Small Business Network Setup Advice Needed!

alchemist83

alchemist83

New Member
HELLO!

This weekend im planning to buy 5 laptops, a main workstation, a wireless router, a printer, a UPS and some sort of network storage device.
The setup is basically that there will be a main workstation located at the workplace for general usage, reception staff, and the laptops for my other workers, so they can be mobile.
I want it so that the mobile workers with laptops, can come back to the office anytime, and be able to connect with the internet, printer and each other & have their files automatically backed up by the network storage device.
I was considering a server, however i dont wish to employ someone to maintain and run it all the time, and my staff only have basic computer skills.
I need advice on the setup, operating system and security software (antivirus/firewall) & network storage/backup i should use.

Can anyone offer some decent advice?
Much appreciated, thanx!
 
any objections to running Linux?

Do you want to require your employees to authenticate in some way on your network? This would require some sort of server to act as a domain.

What are your security concerns? Is that data that the users (employees) generate confidential in any way?

You may look into contacting a technology contracting company and just have a tech guy/gal on call, so you won't have to payroll them in your company and just pay for their services on needed basis.
 
Major objections to linux!

None of the company software would run on it!

Yes, all the data is LEGAL stuff.

Do I NEED a server, i mean they'll all be running they're own software, dont need a server to do it for them?

The Main office computer will be powerfull, cant they just get the domain from that?

When u say authenticate? I dont understand, please elaborate........

The network does need to be secure.
 
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alchemist83 said:
Major objections to linux!

None of the company software would run on it!

Yes, all the data is LEGAL stuff.

Do I NEED a server, i mean they'll all be running they're own software, dont need a server to do it for them?

The Main office computer will be powerfull, cant they just get the domain from that?

When u say authenticate? I dont understand, please elaborate........

The network does need to be secure.
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ive used many linux distros over 4 or 5 years and a lot of the windows software is available for linux or should i say runs on linux via crossover or such like depending what software you actually use
 
The Linux server was meant as file storage. You can use any old cheap PC lying around and slap linux and samba on it and create a network access storage device for all your users to dump data on. You wouldn't be running any applications off of it, just simply use as a storage device. I just suggest linux because it is:

1) Free
2) Secure
3) Will run on an old cheap PC
4) Is very stable

This will also centralize all your data, so you can have an additional back up device backing up the network storage. I highly recomend this because data recovery is very expensive.

Okay, now if you buy lets say Windows 2003 Server and load it on a machine and set up what is called Active Directory. You can then set up each user in your office. Set their permissions and access to whatever you want them to, and thus allow them access to your domain network. AD may be a bit of over kill but it would be more secure than just using plain old file and print sharing, and would not allow any machine outside your orginization access to your network unless they had a user account on your domain network. So, they would be authenticating everytime they want to log on to your office network. this also allows you to view logs and such and see what user was logged on the network at what time. You can also set up a guest account for people who are visiting your office or what not and give them very limited access (like internet only or whatever). Getting a server OS would definitely leave you room to expand. Are you planning on running your own email server and stuff like that?

Make sure you get a wireless router that supports WPA2. If your data is that important wep simply will not cut it. WEP is broken and can be easily hacked with simple downloadable utilities a 9 year old could run and hack into your network. WPA is way more secure. Make sure you use a nice long and secure passkey for your wifi access as well. This will help ensure no one leeching off your wifi, and also it will not allow anyone access who does not have the passkey. The router should also have a built in firewall and support NAT. Those two features will make your network safe from remote hosts and block out a lot of spyware, malware and other nasty things that self propagate over a network.
 
WIN2003 Networking

if your data is critical then you are best off buying a windows 2003 SBS server, and configure it for print services, file services and set up an active directory domain for secure authentication, and if you want you can set up routing and remote access for vpn connections

so what im saying is buy a windows 2003 Small Bizness server m(and set it up correctly and securely) and 5 laptops and a main workstation, buy a bigger hard drive for server if needed, theres no point wasting money on a nas because youve got a proper server which will do the job better, oh and make sure you dont buy any "HOME EDITION" stuff as they cannot join the domain properley
 
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priteshvarsani said:
if your data is critical then you are best off buying a windows 2003 SBS server, and configure it for print services, file services and set up an active directory domain for secure authentication, and if you want you can set up routing and remote access for vpn connections

so what im saying is buy a windows 2003 Small Bizness server m(and set it up correctly and securely) and 5 laptops and a main workstation, buy a bigger hard drive for server if needed, theres no point wasting money on a nas because youve got a proper server which will do the job better.
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Very good points, but a Linux NAS is more secure and more stable than a windows one in my experience. I just set up a samba share for 50 windows clients and 10 mac clients for network rendering. There is authentication required to map the share and transfer data so no one could just go in and delete it all. I also set up ACLs which allow for even more security. The Linux server I set up has never crashed once yet, it just works.

