There’s no mystery behind these essential elements. We’ve all heard of
them at one point of time or another. The first one we talk of is the DHCP
service, which is used to automatically allocate IP addresses to all the
machines on a network. Not only that, but a DHCP server can also automatically
assign the Internet gateway, DNS server and domain name information, and much
more to all the clients on the network. Name resolution service is the second
essential for any network. You can’t browse the Net without contacting a name
server. Smaller companies can use their ISP’s name server, while larger ones
can set up their own. Name servers can also be used for resolving local machine
names on a network. We cover how to do so in this story.
Almost everyone has e-mail, but is your mail setup configured to optimally
utilize your Internet bandwidth? That’s where our third essential, local-mail
routing, comes into play. Companies having their mail servers in the US, need
some sort of a mail setup on their network that will keep all internal mail
within the network. Local mail routing isn’t the only element to conserve
Internet bandwidth. That’s where proxy servers come in as our fourth
essential. You need to choose the right proxy server, and then know what’s the
best way to set one up for your company’s needs. You may need to cascade two
proxies, or create a reverse proxy.
Firewalls have become another must these days, both for the network and
individual desktops. They remain the fourth essential along with the proxy
servers, as they also control your Internet access. I recently configured my
personal firewall to warn me of any website trying to place a cookie on my
machine, and of any machine trying to access any port on my machine. The results
were no less than surprising.
While on the subject, viruses and spam mail have become a menace, forming the
fifth essential for any network. Everyday there’s news of a new virus breaking
loose, causing major financial losses to companies. That’s why a proper
implementation of a corporate anti-virus solution has become essential. The
other nuisance on the Internet is spam. Most of you must clean your mailbox
every day of all the junk mail that arrives by the dozen. That’s where a
proper content security solution comes into the picture.
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