ღ۞.Altius, Citius, Fortius.ღ۞

The university is provide a not conducive Internet connection. The connection is very slow, unsecured from computer viruses and limited features and website to browse. Transactions are blocked prohibiting students view video files and listening musics because of the high memory space it consumed. I understand that the government cutting-off the budget of the university, but we are students who have a very wild mind and full of ideas that someway fruitful for self-improvement for maturity. We need a wide concern area to explore in order for us to discover things that can be learned by our own actual practice and involvement. We have to spread our wings but how can do this if many things are prohibited, how can we learn independently, if the university limit the students ground for exploration on cyberspace.

1. Traffic in Internet Connection Management

Traffic in Internet connectivity is one of the problems the university. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their Internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).
The greater the bandwidth, the greater it cost. I know that enhancing bandwidth is not be easy be implemented it because it is very costly and the university cannot afford to finance it. But if we are looking for better and fast Internet connection we have to sacrifice if you are so willing to do. If it really cannot suffice to purchase high bandwidth for then do bandwidth management. Bandwidth management is the process of measuring and controlling the communications (traffic, packets) on a network link, to avoid filling the link to capacity or overfilling the link, which would result in network congestion and poor performance.
In addition,

Identity-based Bandwidth Management:

Bandwidth Management, establish priorities based on users, web category, groups and applications with precise bandwidth allocation based on usage and time of the day. The Internet content filtering module complements bandwidth management by blocking access to high bandwidth-consuming audio-video download, gaming, tickers, ads and more. This ensures that business and bandwidth-critical applications like CRM, VoIP and more gain guaranteed bandwidth. Enterprises can fine-tune their bandwidth policies based on changing user requirements as well as their usage for continually improved network performance.
Bandwidth Prioritization enables bandwidth policies to be created to enable bandwidth allocation to high-priority business traffic, enabling enterprises to deliver uninterrupted access to business critical applications and users. At the same time, they retain bandwidth control over recreational traffic and heavy bandwidth guzzling media applications. Committed and Burstable Bandwidth Enterprises can create bandwidth policies to allocate guaranteed bandwidth to users, assigning minimum and maximum bandwidth to users. Committed bandwidth ensures that critical users receive constant levels of bandwidth during peak and non-peak traffic periods. Burstable bandwidth allocation allows users to receive greater bandwidth when available, ensuring optimal usage of the resource.
Time-based Bandwidth Allocation Bandwidth Management, enterprises can schedule and regulate bandwidth as per user requirements. High bandwidth can be provided to a user during a particular time of the day when uninterrupted access is required. By doing this, enterprises can lower the peaks in bandwidth usage across the day. This limits the need for bandwidth purchase based on excessively high peaks, controlling operating expenses.

Reference:
www.wikipedia.com

2.Better Internet Security

When a computer connects to a network and begins communicating with others, it is taking a risk. Internet security involves the protection of a computer's internet account and files from intrusion of an unknown user. Basic security measures involve protection by well selected passwords, change of file permissions and back up of computer's data. Security concerns are in some ways peripheral to normal business working, but serve to highlight just how important it is that business users feel confident when using IT systems. Security will probably always be high on the IT agenda simply because cyber criminals know that a successful attack is very profitable. This means they will always strive to find new ways to circumvent IT security, and users will consequently need to be continually vigilant. Whenever decisions need to be made about how to enhance a system, security will need to be held uppermost among its requirements.
IT Security is the most important need of every organization. Especially effective Internet Security has become an essential need for every small, medium or large enterprises using information technology and other internet based services to perform their work easily and effectively. The organization's dependency over Internet has increased the need for internet security implementation and network monitoring inside the organization.
All companies from private and public sector, non-government organization, educational institutes and financial institutions are dependent on Internet for information exchange. Internet is also a major way of instant communication between two channels. Therefore, chances of information leak, hacking or intrusion are more than earlier days due to increasing dependency on internet.

