Analysis Of Data Collected Through Interview

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

For the successful development of Network Monitoring and SMS Alarm System research and analysis have been done to find out the essential elements and requirements. Developer of Network Monitoring and SMS Alarm System can do the monitoring as well as observing research for the planned system based on the alert system which the system would send to network administrator for making the best decision and action to solve the network failure immediately and prevent of any downtime of network as well.

The final system and application of this investigation would be monitoring and checking the network bandwidth which can be considered as home-based network or office network and in particular situation which would happen to the network, it would routinely notify the network administrator on the subject of the bandwidth drop via TXT message (SMS).

Rendering to the identified above, the developer required monitoring software which has great performance and can overcome the downside of portable network analysis goods. The specific advantages of the system would be collecting network statistics for a long time in its database management system and recover historical statistics of a particular time.

The future system that the researcher would like to gain it has some special features which can be classify as:

System should be able to monitor the bandwidth that aids the administrator to control and monitor the health of the bandwidth.

System should be capable to alert administrator by Short Message Service (SMS) in the situation that bandwidth is lower than the threshold.

As the additional function of the planned system, it should be capable by establishing to monitor services, which can be including FTP, SMTP, WWW and alert administrator in case of network failure .

The upcoming system should have a web interface which can be observing existing network status by the network administrator, and can warning administrator to.

Requirement Analysis

Requirement analysis is the process of investigating the info requirements of the end users, the administrative environment, and every system currently being used, developing the efficient requirement of a system that could meet the essentials of the users indeed. It includes those tasks that go into defining the necessities of a new or improved system, taking account of the possibly conflicting necessities of the several stakeholders, for instance users. Requirements analysis is critical to the achievement of a task. The entire requirement that needs in this task and the probabilities that might cause some difficulties while implementing the project will figure out in this stage. The most significant aspect while in this stage is to meet the user necessities. For this future project, researcher has to investigate and acquire complete attention of system requirement. Besides, the requirement should be documented and can be mentioned throughout the rest of the system improvement process to make sure that the developing project aligns with user requirements.

Project Development

Project development is the level where researcher develops the future project. All the software as well as hardware, along with the OS requirement is uses in this stage. A lot of hardware is used in this phase for instance cables, Computer, and so on.

The activities in project development phase are:

Install operating system

Generate Interfaces using ASP.NET

Make a script

Integrate the alert method

Project Requirement

Project requirement contain of 2 major classifications; Software Requirement, hardware Requirement. As a requirement for the development completion, every element that need to be use in the requirement would be implements, analyzes and acquires information to make sure the right usefulness of the system.

Software Requirement

Certain software will be used to design and improve the network monitoring system in the future project. It contains of 3 division of software:

Equipment development tools

Microsoft Word 2010

Microsoft Word is a great companion for entirely tasks linked to creating, editing and checking text on your workstation. It works thru wholly popular document formats, counting support to save documents as PDF, or send files via email.

Microsoft Project

It is a project management software program established by Microsoft which is designed to help project managers in developing procedures, allocating resources to tasks, following progress, managing costs as well as analyzing workloads.

Microsoft Visio 2003

Easier function able software that supports conception of drawing, for instance shape, graphic size can certainly turned, turning new arrowhead on every side, generating into a connector only via dragging every arrowhead to touch a link point on another shape.

Visual studio 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio would be defining as an integrated development environment (IDE) which creates by Microsoft. It is used to develop console as well as GUI applications along with web sites and web applications.

Visual Studio contains a code editor supporting IntelliSense and code refactoring. The integrated debugger works as a source-level debugger.

Visual Studio supports dissimilar programming languages thru meaning of language services, which let the code editor and debugger to support several programming language include C/C++ (by Visual C++) as well as VB.NET (via Visual Basic .NET) and so on.

Operating system

Windows XP and above

Database system

MS SQL Server 2008 r2

Hardware Requirement

To develop this network monitoring system, certain hardware will be used. Basic hardware's that will be used are including:

Workstation (PC)

Computer would be used to install and run all the software that has been stated before. The minimum requirement for the workstation is:

Processor: Pentium 4 2.66A (2.66 GHz) or above

The Pentium 4 2.66A (2.66 GHz) processor is create to provide performance across usages. It is a great processor available for PC.

Hard Disk Drive

Hard disk drive is the device that controls the placing, reading, as well as writing of the hard disk, which furnishes the largest quantity of data storage for the workstation.

Memory: 2 GB RAM

RAM is possibly the most significant of the input/output devices. The upper capacity of RAM in a workstation, the faster the every program is executed indeed.

