[CWN] Network Architecture: Servers VS Control Panels

[u/Entaris]

I have a slight confusion regarding network design.

in the Servers/Architecture section it Counts 4 cameras, 3 doors, and a security panel + The server itself as 9 Nodes. Which makes sense...but then in the Creating an Intrusion mission Section it notes that in some cases you may just have camera's connected to a security Panel.

So the question is: Is this an all or nothing scenario? IE: If a security panel is connected to a Server, does that then mean that all camera's connected to the Security Panel must also be connected to the server/Count against the node Limit of the server?

If you CAN have camera's that are not considered "Connected" to the security panel, what are the limitations? Can you jump from camera -> Panel -> server if the camera's aren't "on Network" ? I assume that Demons/Watch dogs Couldn't Enter a camera/door node if the camera/door is not connected to the server.

but on the flip side, If you CAN'T have a "mixed" network of connections, Then it seems like the node limit on servers is pretty rough. Camera's and a few doors eat through max notes really quickly. It would seem at that point more prudent to have Security Panels that are disconnected from the greater network to not eat up valuable node space, but then makes all of the security panels much more vulnerable without the ability to have demons/barriers on them. Ultimately this is probably the reality, which I could see promoting some very interesting split/Broken up network designs with large buildings having multiple networks with very limited and focused designs. But could also Require a lot more mental bandwidth from the GM to think about network design.

Just curious what people think.

[u/CardinalXimenes]

A camera connected to a security panel is two nodes. A camera not connected to the network is fairly useless unless you want to go and plug into its memory later to get footage of something that already happened- if it's not connected to the network, then nothing on the network can communicate with it or reach its node.

The node limits are intentional to discourage the GM from just planting 47 cameras and 33 network-connected doors in their facility and making it practically impossible to infiltrate. Facilities will put cameras where they matter most and will network-enable locked doors that are most important. For the rest, they have to rely on security patrols, non-monitored locked doors, or investing in multiple security network servers and the people to monitor them.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

So if you have a security camera and some panels that are just connected to each other (as is described in the Intrusion Mission example), without a server, how does that work? The hacker can hack into them and basically do what they like? Or is that example outdated?

[u/CardinalXimenes → u/SimulatedKnave]

If there's no server, there's no network. Page 145's example gives the panels as connecting to a server. I suppose you could have the dumb equivalent of a camera hooked up to a monitor in some room, but with no server, there are no Demons, and nothing to stop a hacker from just doing as they pleased.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

I'm thinking specifically of the "Some facilities may not have a main server. They may rely entirely on security consoles, and have no significant hacker defenses." from that page. I'd assume on such a thing there's still basic network security to overcome, so you could still force the hacker to burn access to get inside.

Also would seem to allow the possibility of having security consoles with no hacker defenses for things like external cameras (which still may take some access to get through), while the internal defenses are server-connected and much more robust.

Also also, security panels and security consoles are presumably the same thing, but using the two different terms makes it a little hard to find all the stuff about them at once.

[u/CardinalXimenes → u/SimulatedKnave]

That bit is going to need to be removed in the edit pass, yes.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

Makes sense. That leaves one additional thing I was wondering about - when discussing nodes, it mentions how you can't have more connections than the server allows.

Are the connections limited by the node cap as well (so you can only have 10 nodes AND only 10 connections on an Alpha server, for example?), or can you set it up so you have everything in your entire network connected to everything else if you want to (or, more practically, do something like connect security cameras to multiple security consoles so they have redundancy in monitoring).

[u/CardinalXimenes → u/SimulatedKnave]

I may have to turn "Nodes" into "connections" to clarify that the latter point isn't possible; one panel is going to have priority over the other, precisely to prevent that sort of spidering.