Security Vulnerability with the Internet connection or Intranet can result following major security threats:

1. Unauthorized access of servers and systems in the network,
2. Unauthorized access of Internet connection for illegal or criminal purposes
3. Stealing, alteration or deletion of sensitive systems and data
4. Denial-of-service attacks, resulting in an inability by users to access systems
5. Viruses or Trojans attack on systems, Virus infections in important data
6. Destruction of websites and online systems

Above described threats are just glimpse of security threats caused by weak Internet Security Mechanism. Information is an asset that, like other important business assets, has value to an organization and consequently needs to be suitably protected. Failure in implementation of proper internet security mechanism can ultimately have worse effect. An organization with no or less effective internet security policy can have following ill effects:

1. Deterioration of organization's overall reputation
2. Reduced public confidence in the agency’s online services
3. Unauthorized disclosure of company's secret information
4. Financial loss through online fraud
5. Financial loss by reducing productive work hours due to intrusion

To secure workplace from potential internet threats, an organization has to adopt proper internet security policy, utilize best available security tools, and practice strict monitoring measures (manual and automated both) inside office premises. With proper planning, technical expertise and continuous efforts an organization can restrict most of the external threats related to Internet Security.

Reference:
www.wikipedia.com

3.Having an VoIP- (Voice over Internet Protocol) is simply the transmission of voice traffic over IP-based networks.

A VoIP Gateway is a network devic which helps to convert voice and fax calls, in real time, between an IP network and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It is a high performance gateway designed for Voice over IP applications. Typically, a VoIP gateway comes with the ability to support at least two T1/E1 digital channels. Most VoIP gateways feature at least one Ethernet and telephone port. Controlling a gateway can be done with the help of the various protocols like MGCP, SIP or LTP.

Benefits of VoIP Gateways

The main advantage of VoIP gateway is that it can provide connection with your existing telephone and fax machines through the traditional telephone networks, PBXs, and key systems. This makes the process of making calls over the IP network familiar to VoIP customers.
VoIP gateways can end a call from the telephone and can provide user admission control using IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system and provide accounting records for the call. Gateways also help direct outbound calls to a specific destination, or can end the call from another gateway and send the call to the PSTN.
VoIP gateways plays a major role in enhancing carrier services and also supports the simplicity of the telephone calls for less cost and easy access. Flexible call integration has been developed at less cost which enables programmable call progress tones and distinctive ring tones.
Functions of VoIP Gateways
The main functions of VoIP gateways include voice and fax compression or decompression, control signaling, call routing, and packetization. VoIP gateways are also power packed with additional features such as interfaces to external controllers like Gatekeepers or Softswitches, network management systems, and billing systems.
Future of VoIP Gateway Technology
Over the years, VoIP gateway has become an efficient and flexible solution and is used for office data and voice connectivity. Besides the connectivity performance, VoIP also offers better reliability under a variety of circumstances.
The future of VoIP gateway is very clear and precise; high-density, scaleable, open platforms need to be designed and implemented to allow the millions of installed telephones and fast-growing number of H.323 computer clients (such as Netscape's Communicator and Microsoft's NetMeeting) to communicate over IP. Many vendors are in the process of designing interoperable VoIP gateways according to the latest architectures to meet the changing demands of service providers, corporate network clients, and individual carriers.


How does VoIP work?
VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol (sometimes called Internet Telephony) is touted in some circles as the technology of future. The reasoning is simple, really. VoIP is bringing possibilities to the forefront of technological thinking because the possibilities were listed as impossible just a few years ago. VoIP uses a broadband Internet connection for routing telephone calls, as opposed to conventional switching and fiberoptic alternatives. This process holds great promise in providing higher efficiency and lower cost for communication consumers. One interesting aspect of the technology is that, for the user, no large scale infrastructure is required. It's all about combining the functionality of the Internet and a conventional phone into one single service with minimal software and hardware support.