Network cables

Short designed for Category 5, network cabling that contains of four twisted pairs of copper wire terminated via W45 connectors. Cat-5 cabling capable to supports speeds up to 1000 Mbps and frequencies up to 100 MHz.

Network Interface Card (NIC)

Expansion board that inserts into a workstation so the PC can be linked to a network. Most NICs are planned for a specific type of network, protocol, as well as media, while some can attend in multiple networks as well.

GSM Modem or GSM Phone

A GSM modem and be considered as a wireless modem that can works thru a GSM wireless network. A wireless modem performs like as a dial up modem. The chief modification among them can be considered as a dial up modem sends as well as receives info over a stable telephone line but a wireless modem sends and receives info over radio waves. A GSM modem could be mentioned as an external device or a PC Card. Usually; an external GSM modem is linked to a workstation over a serial cable or might be a USB cable as well. A GSM modem in the shape of a computer Card is planned for use with a laptop workstation. It should be place in to one of the PC Card slots of a laptop workstation. Similar as GSM mobile phone, a GSM modem needs a SIM card in the purpose of operating too.

System requirements

In this phase, system requirements are separated in to several main parts. The system requirements are based on the system findings and scope that have been completed in the beginning of the system activities.

System function

The system function is the operation executed by the system. These functions would be including the input as well as output applications. The core functions are containing:

System performance

System performance is the quality that could be delivered thru the system. Mainly, the system should be able monitor network in case of network failure. Beside, system should be able to send SMS to the network administrator in case on any problem happen in the network.

User interface design

The system interface should be user friendly and not to be so complex. The screen design should be as simplest as it can for better understanding. It should be more attractive to get the user attention and can communicate with the users.

System evaluation

Any part of the function that has been advanced, the planned system should be well tested and well evaluated by capable users. The system should not be continually advanced lacking of any evaluation actions. This will aid the developer to save a lot of resources and deliver an well-organized system as the final product.

User requirements

In this phase, system analyst has to include the user’s requirement determination with the purpose of produce requirement specification. Requirement determination contains study of present business system so as to find out the way it works as well as what upgrading should be made in the system.

The information produced thru the fact finding research are analyzed to define requirements specification. Requirement specification mainly contains of user’s requests. The core purpose of this is to clarify the user’s requirements and to classify achievable requirement, omissions and ambiguities. There are three analysis specification parts which can be classify as:

Analysis of factual information

The information gathered from fact finding is studied.it is necessary to define how good the system is going to complete to meet the businesses demands.

Identification of needed requirements

Wholly features from functioning detail to performance standards must contain in a system

Selection of necessities fulfillment plans

The specific techniques would be chosen used to reach the identified requirements. This forms basis for system plan that monitors requirement specification.

Analysis of data collected through Interview

What are the methods used to detect the network problem? What are some of the more common user problems that Network Technicians face on a daily basis?

Answer 1: the common user’s problem would be caballing problem and speed of the network cannot connect to internet and so on. We usually gather the information about the network problem and try to solve the problem.

Answer 2: Computers Can't See Each Other on the Network and cannot connect to the network as well as some problems with their PC, s. the methods that we used for solving the problems is including sending the technical assistant to their place and do not allow user to get involve with it.

Answer 3: The user’s problems in the networking are including: Users needing access to a specific network source, printing problems, Emailing matters, Hardware failures, software failure. Monitor the network and servers for software and hardware failures are the method that we use in this company.

The outcomes of this answer would show the developer that all the network problems are almost occur in the hardware part and software part which can effect on network and makes failure. The methods of solving the problem led the researcher to make sure that which method is most suitable for the upcoming system.

How to get network traffic data from the network?

Answer 1: by using the MRTG software which is the best among the software and so reliable.

Answer 2: there is lots of free software that we use in our company for example PacketTrap or NetLimiter.

Answer 3: we usually the software that is the best in the market which is PRTG.

The result show the developer that the system that want to be built should be free, user friendly and powerful that can make users to rely on it in case of traffic of network.it should have interface for keep tracking the data to get traffic of the network as well.

How do you usually manage and monitor your bandwidth?

Answer 1: as administrator, I usually always be aware that bandwidth that never be lower than the threshold. That makes network failure. Using good software will help us to do that.

Answer 2: we have bandwidth management system which led us to monitoring our bandwidth which called NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. It is free and so simple to work with.

Answer 3: by using software which is powerful and has simple interface and easy to work with it.

Understanding network bandwidth as well as resource operation is the vital to better network management. In order to succeed in this, the developer needs to consider the following: Avoid bandwidth as well as network performance bottlenecks and Bring improved quality of service (QoS) for the users in case of bandwidth monitoring.

