EDT 661: Field Trip

Accessing the Internet from Health Class

Tour of Southwest High School’s Wiring Closets

By Riley Woldt

Richard services nine different schools in the Green Bay Area Public School District, including Southwest High.

Tour Guide:

Richard BakenIT Specialist

Richard Baken’s Intern: Vong Ly

Scenario: A student wants to access Google from my computer in the Health room, typing in www.google.com, to search for information related to the Seattle Fish Market.

My Health Rm.

Level 2

Level 1

LMC

Once the student types in www.google.com , a connection is made from my computer in the health room to the nearest of the seven wiring closets in the building.

Level 2

Level 1

LMC

My Health Room7

43

21

6

5

Wiring Closet #5

Connection from Health room to a smart switch in Wiring Closet #5

From Wiring Closet #5, the connection is sent to the LMC (Wiring Closet #7) where it will be sent out of the building.

Level 2

Level 1

LMC

My Health Room7

43

21

6

5

The LMC Wiring Closet, #7, is also a Gateway, where the connection leaves the building.

The server: where everyone logs in

Southwest High School is connected by fiber optics to the Green Bay Area Public Schools Downtown Office Building (DOB) . From the LMC, the connection leaves SHS and heads downtown.

GBAPSSHS

This is still considered an internal district connection with an internal address .

When we access Zangle (our online attendance and grading system), we are actually sending our connection to DOB and back to SHS.

There are four different high schools in the GBAPS that are sending information to DOB every time anyone wants to access the Internet. Here, the connection goes through the Domain Name System (DNS) and Network Address Translation (NAT).

The DNS is responsible for translating the words www.google.com to numbers, giving it a IP address that is constantly updated and can be recognized in the “real world.” The NAT acts a router or firewall that filters out traffic.

www.google.com 216.239.51.99

From the DOB router, the connection with the IP address is sent to the Internet Cloud. The Internet cloud has the intelligence to find the best and quickest way for the connection to reach it’s destination bouncing the signal from router to router anywhere in the world.

DOB

Internet

“The straightest line isn’t always the fastest way to the destination,” says Baken. The connection will bounce from router to router until it reaches the destination. Each router is smart enough to detect problems and reroute the connection if needed.

Once the connection reaches it’s destination, it has to return to it’s original sender. In this case DOB.

Here at DOB, the return connection is sent through the district’s DNS and NAT.

GBAPSSHS

Level 2

Level 1

LMC

My Health Room7

43

21

6

5

At SHS, the connection has found it’s way back to the LMC (wiring closet #7) to the wiring closet closest to the Health room (wiring closet #5) and, finally, to the computer in Mr. Woldt’s Health room! All this happens extremely fast!

Mr. Woldt’s Health Room

Price of Cod:

5.00 / lb.

Thanks to Richard Baken and Vong for the tour, sharing their wealth of information and patience!!!