Refererence:
www.tech-faq.com/voip-gateway.shtml#


4.Benefits of Using Open Source Software
Open Source's proponents often claim that it offers significant benefits when compared to typical commercial products. Commercial products typically favour visible features (giving marketing advantage) over harder-to measure qualities such as stability, security and similar less glamorous attributes. As a shorthand, we shall describe this phenomenon as quality vs features.
Open Source Software developers are evidently motivated by many factors but favouring features over quality is not noticeable amongst them. For many developers, peer review and acclaim is important, so it's likely that they will prefer to build software that is admired by their peers. Highly prized factors are clean design, reliability and maintainability, with adherence to standards and shared community values preeminent.
"The Open Source community attracts very bright, very motivated developers, who although frequently unpaid, are often very disciplined. In addition, these developers are not part of corporate cultures where the best route to large salaries is to move into management, hence some Open Source developers are amongst the most experienced in the industry. In addition all users of Open Source products have access to the source code and debugging tools, and hence often suggest both bug fixes and enhancements as actual changes to the source code. Consequently the quality of software produced by the Open Source community sometimes exceeds that produced by purely commercial organisations." (QINETIQ2001).
1. Reliability
Reliability is a loose term. Broadly, we can take it to mean the absence of defects which cause incorrect operation, data loss or sudden failures, perhaps what many people would mean when they use the term `bug'. Strictly, a bug would also mean failure to meet the specification, but since most Open Source projects dispense with the concept of anything easily recognisable as a formal specification, it's hard to point to that as good way of defining what is a bug and what is a feature. Determining what constitutes a bug is usually by agreement amongst the developers and users of the software (an overlapping community in many cases). Obvious failure to perform is easily recognised as a bug, as is failure to conform to appropriate published standards. Security related failings (exploits or vulnerabilities) are clearly bugs too. Each of these kinds of bugs is usually addressed with speedy fixes wherever possible and Open Source advocates will claim very rapid time-to-fix characteristics for software.
The pattern with closed-source software is typically that a defect report needs to be filed and then there will be a delay before the vendor determines when or whether to issue an updated release. Users of the software are much more at the mercy of the vendor's internal processes than with the Open Source arrangement and the personal experience of the authors is that it can be extremely frustrating to move from the Open Source to the closed model.
"The market greatly values robustness, and the Open Source model, particularly as practiced by Linux, encourages a large market of early adopters (compared to the size of the early market for commercial products) who actively help debug the software. Consequently much Open Source software becomes highly robust at a surprisingly early stage of its development, and mature Open Source products are setting new industry standards for bulletproofness." (QINETIQ2001)
Stability
In a business environment software is mostly a necessary evil, a tool to do a job. Unless the job changes or more efficient processes are discovered then there is rarely pressure or need to alter the software that is being used to assist the task. This is more or less directly counter to what motivates software vendors who are in the unenviable position of supplying a commodity that does not wear out or age much. The vendors need a stable revenue stream to be able to keep their business going whilst their customers have not the slightest desire to change or upgrade any product that is working well enough to suit their needs. If a software supplier can establish a virtual monopoly and then force upgrades onto its audience (as has been the history of the software industry since the mid 1960s) then the profits can be very high.
Software vendors can apply a number of tactics to persuade their customers to upgrade more or less willingly. Typical tactics include moving to allegedly new and improved file formats (which require the new and improved software to read them) or to withdraw support and bug fixes for older versions after a short period. The problem for users of the software is that they rarely have much control over that process and are left isolated if they choose to remain with older versions that they consider to be acceptable. This has cost and control implications for the business.
Open Source Software is not a panacea in the world of ever-changing software, but the worst effects of vendor-push can be mitigated. The way that Open Source products tend to conform closely to standards efforts has an inertial effect, since standards change but slowly and interchange formats are often particularly stable. As a result, incompatible file formats can be less of an issue. If they are standards-based then they typically aren't an issue at all, and if they are formats unique to the software product — proprietary formats in a sense - then they cannot be undocumented since the source code that uses them is itself published.
In the real world, no business is static and software changes to meet new requirements. A choice to use Open Source software can provide a counter to the pressures to upgrade for the vendor's commercial purposes but cannot shelter every user from any change. Having access to the source code can allow a business to choose to support itself on an old version where necessary and we belive that in general it gives more options and choice to the users. Nonetheless, some upgrading and maintenance effort will always be needed. Putting the choice in the hands of the users rather than the suppliers is hard to criticize.
Auditability
A rarely-understood benefit of Open Source software (any software where the source code is published) is its auditability. Closed-source software forces its users to trust the vendor when claims are made for qualities such as security, freedom from backdoors, adherence to standards and flexibility in the face of future changes. If the source code is not available those claims remain simply claims.
By publishing the source code, authors make it possible for users of the software to have confidence that there is a basis for those claims. Whether this takes the form of an cursory and informal inspection or more rigorous auditing, what's clear is that without access to the source, third party inspection is impossible. At present the industry does not insist on third party inspection or certification, but it's possible that as open source models become more popular then expectations of audits will rise.