How do you usually monitor your network? What kind of software you usually use?

Answer 1: in position of network administrator, I usually have to monitor the network every day as my main job and prevent of network being down. We usually use free software in our company which is not essential for buying the license of the software.

Answer 2: cost of monitoring and maintenance is high in case of networking.so as a matter of fact we use powerful software which can monitor the network in the company.

Answer 3: by the useful software which is called PRTG. PRTG is so reasonable and develops with users requirements.

As a result of this outcome and effect of the upcoming system, network monitoring helps users to keep their network healthy by avoid expensive outages, address bottlenecks before it cause problems and cut the costs of monitoring. The developer should keep in mind that the system should be free and meet the user’s requirements.

Which kind of alerting system will you prefer? Alerting system only via SMS? Or the system can also include electronic mail. Why?

Answer 1: in our company we use Nagios which is considered as open source network monitoring systems. You can even set up email, SMS.

Answer 2: I myself prefer that system has all kind of alarming system in case of network failure.

Answer 3: I would go for SMS in case of alarming system as an administrator which aid me that if even I am far away from the stations, it gives me alarm so I can take an action immediately.

In position of system or network administrator, you will defiantly need monitoring tools. You have to identify, at wholly time, the status of your systems so you can improve performance as well as head off probable problems.as a result, the researcher understand that alarming system in case of network failure is significant. Users prefer that the system which they are using have all kind of alarming system and the developer would be consider this as necessary issue.

What are the most common networking problems that you as a Network Administrator deal with on a daily basis?

Answer 1: there are some problems that usually happened such as bandwidth is lower than the threshold, overloading happened, caballing problem and so on.

Answer 2: network failure might be cause by many aspects. This could be caused by very simple issue like cable disconnection or complex problems such viruses and network attack.

Answer 3: not choosing appropriate network devices as well as software’s. For example choosing a software router such as product offer by Microsoft (RRAS) as router in the network which there is a very high level of routing traffic, instead of a hardware router.

The problems in network is unpredictable which means any time can any kind of failure happen in the network.as network administrator, taking the right action in a right time makes to improve the network. By these result the researcher would get that preventing of network downtime is the most important part of the system indeed.

How many users do your network monitoring system support? Are all workstations in the immediate area?

Answer 1: Network administrators in our company use Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Monitor to vision as well as detect problems on local area networks. For instance, in place of a network administrator, you can use Network Monitor to diagnose hardware and software problems once two or more workstations cannot communicate.

Answer 2: we have lots of users in our company which been monitored by the administrator in the same time.

Answer 3: in our local area network (LAN) the network monitoring system can support or users in appropriate way. Which any trouble happen in the network, our network administrator would take the best action.

The system which developer are going to implement should support several users which is implement on the local area network.it should give full support to the users and makes easy for the administrator indeed.

Does company network have one main server or multiple servers for data backup? What kind of backup or redundancy is used to protect data?

Answer 1: in case of data backup, our company uses one main server which stores all the data which is necessary.

Answer 2: MS SQL Server which our company uses permits efficient nonstop backup of SQL server databases. The backup sever does not necessitate an MS SQL license and it is the best DBMS indeed.

Answer 3: talking about data storage, we use Microsoft access which is easy to use and so reliable. We keep our data in the several systems which can protect of the data’s.

Doing fixed backups is a necessary part of securing your information as well as preventing loss due to malice or accident indeed. The result of these answers will show the researcher that for sure the system needs a database management system which is reliable, powerful and keep lots of data’s that administrator need. Indeed, the developer would go for the best DBMS that can store the whole data that it needs.

What type of network topology Does Company currently uses (i.e. token ring, star, bus, etc.)? What hardware standards are used in case of network monitoring?

Answer 1:our company use bus topology and as we are a software developing company and we need to monitor our network every day, our workstations assembled by the newest hardware which is available in the market and can support or monitoring staff.

Answer 2: base on we are working on local area networking, we choose star as our topology. In face we are using cisco switches and routers in our company and as an administrator we need to monitor these devices every day.

Answer 3: our main server computer assembled with the new technology devices which we can do or network monitoring without any hardware problem.

Depend on the size of the companies; any kind of topologies can be used in case of network monitoring. Network monitoring needs some hardware’s which is essential for this case.by the result of this, the researcher find out that there are several hardware which can support network monitoring.it is not needed for any specific hardware which could be costly and it can run in minimum requirement of devices.

In case of network monitoring software’s, what are the most difficulties for users to deal with?

