Alexander County Infrastructure

The Alexander County Information Technology Department maintains a 3 mile fiber optic Wide-Area-Network connecting ten County facilities and forming the back-bone of the County's telecommunications infrastructure.

Currently, the backbone connects the County Administration building with the Senior Center, Department of Social Services, Health Department, Library, Tax and Register of Deeds, Courthouse, Foothills Mental Health Building, the Old Dayton Building and the future Board of Elections Building.

Most fiber optic runs consist of at least 12 strands of multi-mode fiber and 6 to 10 stands of single mode fiber with the majority of the stands dedicated for future needs. In addition to the fiber optic network, the Information Technology department maintains several network connections to remote facilities throughout the county via cable modems, wireless communication networks, DSL modems and dedicated frame relay circuits.

Primary uses of the Wide-Area-Network include; high speed access to the Internet, connections to various State and Federal Governmental Offices, client-server applications, web based applications, Geographic Information Systems data, E-mail, Public Internet Access located at the Library and the sharing of computer information from one department to another.

In addition to the WAN, the County's Information Technology Department supports 15 Local-Area-Networks within the different County buildings. These systems, consisting of copper and fiber optic cable and are utilized to connect the individual County employees' PC's with one another and to the Wide-Area-Network. The Information Technology Department is responsible for the planning, installation and maintenance for all these infrastructures and the equipment necessary to make them work.

---