You are employed as a network consultant at Network Design Consultants. Your company consists of 21 consultants who assist all types of organizations with issues involving network planning, design, installation, and troubleshooting. The company works on national and international projects, depending on the currently active pool of clients.

Your present assignment is to help a small advertising firm, Harrison and Associates, to consider its options for designing a network. There are 31 people in the firm: 15 advertising consultants 10 graphic designers and 6 office coordinator. Each person has a computer at her or his desk, and every computer has a printer. None of these network resources are centrally managed, controlled or secured through any client/server management infrastructure and firewall. Harrison and Associates represents a classic small-office situation.

As a first step in the design process, what information would you gather about Harrison and Associates?

Tips: E.g. asking questions about number of employees, types of computer in use and their locations, what software and applications are used, high and low network use period, assess what type of security is needed, company growth and network resources etc.

describing the topology you recommend and type of network design (e.g. peer-to-peer / client server) for Harrison and Associates network, and include why you recommend it.