____ Find outside technical help.
- _____ Develop a timetable for the process.
- _____ Develop a district WAN.
- _____ Secure funding for the district WAN.
- _____ Determine which buildings to connect.
- _____ Determine what technology to use.
- _____ Determine where to place district services such as email and web servers.
- _____ Design a specific plan to implement the district WAN.
- _____ Find an Internet Service Provider.
- _____ Plan all the necessary installation and equipment purchases.
- _____ Implement the district WAN.
- _____ Develop a building LAN for each building.
- _____ Secure funding for the building LAN.
- _____ Determine which rooms to connect.
- _____ Determine how many drops to provide.
- _____ Determine what local services will to provide at the building such as a file server.
- _____ Determine what technology to use.
- _____ Find building plans (if possible).
- _____ Check fire and safety codes.
- _____ Design a specific plan to implement the building LAN.
- _____ Plan all the necessary installation and equipment purchases.
- _____ Implement the building LAN.
- _____ Store copies of the network plans with all necessary groups.
- _____ Design a staff training program.
- _____ Determine what classes to offer.
- _____ Find people to teach the classes.
- _____ Train the district staff to use the new network.
- _____ Select software for the district computers
- _____ Select a standard software package for the district (optional)
- _____ Establish a district Acceptable Use Policy
- _____ Distribute the policy to parents.
- _____ Designate a network administrator for each building and for the district by hiring new staff or reassigning current staff.
- _____ Determine if the support will be site based or centralized.
- _____ Determine level of service to offer.
- _____ Review the entire process and determine what succeeded and what did not.
- _____ Plan future enhancements to the district networks.
APPENDIX: C Sample Local Area Networks
Appendix: C.1 Wiley Elementary School network plan proposal
Introduction
Wiley Elementary School in Urbana, IL is a school of approximately 300 students in grades K-5, and 50 teachers and administrators.
The layout of the building is a one floor rectangular school about 600 ft. long, offset in the middle by about 50 ft. It has ceiling crawl spaces throughout the building providing easy access to all rooms.
This proposal does not cover:
Note: All costs in this proposal are estimates only, and the actual costs will vary by 5%-10%.
Features
Design
The length of the building requires the use of two separate cabinets, one to serve each half of the building. The north cabinet will also serve the centrally located rooms and offices. It will connect to the outside world through an ISDN line and to the other cabinet by a high speed fiber connection. It will be located in the Library storage room and will be a free standing cabinet. The south cabinet will be located in the Mailroom and will be wall mounted. The location of the two hubs is shown in Figure C-1.
The floor plans for Wiley Elementary School.
To require only one GatorStar GX in the design, each cabinet contains a 24-port patch panel that connects to the 24-port patch panel located in the other cabinet. Any LocalTalk devices can then connect across these panels and be connected to the GatorStar GX from either cabinet.
The north cabinet will serve a total of 44 lines from rooms. These lines will split evenly between Ethernet and LocalTalk, allowing 22 Ethernet lines and 22 LocalTalk lines. The ISDN device requires one Ethernet port. Each Asante hub will provide 12 ports. Since there are two hubs in the cabinet, if all lines are connected, there will be one Ethernet port available for future use.
The south cabinet will serve a total of 38 lines from rooms. These lines will split evenly between Ethernet and LocalTalk, giving 19 Ethernet lines and 19 LocalTalk lines. Since there are two hubs in the cabinet also, if all lines are connected, there will be five Ethernet ports available for future use.
The combined number of LocalTalk lines in both cabinets is 41. Since the MacLAN patch panel and the GatorStar provide 48 ports, there will be seven LocalTalk ports available for future use.
Table C-1 shows a complete list of all equipment needed to implement this plan and the associated costs for the equipment.
Appendix: C.2 Mahomet-Seymour High School network plan review
The following is a modified version of the review done for Mahomet-Seymour High School after its network installation. It was documented by John Avelis, Jr., the teacher at Mahomet-Seymour High School involved in the networking project.
Introduction
The following pages will describe one scenario that has been used to design and build a 10baseT Ethernet category 5 compliant network in a midwestern high school of 128,000 square feet, 680 students and around 50 staff.
Mahomet-Seymour High School is in Community Unit School District #3, about 150 miles south of Chicago, and ten miles west of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The high school was constructed in 1979-80, largely of concrete block construction with steel reinforced poured concrete floors. The wide use of drop ceilings in the construction of the building greatly facilitated the wiring project, while the absence of openings through the poured floors meant that access for wiring runs had to be gained by drilling.
