Running head: MILESTONE 2
Milestone 2
IT-212 Intro to Computer Networks
Geovaney Lazcano
Southern New Hampshire University
Upon researching internet service providers for our Fayetteville NC, I have narrowed it
down to two companies: Spectrum and CenturyLink. Both have some pros and cons to them, I
will summarize my findings. CenturyLink's has a DSL connection for most of their packages,
which I don't think will be sufficient to support the day-to-day operations. But they do offer
business plan package which uses fiber optic cabling. This form of cabling offers up to 940 Mbps
(in theory) download/upload speed. They offer unlimited data usage, no annual contracts and
activation/cancellation fees. Which is great since this ensures our network has the proper
bandwidth to support multiple connected nodes, if paired with the proper cabling and layer three
hardware. Fiber optic is indeed expensive to implement and maintain, but this route will reduce
network congestion and has a 99.9% up-time reliability. At the time of typing this, the monthly
fee for this service is $65 with a one-time service installation fee for their modem (if needed).
Spectrum offers a business plan that has a 1Gbps (1000Mbps) download speed and
35Mbps upload speed. This can easily support 20+ employees, with the capability for web
hosting, large data transfers and file transfers. The upload speed is slightly lower than what
CenturyLink offers. There are no data limits with Spectrum, zero cancellation fees and no
contract is needed upon signing up. At the time of typing this report, the cost of this business
package is at $149.99. My recommendation would be to sign up with Spectrum since it has a
download speed. If higher bandwidth is needed, we can upgrade to fiber optic and immensely
increase it.
This portion of the report will be the hardware and software recommendations. The
Desktop machines and monitors should be purchased from HP. HP is widely used throughout
various companies in the U.S. and I personally use these products at home and at work. The
lifespan of these products can easily overcome 10+ years of daily use and their customer support
department has very good reviews. A great HP desktop would be the HP Pavilion -- TP01-1105t,
it has an intel core i3 10100 (3.6 GHz base frequency, up to 4.3GHz with intel turbo boost, 6MB
L3 cache). The GPU is decent for marketing department, all these machines come with an
integrated UHD 630 card. 8GB RAM 256GB SSD storage space, optical drive (important) and
an integrated 10/100/1000 gigabit ethernet LAN NIC. The operating systems we should
implement should be Windows 10 (maybe 11), Windows 10 comes with very good basic
computing software applications that can be utilized throughout the marketing and sales
departments. Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Business Standard should also be purchased for more
advanced applications that these departments can utilize such as Visio, Power point Outlook and
Microsoft teams for meetings and conference calls.
A router that I recommend is the Net gear Nighthawk X4S, which costs about