Answer 1: the most difficulties can be classified as: interface of the software, cost of software, complexity of the software.

Answer 2: interfaces are not user-friendly at all, complex to use.

Answer 3: Cannot support many network services, so expensive to buy, need specialist in networking to use.

As the final result of this question, developer of the network monitoring system should keep in mind that the upcoming system should be as much user friendly as it could.it should be open source and as much easier to use for anyone with any kind of information.it should not be complex at all and provide some services like FTP and SMTP as well.

Analysis of data collected through Questionnaire

Usually how many times per month do you face technical network problems?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q1.PNG

The highest rate of the pie chart shows that participants have at least once a month technical network problem which stands with 35% and shows that network problem occur for them which can be any kind of technical problem. On the other hand, the lowest rate goes for never and twice a month which pie chart represent as 18%.

How often do you usually monitor your network?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q2.PNG

35% of the participant’s rate that they monitor their network everyday which shows the significant rule of monitoring the network and stand on the highest rate. However, lowest rate is every week monitoring which has 5% and demonstrates that participants usually care about monitoring their network sooner before any problem happen.

How would you rate your network performance?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q3.PNG

Majority of people rate their network performance as average which means they are not fully satisfy with performance of the network and also 3% of the participants said that their network performance is poor .as a result we can understand that improvement in the network performance would be the considered as necessary task in this project.

What are the common network problems?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q4.PNG

The pie chart represents that lots of people have problem their workstation and network devices which contain of hub, router and so on. The result shows that the network devices are not reliable and they need to be monitor and maintenance continuously. On the other hand, cabling problem has the lowest rank which can be shows that people have less difficulty with their cabling.

How the network should be monitored?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q5.PNG

Majority of the participants like to have free software in order to monitoring their network which shows 40% of the pie chart. By this result can understand that users like to have open source software which is free and can monitor their network individually which going to be applied in the future system.

Do you believe that your network monitoring systems reliable? (Does it give correct reports?)

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q6.PNG

As a result, can see that participants give Average as the highest rank in the pie chart which means their network monitoring tool is not so reliable. The developer should keep in mind that the upcoming system should be more reliable as it can and makes users more satisfy whenever they monitor their network.

Do you think having a tool which is able to send problem report is necessary?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q7.PNG

The result of this question would be the most important one for the developer. Participants are agree that the network monitoring system need to have a sending report system in case of network problem which the planned system would cover this part as well.

How much do you usually monthly spend on maintenance and monitoring of your network?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q8.PNG

Participants are not satisfy with cost for the monitoring their network. This shows that users would defiantly comfortable with network monitoring software which is free and available that they can use. The lowest rank of the pie chart pays more than 100 RM in the month for the monitoring of their network.

How much bandwidth do you use each month?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q9.PNG

The highest rank of the chart shows that participants use 10-100GB bandwidth per month which can be shows that the usage of the bandwidth is normally high among the users.as a result for the researcher, the monitoring system should be more focus on the bandwidth which users are use. Bandwidth Monitoring would help administrators discover problem zones on a network.

What kind of alert system would you commonly use for your network problems?

C:\Users\alire_000\Desktop\q10.PNG

All the participants are strongly agree that any kind of alerting system is essential for the network monitoring system in case of any problem happen in the network. Network administrator should be aware of any problem in the network and take an action immediately to resolve the problem. SMS alert which the developer going to cover stands on the second stage with 28%.

Conclusion

In the present market, several network monitoring system software exist which can be used by users for various resolves depend on their requirements. All users' requirements concerning of Network Monitoring System and alerting be SMS application should be collected and should produce greatest application that can give the users more fulfilled using this software.

Mainly, whole the primary research results shows that users are fully need a system which can rely on and would definitely alarm them in case of network failure. Overall participants are strongly agreed with whatever researcher is going to achieve in this particular system. The outcome of the interview questions and questionnaire shows that the network monitoring and SMS alarm system are in the correct way for gain to the system which is based on the objective of this project.

CHAPTER 5: DESIGN

Introduction

The chief activities contains in this system design phase is associated to the system functional design. Following the system necessities are essential to make sure that the proposed system produced succeeds the user requirement as well as the objective of the development.

Two main system requirements have to be done in the design stage. The main requirements are based on the research as well as analysis in the earlier stages indeed.

System function

The system function is the process to be performed via the system. The following is the chief function to be involved in the proposed network monitoring and SMS alarm system.

Detection of connectively

Alert administrator in case of network failure

Monitor the services

Checking the bandwidth health

System performance

System performance is the quality that could be delivered by the system. The system should be able to operate as normal when it connects to LAN. Besides that, the system should be reliable in case of network failure and can be able to send SMS to network administrator.