The design goals for the project were to construct a network to provide two drops each for around 65 spaces for under $20,000. This was to include everything necessary for a real, full performance 10 Mbps Ethernet network using category 5 wiring.
There were about 20 existing stand-alone computers that could be networked, and three existing 10base2 networks that could be incorporated into the building LAN. It includes a large amount of sweat equity in the planning, design, construction, and start-up phases of the project. All of these factors will be detailed in the following report.
Our network was defined as the following components:
Our network plan did not contain:
Do-it-yourself networking considerations:
You must have sufficient community/district/building personnel who are willing to contribute time and take an active, hands-on role to make the project work.
Although it may not be strictly necessary, the more outside expertise (university, business, community) that can be drawn upon to make the project work the better.
You should allow an entire school year, including the summer, from the beginning to the completion of the project. The actual project to network the school used as an example lasted from September 1994 to September 1995.
Planning the network:
Establish school / district uses for a network. This may be the most difficult step you will take. If your school/district has no network, it will require a lot of research to determine what the staff members want to do. But this step is essential, because it will determine what you finally install, and how the resulting network fills your needs. It is probably most important as a means of having all staff, at all grade levels, and including support staff and administration, buy in to the project. This step is also crucial, even if you decide not to do it yourself. Before you contract to have any network installed by a vendor, you must know what you want the network to do.
Network Design. If costs are fixed at a low level, network solutions can be examined starting with the cheapest and going from there, until your budget tops out. In networking our high school, considerations of economy and performance in network design almost dictated a 10baseT design, using category 5 components. We believe that saving money by installing category 3 or 4 components is a false economy. These materials will work fine with normal Ethernet, but are not upgradable to Fast Ethernet or ATM, while category 5 components can make this transition.
Thus, a modest investment in network upgradability will yield significant savings, when a decision is made in the future to upgrade by the order of magnitude that these higher bandwidth modes (the components for which are too expensive for most public schools today) represent. In addition, network components are available in a wide range of price/performance combinations. Moderately priced components enable a 10baseT network to be easily connected to an existing 10base2 or 10base5 network.
The number of wires pulled to each room should be considered. In our school we decided to pull two wires per room, one for data and one for backup, future expansion, or for dedicated video.
Installation. We found it practical in our drop-ceiling environment (with a ceiling height of 9 feet) to bring the network junction boxes down 3 feet from the drop ceiling. This high-wall mount also keeps these relatively more fragile connections up out of the way, and they are not as easily blocked by furniture such as bookcases or filing cabinets.
APPENDIX: D Sample Wide Area Networks
Appendix: D.1 Fisher Grade School - A dialup network
Fisher, IL, is a small rural town located about 40 miles northwest of Champaign. In 1995, the grade school received a grant from the ISBE. The grant allowed them to network a part of the school building, as well as to provide Internet access for several machines as shown in Figure D-1.
The town does not have the WAN options available to larger communities. Due to this limitation, and cost limitations in the grant, the building decided to connect to the Internet using standard phone lines, dialing into the NCSA to access the Internet. The computers with Internet access each have a modem directly connected to them, and only those machines can access the Internet.
Those machines, as well as machines located throughout the rest of the building, connect to a category 5 10baseT Ethernet network. A volunteer group of parents and teachers installed the network. It has a Novell server attached to it, used as a file server, a print server, and an email server.
The Fisher WAN.
Appendix: D.2 Charleston - A leased line network
Charleston, IL, is a medium size town located midway between Champaign, IL, and Springfield, IL. In 1995, the district received a grant from the NCSA to provide Internet access to its elementary and middle schools. The district was fortunate to have Eastern Illinois University at Charleston located in proximity, and were able to get both help and Internet access from the University. As part of their agreement with the University, the Internet access is only temporary and another solution must eventually be found.
The district chose to use 56 Kbps leased lines to connect the buildings and to the University as shown in Figure D-2. Internally, they installed a category 5 10baseT Ethernet network. Due to time constraints, they selected to contract the installation out to a local vendor who installed all the wiring. Their network allows any machine connected to it to access the Internet.
At each building, they bought an AppleShare file server, on which they also run an Apple Internet Mail Server. This allows district staff to send and receive email. In the future, they also intend to install a web server on each of the machines.
The Charleston WAN.
Appendix: D.3 Champaign and Urbana - an ISDN network
The twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, IL, decided to pool their resources to increase their options while networking their districts. Each had previously connected a few of their schools to the Internet using grant money from the ISBE as well as from the NCSA. By allocating district money, they were able to design and implement the 128 Kbps ISDN network shown in Figure D-3.
