I am setting up a small financial services business in my double garage and wonder if anyone could give me advice. I plan on having 8 employees
who need to share cable internet access and a email system. I get cable internet from comcast. Would you recommend i go with a wireless system
(several of the pcs already have wireless cards) or a hard wired system. I already have an smc broadband wireless router and just am concerned
that it can handle this load. I want to share a network printer I have(hp laserjet 8000). I am putting in a small telephone system so will be running
telephone wires-so i guess it is easy to run cat5 cable at the same time.. If i go wired---what router would you recommend-and are they available
to share internet. I only know enough to be dangerous--and the biggest network i have setup was only 3 users on the wireless side. Also it is very important
that the system stay up all the time--since we are financial advisors---do you feel i would be safer going with a T1 line to more assure
the net will be up more reliably. Lastly--would you dedicate one pc as a server-to act as a central point for this process--this part i know little
about. Most of our work and info is on the net. Thanks for any help you can give! Robert
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Thanks again to all--in following up all your ideas---i have been looking for a 12 port gigabit switch(to handle my 8 employees-and network
printer)(am i correct the printer takes one of these ports-or plugs into the router?). Anyone have a good experience with a specific brand-at a good cost point. I see prices all over the place-and cannot really tell
what the difference is between a $300 model and a $5000 one with the same # of ports.
Also i see the Cat6 cable out there recommended for gigabit installs. Do you recommend this since i am putting in a new network.
thanks again! robert
>am i correct the printer takes one of these ports-or plugs into the router
Yes, a network printer takes a normal network port on the switch.
>Cat6 cable out there recommended for gigabit installs
Yes. The better the cable, the better the connections.
> You get management features with higher priced switches, maybe some layer 3 Quality of Service, redundnat power supplies, etc... I don't see much need for those features in your situation. Buy cheap. You can always buy two cheap ones and have one on hand as a spare in case it goes down. Brands such as Linksys, Allied Tellysin, are all good.
Personal opinion, you don't need Gigabit with only 8-10 users unless you are a graphics shop that tends to work with huge graphics files on/off a server. 100Mb will do you just fine. If you want one of the best mid-price 10/100 switches on the market, bar none - Cisco 2950-12. You can get one for around $795 or less.
I'll just make a recommendation here by saying I personally would go with the hard wired LAN due to the headaches that can be involved not to mention security and interference reasons. Two: The server would definitely be the way to go along with a battery backup for the server. I think it would do you a great justice to check out this site-> http://clarkconnect.org and consider the office version which has superior support. There is also the FREE version which I use right now. It is a web/email/filesharing server and firewall/router. My server is 1 ghz with 1 gig of ram that I built very inexpensively and hosting my own website on it over ADSL as we speak with 17 computers on my lan behind it. No, I have yet to run into any sort of bandwidth problems with at least 3-4 computers downloading from kazaa (or whatever other progs) and am running a cyber cafe. File and print sharing are as easy as clicking on network neighborhood on my desktop and I can print to any one of 10 printers on the LAN at any time which is spooled and cached by the server when necessary, INCLUDING printing large format prints (2' wide by 150' long if I so choose) all while playing a music video which is stored on the 60 gig h/d on the server which has a battery backup of 8 hours. All far less than a grand out of pocket.
You Would be Impressed at what it can do! Cheaper! Faster! Better!
I dont know why others havent caught on to this for simple business network solutions.
Good Luck whatever you choose and I hope your new business Prospers! This country sure needs it with this crappy economy!
Mike!
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: lrmoorePosted on 2003-07-09 at 06:00:48ID: 8884929
Robert, you've posted the same Q in 3 different places, so you may get various responses. We all watch multiple topic areas, so you can save yourself some points and only post once.
You can use mixed wired and wireless easy enough. Somthing like a Linksys wireless broadband router with 4-port switch might be just the thing for you. If you need more than 4 wired ports, there is a 8-port router version without the wireless, and you can add a wireless access point indpendently. Having said that, I believe that with finacial data and personal data belonging to other people, I would take security much more seriously than a $50 router. More on that in a moment..
I would setup one system as a server. Assuming that financial information is data that should be protected and be audit proof, I would setup a Windows 200x server in a domain model and use it for access-control as well as file/print services. All desktops would be Win2k or XP for security reasons, all formatted NTFS (to pass audit). Be sure to put this server on a good UPS battery backup.
If you're pulling phone wire, go ahead and pull CAT5 to each desk. Think SECURITY.
I'm assuming you are familiar with GLB Act? Again, security is #1 concern. With a broadband connection, I would not use a router, but rather a Cisco PIX firewall appliance (506e is cost-effective and plenty for you). This uses an Adaptive Security Algorithm that goes far beyond the simple stateful inspection/NAT of a low-end SOHO router. Use most any low-end switch with enough ports to support all your users. Don't use wireless (again, security). If you do, take prudent precautions to protect your connections - use WEP encryption, don't broadcast SSID, use MAC address filters, etc...
I don't know that you would get any more reliable connection from a T1 than you would from the cable. As long as you get a "business" level cable connection you should be fine. I just don't see the cost justification for the increase to a T1, plus you have to buy a router to go in front of the firewall for a T1. If uptime is that important, consider both at some point and use the cable as failover to the T1. That only works if all of your traffic is outgoing. If you intend to run your own web servers, it won't work without spending a lot more money (BGP).
Did I mention the need for SECURITY in your environment?