CCC network tour

Today we took a tour of the network used here at Carteret Community College given by Ken Martin. The network at CCC is a mix of regular old copper networking cable (cat 5 and Cat 6) and fiber optics. The networking cable is used in the buildings to connect the computers in the class rooms to the switches in the networking closets then fiber optic is used to run between the buildings and the main server room.
Our first stop was the network closet on the same floor (3rd) as the class room we sit in the Wayne West building each floor has 2 of these room. The main back bone of the network is 10/100 Cisco 3548 with PoE (Power over Ethernet) to run the phones and security cameras. But new 100/100 Cisco’s are in the works to replace the ageing switches.
Each room had it’s own UPS (Uninterrupted power supply), this is different then other networks I’m seen those used a central huge UPS to power the entire network.

The server room seemed like a mess of wires and servers. This is where Blackboard and the emails servers are.

When we walked in the main server room they were in the process of going to virtualized desktops for the PC in the class rooms.