They bought access to the Internet from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and bought two Sun Unix systems on which to run their email and web servers. Ascend Pipeline 50 ISDN routers and NT-1 terminators were bought and placed at each building to which connected to the district WAN. An Ascend MAX was bought and placed at the University to receive all the incoming Champaign and Urbana ISDN lines. In addition, the district bought equipment to allow up to eight concurrent dial-in users. The University maintains all the equipment located on its facilities as part of the package bought by the districts.
A total of 26 buildings, 18 in Champaign, and eight in Urbana, connect with ISDN lines. All the buildings have Internet access from any machine on the building network, and cat 5 10baseT Ethernet wiring comprise each network.
Urbana chose to have building electricians install the wiring in each building. Champaign hired two new staff members who worked during the evening hours and installed the wiring in each of the buildings.
The Champaign/Urbana WAN.
Appendix: D.4 Mahomet-Seymour - a wireless/fiber hybrid network
Mahomet, IL, is a small town located about 12 miles west of Champaign. Because of the lack of availability of access to the Internet in town, the junior and senior high schools decided to implement a wireless network providing access to the Internet through the University of Illinois.
The district bought Solectek wireless equipment and erected a donated 125-foot radio tower. They were able to rent space from the PBS station WILL in Urbana and use their radio tower. The tower is located on the University campus, and Internet access was already available at the PBS office. The district bought access to the Internet from the University. As previously mentioned, the district has had problems getting the wireless equipment to work reliably. The vendor is actively working to solve the problems.
Since both the junior and senior high schools share the same property, the district decided to connect the schools with a fiber-optic cable buried in the ground between the schools. The local power company donated the work done to install the cable. Figure D-4 shows the combined wireless and fiber-optic WAN.
They completely networked the high school using both district money and grant money from the ISBE and the NCSA. A teacher volunteer group installed all the wiring. The junior high currently has only one lab networked, but has plans to continue to network once money is available.
The Mahomet-Seymour WAN.
Appendix: D.5 Tolono - a wireless network
Tolono, IL, is a small town located about 8 miles south of Champaign. Because of the lack of availability of access to the Internet in town, the high school decided to implement a wireless network providing access to the Internet through the University of Illinois.
The district bought Solectek wireless equipment and was able to attach the equipment to the roof of the building because of the flat terrain between the school and the University. They were able to rent space from the PBS station WILL in Urbana and use their radio tower. The tower is located on the University campus, and Internet access was already available at the PBS office. The district bought access to the Internet from the University. Unlike Mahomet, Tolono has had no problems with the reliability of the wireless connection. They have had high-speed Internet access since installing the equipment. Figure D-5 shows their WAN.
They networked the high school with cat 5 10baseT Ethernet using both district money and grant money from the ISBE and the NCSA. The network consists of two computer labs with 15 and 24 computers respectively, the library with 4 computers, and two classrooms with one computer each. Two teachers and a group of students performed the installation of the wiring.
The Tolono WAN.
Appendix: D.6 Marshall - A satellite network
Marshall, IL, is a rural town located several hours from any major city. Due to the costs associated with long-distance leased lines, the district decided to search other alternatives. They selected a solution from Intellicom that provides access to the Internet using a communications satellite. They currently have access to the Internet at 56 Kbps, and plan to upgrade to 115 Kbps in the future.
The district has satellite dishes installed at two locations. The first dish is located at the high school, with a coaxial cable connecting the junior high to the high school. This allows both buildings to share the access to the Internet. Figure D-6 shows the design of the Marshall high school and middle school WAN. The second dish is located at the elementary school and provides Internet access for the building.
The district has also installed a dial-in modem pool with ten modems attached to it. In addition to offering after hours access to the district staff, they are reselling access to the community to offset the cost of the satellite network.
The Marshall WAN.
Appendix: D.7 Glenview - A cable network
Glenview, IL, is a suburban town located about 30 miles north of Chicago. Several years ago, when the city negotiated its contract with the cable company, they included a provision that required the cable company to provide network access to all the town buildings, including schools. It also required them to provide these services at a minimal cost. This allowed the district to connect all of its buildings and to the Internet using symmetric cable tv equipment at 4 Mbps. Figure D-7 shows the basic design of the city WAN. In addition, the cable company is preparing new equipment that they hope will boost the bandwidth of each connection to a speed of 40 Mbps.
The Glenview WAN.
APPENDIX: E Sample Technology Plan
Urbana District 116 Technology Plan, June, 1995
Mission Statement
The pace of change in technology is breathtaking, and nowhere is the pace of these changes felt so dramatically as in our schools. Daily, we educators encounter the limitless opportunities and the potential perils of technology. Because technology so pervades our society, the Urbana School District needs to ensure that these tremendous tools of technology become an expected and routine part of the education of our students.