System design

Use case diagram

A use case is a graphic representation used in system analysis to classify, simplify as well as organize system requirements. The diagram below shows the functionality of the proposed system.

Activity diagram

Activity diagram is significant diagram in UML to define dynamic phases of the system.

Activity diagram is principally a flow chart to signify the flow form one activity to another activity indeed. The activity could be defined as an operation of the system. The diagram below shows the proposed system.

Database design

ERD diagram

An entity-relationship diagram is a data modeling method that generates a graphical demonstration of the entities, and the relationships among entities, within an info system. According to the proposed system, the diagram below shows the relationship between entities in the network monitoring and SMS alarm system.

Table structure

In relational databases, a table is a set of information elements (values) that are prepared using a model of vertical columns as well as horizontal rows, the cell can be mention as unit where a row and column intersect indeed. A table has a specified quantity of columns, but can have any amount of rows. Every row is recognized by the values appearing in a specific column subset which has been recognized as a unique key index. (Microsoft, 2013)

In this project, the developer is going to use the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 r2 for storing the data which is shown below.

Table name: Admin

Primary key: AdminID

column Name

Description

Data type

Size

AdminID

Admin identification

varchar

40

AdminUsername

Admin login username

varchar

40

AdminPassword

Admin login password

varchar

40

AdminName

Admin Specification

varchar

40

AdminPhoneNumber

Admin Specification

numeric

(18, 0)

AdminEmail

Admin Specification

varchar

40

AdminHomeAddress

Admin Specification

varchar

40

Table name: Error Report

Primary key: ErrorReportID

column Name

Description

Data type

Size

ErrorReportID

Error identification

varchar

40

ErrorStart

Error date and time start

datetime

10

ErrorEnd

Error date and time fixed

datetime

10

ServerName

Name of the server that have problem

varchar

40

AdminID

Foreign key

varchar

40

Table name: SmsMessage

Primary key: SmsMessageID

column Name

Description

Data type

Size

SmsMessageID

SMS Message identification

varchar

40

MessageDescription

Message Report

varchar

40

Date

Date of SMS Send

date

10

Day

Day of SMS Send

varchar

10

Time

Time of SMS Send

numeric

(18, 0)

AdminID

Foreign key

varchar

40

AdminPhoneNumber

Admin Specification

numeric

(18, 0)

Interface design

User interface design is the design of workstations, appliances, software applications, as well as websites with the emphasis on the user's involvement and interaction indeed. The aim of user interface design is to create the user's interaction as simple and capable as probable, in terms of achieving user objectives what is usually named user-centered design. Graphic design might be used to support its usability as well. The design process should balance technical functionality as well as visual essentials to make a system that is not just for operational but also usable and flexible to changing user requirements. The figure below shows the first page of the system which network administrator should put his or her username and password.

The picture below demonstrates the main page of the system which shows the date, time and the year of the SMS.it contains of the message which is going to be send to administrator and also the destination phone number.

The second page of this system will shows the status of the bandwidth and the alarm system which can be by SMS and Email and also server name or IP address or any services which need to be ping.

Finally, the last page shows the bandwidth statues which going to be monitored and whenever bandwidth is lower than threshold will send SMS to network administrator.

Program flow chart

A program flowchart is a formalized graphic demonstration of a logic structure, manufacturing process or any software process. The aim of a flow chart is to deliver people with a shared language or reference point when working thru a system. Figure below shows the program flow chart in the upcoming system. (Gallagher, 2008)

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Ensuring that the network monitoring comes to be suitable, simple and easy to use for supporting health of the network as well as bandwidth monitoring is a challenging mission. During this investigation, the developer faces to lots of information which gathered from questionnaire part and interviewing with the network specialist as well as network administrators.

Some gaps founded during the research, analysis and design part which is going to be solve such as improving the interface of the system, some quarries in the database management system and coding part which is the most complex part in the task.

This information’s led the researcher to get a clear understanding about network monitoring and which kind of alarming system would be suitable for network administrators. During this report, the researcher achieved to lots of significant skills which will obviously help to comes up with the system which can meet the user’s satisfaction. Although, during this investigation, problems occurs such as interface part and how to handle the bandwidth and SMS sending but this problems have been resolved with the information that gathered from different resources.

Finally, any network administrators have to remember that the network monitoring is not just about monitoring of every network devices or monitoring the services but it is the detailed checking of parameters significant for the network functionality for instance the CPU load as well as the whole systems productivity. Cost of the network failure is high and prevent such problems would be the main reason for this investigation.