MBenson242
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Design a LAN for a CPA Firm
Known Facts:
5 Departments in one building
560 total employees
no existing network
Network Operating System = Netware 5.0
wan 24/7 acess that is fast
FACTORS:
Transmission Media - suggest Ethernet CAT-5 Unshield Twisted Pair. It's cheap and easy to use. Can achieve 100Mbps or even Gigabit access if necessary.
Please expound on the above in four paragraphs>
5 Departments in one building
560 total employees
no existing network
Network Operating System = Netware 5.0
wan 24/7 acess that is fast
FACTORS:
Transmission Media - suggest Ethernet CAT-5 Unshield Twisted Pair. It's cheap and easy to use. Can achieve 100Mbps or even Gigabit access if necessary.
Please expound on the above in four paragraphs>
d50041
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Comments:
Not NetWare 5.0 - use 5.1 or even 6.0
Not a WAN - it's a LAN because it's in a single building that does not span cities.
Most likely the accounting package will require some sort of database server - not too familiar with all the products, most likely in addition to file/print/directory/messa
Recommend Novell GroupWise 6 for messaging (place GWIA, POA and MTA on a single NetWare 6 server, dual proc PIII or P4 with 512MB RAM (minimum) and a LOT of storage space for the postoffice). RAID-5 on the storage system.
Put all other file/print on another NetWare 6 server (dual proc PIII or P4 with 1GB+ RAM and a LOT of storage for data). RAID-5 on the storage system.
Scale accounting software package application/database server accordingly +25% just because they always understate +25% growth over next two years. At least RAID-5 on the storage system or even RAID-0+1 in combination.
I would use Gigabit Ethernet between servers and Fast Ethernet to the desktops.
If you are going to use xDSL for Internet access and e-mail, then upstream should be at least 256K and downstream 1.5MB - however, a fractional T1 would do best because downstream is equal to upstream and 560 employees is a lot of e-mail and web surfing.
Place a Novell BorderManager 3.7 box inbetween the network and the Internet as the firewall. All Novell servers will need to be running eDirectory 86.xx or above. You should be able to place Novell GroupWise/NetWare WebAccess on this box as well, but you may want a stand-alone server - this will provide at home e-mail/file access via web browsers - will require NetWare 6.0 - BM box can be a single proc PIII with 512MB RAM and a lot of storage space for proxy cache (2) 36GB drives RAID-1 will do. Novell GroupWise/NetWare WebAccess server should be dual PIII/P4 with 512MB RAM - does not need a lot of space (2) 18GB drives in RAID-1 will suffice.
If accounting package runs under Windows NT/2K and requires NT Domain User accounts (do not use ActiveDirectory) then use Novell Account Manager to sync the NDS User accounts with the NT Domain User accounts - will pay for self in months.
560 users is a lot of desktops - deploy Novell ZENworks for Desktops 3.2 for desktop management.
Not NetWare 5.0 - use 5.1 or even 6.0
Not a WAN - it's a LAN because it's in a single building that does not span cities.
Most likely the accounting package will require some sort of database server - not too familiar with all the products, most likely in addition to file/print/directory/messa
Recommend Novell GroupWise 6 for messaging (place GWIA, POA and MTA on a single NetWare 6 server, dual proc PIII or P4 with 512MB RAM (minimum) and a LOT of storage space for the postoffice). RAID-5 on the storage system.
Put all other file/print on another NetWare 6 server (dual proc PIII or P4 with 1GB+ RAM and a LOT of storage for data). RAID-5 on the storage system.
Scale accounting software package application/database server accordingly +25% just because they always understate +25% growth over next two years. At least RAID-5 on the storage system or even RAID-0+1 in combination.
I would use Gigabit Ethernet between servers and Fast Ethernet to the desktops.
If you are going to use xDSL for Internet access and e-mail, then upstream should be at least 256K and downstream 1.5MB - however, a fractional T1 would do best because downstream is equal to upstream and 560 employees is a lot of e-mail and web surfing.
Place a Novell BorderManager 3.7 box inbetween the network and the Internet as the firewall. All Novell servers will need to be running eDirectory 86.xx or above. You should be able to place Novell GroupWise/NetWare WebAccess on this box as well, but you may want a stand-alone server - this will provide at home e-mail/file access via web browsers - will require NetWare 6.0 - BM box can be a single proc PIII with 512MB RAM and a lot of storage space for proxy cache (2) 36GB drives RAID-1 will do. Novell GroupWise/NetWare WebAccess server should be dual PIII/P4 with 512MB RAM - does not need a lot of space (2) 18GB drives in RAID-1 will suffice.
If accounting package runs under Windows NT/2K and requires NT Domain User accounts (do not use ActiveDirectory) then use Novell Account Manager to sync the NDS User accounts with the NT Domain User accounts - will pay for self in months.
560 users is a lot of desktops - deploy Novell ZENworks for Desktops 3.2 for desktop management.