Our mission is to provide a technology rich learning environment to the student of our system in order for them to live successfully in our diverse society. Our expectation is that each student will be able to retrieve information and use it to make decisions and solve problems.
Education Goals and Objectives
The education goals and objectives are to:
Technology Goals
Technology will be used to:
Defining Technology
Technology means any device or system which assists in the acquisition, organization, processing, or dissemination of information.
Technologies considered in this plan include but are not limited to:
Equipment, Networking, and Facilities Objectives
Despite the fact that Urbana operates in a state which is fiftieth in the nation in funding for technology, 116 is committed to exceeding the national average of one computer per nine students.
Objectives to be met over the next three years are established for the following areas:
Hardware
Accessibility
Inventory
Networking
Facilities
Software
Curriculum Development
Staff Development
District Support for Technology
Building Goals and Plans.
Financial Support
APPENDIX: F Sample Acceptable Use Policies
The policies presented in this appendix are modified versions of the policies developed by the Los Angeles Unified Schools District.
Appendix: F.1 Network Administration Policy
Computers are used to support learning and to enhance instruction. Computer networks allow people to interact with many computers. The Internet allows people to interact with hundreds of thousands of networks. It is a general policy that all computers are to be used in a responsible, efficient, ethical and legal manner. Failure to adhere to the policy and the guidelines below will result in the revocation of the users access privilege by the network administrator. Unacceptable uses of the computer include:
- Violating the conditions of the Education Code dealing with students rights to privacy.
- Using profanity, obscenity, or other language which may be offensive to another user.
- Reposting (forwarding) personal communication without the author's prior consent.
- Copying commercial software in violation of copyright law.
- Using the network for financial gain, for commercial activity, or for any illegal activity.
The person in whose name an account is issued is responsible at all times for its proper use.
Users must not give a password to another user. Users should change passwords frequently.
Because access to the Internet provides connections to other computer systems located all over the world, users (and parents of users, if the user is under 18 years old) must understand that the district does not control the content of the information available on these other systems. Some of the information available is controversial and, sometimes, offensive.
The district does not condone the use of such materials. School employees, students and parents of students must be aware that access to the Internet will be withdrawn from users who do not respect the rights of others or who do not follow the rules and regulations established by the school and the district.
Appendix: F.2 Computer Acceptable Use Policy
Rules and Regulations.
- It is a privilege to receive an Internet address.
- The Internet account is free to users.
- A RESPONSIBLE user of the Internet may keep an account as long as the user is a teacher or student in the district.
Responsible users May:
Responsible users May NOT:
System operators will have access to all user accounts, including email. If the rules above are not followed by any person, use of the network will be cancelled. There will be no second chances.
If the user is not sure how to do something on the computer, ask a teacher or the system administrator in the school.
Appendix: F.3 District Parental Consent Form
Computer Network Account
Student Last Name/Student first name: ___________________________________
Teacher Name: _______________________________________________________
Date Student Passed Test: _____/_____/_____
I have read the Computer Acceptable Use Policy. I have passed the student test. I will follow the rules. If I do not follow the rules, I understand that my network account will be taken away.
Student Signature: ______________________________ Date: _____/_____/_____
I have read the Computer Acceptable Use Policy and the Network test. I understand that the Internet is worldwide group of hundreds of thousands of computer networks. I know that the district does not control the content of these Internet networks. When using the Internet, I realize that students may read material that is controversial or offensive. I give my permission to issue an Internet address for my child. I understand that my child may keep this address as long as the procedures described in the district Acceptable Use Policy are followed.
Parent Signature: ______________________________ Date: _____/_____/_____
(If student is under 18 years old)
Appendix: F.4 Internet Usage Test
True or False
- _____ You cannot use the Internet to sell anything.
- _____ The Internet is made up of many computer networks.
- _____ It is OK to share your password with your friends.
- _____ Copyrighted material is software, books or files written by others.
- _____ I can swear or use abusive language using email if I don't know the person I am writing to.
- _____ To download is to receive a file.
- _____ If you suspect that someone is using your password, you should change your password.
- _____ When using email, you must remember the Acceptable Use Policy.
Multiple Choice
- If you are not sure how to do something _____
- ask the network operator or your teacher.
- experiment.
- a or b.
- none of the above.
- You should _____
- check you disks for viruses.
- scan downloaded files for viruses.
- not worry about viruses because there are none on the Internet.
- not worry because the school district will take care of it.
- a and b.
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This file last updated on 05/09/96 at 13:53:07.
© Copyright by Bradley H. Lamont, 1996