Hardware requirement for an intranet
To setup a WAN, one would need to have some type of communication between different sites. National ISDN, Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) connectivity or a long distance Frame Relay could be the best choice. It will be essential to install a router at each site. Each router would connect back to a central site over dedicated phone lines. Note that the hardware should be configured for the following protocols/services.
|
Protocol/Service
|
To be installed on
|
|
IP
|
Network
|
|
HTTP
|
Server
|
|
SMTP/POP3/IMAP4
|
Server
|
|
LDAP
|
Server
|
|
X509 Certificate
|
Server
|
|
Java
|
ORB (Object Request Broker)
|
|
Document Server
|
Server
|
Hardware Configuration for an Intranet
|
Component
|
System Requirements
|
|
|
Client
|
Server
|
|
Processor
|
866 MHz Pentium
|
2.0 Ghz Pentium
|
|
Memory
|
256 MB
|
For a 5-user system: 512 MB
|
|
Monitor
|
SVGA with 256 or more colors minimum
800x600 resolution
|
SVGA with 256 or more colors
minimum 800x600 resolution
|
|
CD-ROM Drive
|
48X or 52X
|
48X or 52X
|
|
Free Disk Space
|
300 MB for application files
|
1GB
|
Scientists also describe how is the optimal performance of Intranets associated with a number of key hardware factors. In order to optimise performance, servers with fast processors and a large amount of memory are essential. They also noted how good multi-tasking and multi-threading abilities are also crucial for most of the Web applications. In addition, sufficient memory and disk capacity at the user workstation would improve performance through increased caching. The limitation of a large image files can also be considered important to improve performance, but images may be equally important to expand and illustrate data, and pages of text can be discouraging, especially in an educational context. Finally, the database itself, which forms the foundation of almost every Intranet, can have a significant effect on performance.