CONECTA2000 notes:
"We can easily see that open source software has a distinct advantage over proprietary systems, since it is possible to easily and quickly identify potential security problems and correct them. Volunteers have created mailing lists and auditing groups to check for security issues in several important networking programs and operating system kernels, and now the security of open source software can be considered equal or better than that of desktop operating systems. It has also already been shown that the traditional approach of security through obscurity leaves too many open holes. Even now that the Internet reaches just a part of the world, viruses and cracker attacks can pose a significant privacy and monetary threat. This threat is one of the causes of the adoption of open source software by many network-oriented software systems."
Cost
Most current Open Source projects are also available free of royalties and fees, leading to the confusion around the commonly used term `free software'. Regrettably the English language does not have separate concepts for free-of-charge and free as in unconstrained; other languages are better equipped to describe the difference between `freedom' and `free of charge' (libre vs. gratis). Proponents of free software licences tend to emphasise liberty over cost although in practice the main open source projects are free in both senses of the word.
From a business perspective the purchase cost of software is only one factor; total cost of ownership (TCO) is what really matters. Other things being equal, the solution with lowest TCO is usually the most desirable one. Arguments in favour of low TCO for open source software include:
Possibly zero purchase price
Potentially no need to account for copies in use, reducing administrative overhead
Claimed reduced need for regular upgrades (giving lower/nil upgrade fees, lower management costs)
Claimed longer uptimes and reduced need for expensive systems administrators
Near-zero vulnerability to viruses eliminating need for virus checking, data loss and downtime
Claimed lower vulnerability to security breaches and hack attacks reducing systems administration load
Claimed ability to prolong life of older hardware while retaining performance
Some longer-term claims are more difficult to substantiate yet they need to be taken into account:
Better adherence to standards permits competition in the market, reducing vendor lock-in and consequent monopoly pricing
Availability of source code provides greater continuity and security against
Financial collapse of vendors of key products
Vendors choosing to withdraw support for unprofitable products
Protection against being required to fit your IT strategy to the cash needs of your software supplier
Flexibility and Freedom
Open Source projects have very little motivation to attempt this kind of lock-in strategy. Since there is no commercial benefit to be had, adherence to de-jure or de-facto standards (where they exist) is typically high. Where standards for interworking do not exist, the fact that the source code is published means that proprietary data formats can't be used to manipulate lock-in. This at least partly explains the relative success of Open Source software in infrastructure areas. Many vendors have tried to create web servers to compete with Apache, but because the network protocol used between browsers and the web server is well specified they have had to compete on quality or features rather than through more insidious tactics. Any vendor that controlled the lions' share of the browser and the server market would feel strongly tempted to exclude competitors by proprietary extensions to the HTTP protocol if they thought they could get away with it. No single vendor has yet managed to control both ends of this equation to a great enough degree.
"Open Source software tends to be free of dependency on related products. Purchasers often perceive that the product works best with other products from the same manufacturer. Open Source software offers its users greater freedom to purchase other products, avoiding lock-in to particular manufacturers." (QINETIQ2001).
Open Source software provides further flexibility through freedom.
1. Freedom from a single vendor
Software vendors can go out of business, and they can arbitrarily decide to cease development of a product. How would your business cope if it relied on such a product? Open-source software allows you to retain not just the right to use the software you already have, but the ability to continue to use it as your needs change.
2. Freedom to modify your software
You aren't limited to what one company believes you need. Proprietary software vendors must cater for many different companies, predominantly their own. Open-source software can be tailored for the way you do business. It is usually within the resources of all but the smallest companies to modify Open Source software to suit their own needs (and potentially then to make those enhancements available as a public good). If in-house development skills don't exist, a short email to the project's mailing list will usually find a suitable consultant.
Reference: www.tech-faq.com/voip-gateway.shtml#


