You are the network administrator for a group of 24 groundwater hydrologists who work in two adjacent buildings. Their company works with new housing construction all over the United States to determine if there is enough local ground water to support new housing developments. Each hydrologist has his or her own computer workstation. Two use computers running Linux, three use Macintosh OS X Snow Leopard computers, and the rest use computers running Windows Vista or Windows 7. These hydrologists work with a variety of software, including word-processing, research databases, spreadsheets, mapping software, and mathematical calculation software. The buildings in which the hydrologists work are not networked, but the company plans to network each building and connect both networks. The company also decided to purchase a Windows Server 2008 R2 server for all of the hydrologists to access. The server will be in a secure computer room in one of the buildings. Also, the company plans to connect to an Internet service provider so that each hydrologist can easily access the Internet. Explain how you would handle the following immediate concerns:
In one paragraph for each question, complete the questions below using complete sentences
What equipment must be purchased for each hydrologist's computer to be connected to the network? How would you configure the equipment, such as configuring protocols?
What are the advantages of implementing a server in terms of the new networking environment for this company?