Assessment Guiance

Criterion	What the criterion says	What this means
P1	Describe your use of e-mail, file transfer, conferencing, bulletin boards and online databases, explaining the purpose of each service	Candidates should use services on both a LAN and the Internet. Assessors should produce a record of observation or authenticated logs of candidates' use of network services. Candidates should describe the services used and explain the purpose for which they were using them.
P2	Describe file management activities carried out with annotated directory listings	The candidate must provide annotated directory listings showing the management of files. This will include file operations and directory operations and will be authenticated by the Assessor to confirm that it is the candidate's own work.
P3	List the security issues involved in the use of both the LAN you have used and the Internet	The candidate must report on the security issues on network systems – both the LAN and the Internet. The security issues are those that threaten the privacy or integrity of the data held on the system.
P4	List advantages and disadvantages of connecting a stand-alone computer to each of a LAN and the Internet	The candidate must produce notes explaining the advantages and disadvantages of connecting a stand-alone computer to a LAN in terms of resources, speed, cost and, similarly for connecting a standalone computer to the Internet.
P5	Sketch a diagram showing the main components of the LAN that you have used.	Candidates must produce a diagram showing the layout of the local area network used by the candidate. Because many candidates will be using the same network this must be authenticated by the Assessor to show that it is the candidate's own work.
M1	Explain the file management tasks carried out by a network manager	The candidate must report on those file management activities carried out by the network manager NOT those carried out by each user. These will include setting up new users and installing new software.
M2	Explain how a network manager can minimise the risk from security issues by the use of routine management activities	The candidate must report on the activities carried out by a network manager to increase security. These include password allocations, auditing, virus checking, backing up of data.
M3	Describe the purpose of each of the network components in your LAN.	The candidate must describe the purpose of each of the network component used. This could be in the form of a set of notes accompanying the diagram produced for P2. It could be a separate detailed report.
D1	Explain how to install and configure network services onto a computer	The Assessor should include records of observation and/or logs of candidates' installing and configuring network services onto a computer that did not have such facilities. Where it is not possible to actually carry out such installation it is acceptable for the candidate to produce a report on how this would be done.
D2	Evaluate the security issues and prioritise the procedures used to tackle them	The candidate should consider each security issue and analyse what threat it poses to data privacy and integrity, the likelihood of the security issue occurring and the relative priority of the network manager’s response to each issue.
D3	Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of network systems over stand-alone systems	The candidate must evaluate advantages and disadvantages of network systems. This could be in the form of a set of notes and could be partly based on interviews of other users and administrators of networks. Candidates may include examples from the network systems they have used to illustrate their evaluation.
D4	Explain why particular types, or values, of components are used in the LAN you have used.	The candidate must consider the actual components used in the LAN eg bandwidth, number of network points, size of hubs, speed, memory size and disk capacity of server. They should evaluate why these values are required or if they are insufficient, what values should be chosen.