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TonyCabone

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Help me design a LAN for small office

Hi guys,

I have 5 workstations that need to be networked & I'm undecided on whether to setup 5 individual PC's or setup a server type architecture. So basically I would like a recommendation on a LAN that will:
1. Accommodate at least 5 users, each with their own office/computer & email address.
2. Accommodate at least 2 printers.
3. Have automated backups for emails & other selected files of importance (minimum daily)

The office is purely a professional environment, no gaming, just day to day emailing/web browsing & running MS Office type applications.

I realize this question is very broad so please ask for clarification if needed.

Thanks in advance.
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DeltaR7
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I would recommend a SBS2008 server.
With this you can have a full policy, much is automated and is very easy to deploy and manage.
We usually work with DELL systems. You can easy scale your needs for storage and or performance.

I also suggest to install a decent firewall so your users can use Outlook webaccess or Remote workplace features.
A Cisco ASA 5505 is not too expensive and you will have lots of features. (VPN client is always handy)
Allthough this is very general, if you have more specific questions, we are happy to answer them


First thing I'd do is price BPOS its about 8euro per license.
http://www.microsoft.com/online/en-ie/buy.mspx#
What this will do is take email to the cloud and make backing it up and maintenance away from the local IT.

I would recommend installing a windows 2008 R2 Standard edition server with 4gb of ram and Raid5 Storage.
For redundancy and centralised backups.
Also using group policy you can enforce the fact that it is a professional enviornment by restricting users from installing games and wasting company time.

After you've installed the server i'd consider using an online backup. this will take away from switching backup tapes and remembering to store them offsite.

Hope this helps

Regards

David
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Dave Stringfellow
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I like SBS but I'd suggest you automate as much as possible and put as much as you can out in the Cloud.
BPOS allows you to do this.
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TonyCabone

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great thanks guys, tell me more:

1. what is "the cloud"
2. is my understanding correct: I buy SBS server which 1 person uses, and buy 4 other machines for other users that all connect to server for storage?

I must tell you that I am not highly technical.
points increased, 100 each :)
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Depends how much money and administration/management you want to handle.

Another option rather than SBS, is an open source server solution very similar to SBS.  Only takes time to install and try it on an extra computer.  Pretty simple/straightforward installs.  I know of three options:

1. ebox (based off Ubuntu)
2. ClearOS (based off RedHat/CentOS and used to be called Clark Connect)
3. SME Server (based off RedHat/CentOS)

Another option would be hosted email and a small NAS box for documents.
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