5.Free wi-fi (wireless fidelity) connection in university area of responsibility

Wi-Fi allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad hoc network) mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode can prove useful in consumer electronics and gaming applications.
Many consumer devices use Wi-Fi. Amongst others, personal computers can a network to each other and connect to the Internet, mobile computers can connect to the Internet from any Wi-Fi hotspot, and digital cameras can transfer images wirelessly. Router which incorporate a DSL-modem or a cable-modem and a Wi-Fi access point, often set up in homes and other premises, provide Internet-access and internetworking to all devices connected (wirelessly or by cable) to them. One can also connect Wi-Fi devices in ad hoc mode for client-to-client connections without a router. Wi-Fi also enables places which would traditionally not have network to be connected.
In business environments, just like other environments, increasing the number of Wi-Fi access-points provides redundancy, support for fast roaming and increased overall network-capacity by using more channels or by defining smaller cells. Wi-Fi enables wireless voice-applications (VoWLAN or WVOIP). Over the years, Wi-Fi implementations have moved toward "thin" access-points, with more of the network intelligence housed in a centralized network appliance, relegating individual access-points to the role of mere "dumb" radios. Outdoor applications may utilize true mesh topologies. As of 2007 Wi-Fi installations can provide a secure computer networking gateway, firewall, DHCP server, intrusion detection system, and other functions.



Operational advantages
Wi-Fi allows local area networks (LANs) to be deployed without wires for client devices, typically reducing the costs of network deployment and expansion. Spaces where cables cannot be run, such as outdoor areas and historical buildings, can host wireless LANs.
Wireless network adapters are now built into most laptops. The price of chipsets for Wi-Fi continues to drop, making it an economical networking option included in even more devices. Wi-Fi has become widespread in corporate infrastructures.
Wi-Fi is widely available in more than 220,000 public hotspots and tens of millions of homes and corporate and university campuses worldwide. The current version of Wi-Fi Protected Access encryption (WPA2) is not easily defeated, provided strong passwords are used. New protocols for Quality of Service (WMM) make Wi-Fi more suitable for latency-sensitive applications (such as voice and video), and power saving mechanisms (WMM Power Save) improve battery opera.

WIFI FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Wifi Features
High Speed Internet Access
Site Surveys
Enterprise Grade Equipment
Scalable Systems
VPN Compatability
Flexible Authentication Methods
Experienced Installation Technicians
Maintenance Agreements
Free and Pay Services
24 x 7 x 365 End User Technical Support
24 x 7 x 365 Equipment Monitoring
Support and Usage Reports via your personal login through the Hospitality WiFi Control Panel
Wifi Benefits
Guest Satisfaction
Convenient End User Mobility
Increased Foot traffic
Increased Revenue
Easy Access
Unlimited Flexible Billing Options
Complete Turn Key Solution
References:
www.wikipedia.com
www.hospitalitywifi.com/featuresbenefits.htm
6.Insourcing
I Insourcing is a developing or making a system by assigned personnels of the company that responsible and knowledgeable on system development. If the university's programmers and IT instructors that capable of developing and making the Information System will do the job it will be very nice, it is like making use of own resources. In short, love your own. It is cheaper than proprietary or outsourcing. It also a challenge to the instructors their ability in their field and do their best to encourage students to do actual practices. It is actual presentation of what an IT professional and programmers will be in the future.
This is all I can proposed if will be hired as IT consultant of the university.