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Information And Communication Technology 通讯与资讯工艺 (ICT)

11. Common Problems in Smaller Schools

From observations the following are the most common issues that cause problems:

•	Poor cabling infrastructure
•	Hubs used where switches were necessary
•	Use of 10Mb cards when 10/100 are required for network traffic
•	Number of ports/hub too low to allow for growth
•	Use of NetBEUI transmission protocols* instead of lower bandwidth requirements of TCP/IP *NetBEUI "floods" the network sending packets to all connected machines that are not protected by a router. TCP/IP is better managed and can be "sorted" by switches.
•	Mis-match between applications being run, machine speed and capacity to run applications
•	The ratio of servers:PCs is often too high. Rationalise; without running too many applications on the one server. This is more true for Win servers than for those running Unix/Linux
•	The use of "home built" servers that have numerous conflicts and mismatched elements
•	Lack of firewall and virus protection
•	Open access to the Internet
•	Unfiltered/unmanaged e-mail access
•	Lack of staff training in the basics of the operating system