Good point about Home Edition, I forgot that it DOES NOT allow you to conenct to a domain. You will want to make sure you get Windows XP Pro, Vista business, or vista ultimate on your client machines.
 
As a note, MONEY is not an issue!

Obviously i'd like to spend as min as poss.

Also any suggestions on which processor to have in a server. i was looking at Xeon's
 
in2media said:
ive used many linux distros over 4 or 5 years and a lot of the windows software is available for linux or should i say runs on linux via crossover or such like depending what software you actually use
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Ok fair point.

However all documents etc need to be compatiable with the local councils software (a main client of mine), and they use WINDOWS and WINDOWS APPS.

Soo it'll be easier for my staff to be using windows stuff.

THANX
 
xeons or opterons for your server would be best.

Do you want to run an exchange server as well and have your own private corporate email and corporate calendar system?

As far as compatibility goes, your client machines generate the data not the storage server, so whatever they generate is what you will send out to your business clients. Now, most all open source office suites are completely compatible with their MS counter parts. You could create a word document in open office and send it to some guy who only has MS office and they should be able to open it.

On top of that MS Office 2007 is actually converting every file over into XML format, so in the near future a web browser should be able to view an office document.
 
SBS Setup

Get yourself a server running windows 2003 Small business, and a nas running *nix or linux or windows 2003 storage server( if u use windows 2003 storage, you will have active directory authentication which is very secure)

Configure the small business server like i said in my previuos post and connect all computers to the active directory.

If you can afford it i would by two windows 2003 standard edition servers which would provide redundancy on the network (you cannot have two small business servers in the same forest, and small business has less features anyway).

If you need you could buy some more servers and run exchange 2003 or 2007 but having so many servers in one forest would probably require some sort of administrator and if you buy exchange 2007 you will require TWO 64bit servers minimum for exchange (one for edge transport and one for all the other roles as edge requires a seperate server in a DMZ zone for security and speed reasons).

All of this will cost you a lot trust me on that, as windows 2003 is very expensive (i think it 600USD for ONE copy), and you will require a very powerful server to run it on, and you will require THREE servers if you have exchange 2007, and exchage 2007 is as bad as SQL servers with hogging RAM and CPU, and exchange hogs up your internet connection like mad, trust me it does even if you have one user!

ps. pick the best CPU and highest amount of ram you can get, as you will notice!(who cares if it is xeon or opteron, they both do the same thing!), and windows is very reliable if you set it up correctly (i administrate a network, and program software and databases on a network with 600 clients ON MY OWN, and i use ALL MICROSOFT software, and nothing ever crashes unless i configure it wrong!
 
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SBS Setup

Get yourself a server running windows 2003 Small business, and a nas running *nix or linux or windows 2003 storage server( if u use windows 2003 storage, you will have active directory authentication which is very secure)

Configure the small business server like i said in my previuos post and connect all computers to the active directory.

If you can afford it i would by two windows 2003 standard edition servers which would provide redundancy on the network (you cannot have two small business servers in the same forest, and small business has less features anyway).

If you need you could buy some more servers and run exchange 2003 or 2007 but having so many servers in one forest would probably require some sort of administrator and if you buy exchange 2007 you will require TWO 64bit servers minimum for exchange (one for edge transport and one for all the other roles as edge requires a seperate server in a DMZ zone for security and speed reasons).

All of this will cost you a lot trust me on that, as windows 2003 is very expensive (i think it 600USD for ONE copy), and you will require a very powerful server to run it on, and you will require THREE servers if you have exchange 2007, and exchage 2007 is as bad as SQL servers with hogging RAM and CPU, and exchange hogs up your internet connection like mad, trust me it does even if you have one user!
 
priteshvarsani said:
Get yourself a server running windows 2003 Small business, and a nas running *nix or linux or windows 2003 storage server( if u use windows 2003 storage, you will have active directory authentication which is very secure)

Configure the small business server like i said in my previuos post and connect all computers to the active directory.

If you can afford it i would by two windows 2003 standard edition servers which would provide redundancy on the network (you cannot have two small business servers in the same forest, and small business has less features anyway).

If you need you could buy some more servers and run exchange 2003 or 2007 but having so many servers in one forest would probably require some sort of administrator and if you buy exchange 2007 you will require TWO 64bit servers minimum for exchange (one for edge transport and one for all the other roles as edge requires a seperate server in a DMZ zone for security and speed reasons).

All of this will cost you a lot trust me on that, as windows 2003 is very expensive (i think it 600USD for ONE copy), and you will require a very powerful server to run it on, and you will require THREE servers if you have exchange 2007, and exchage 2007 is as bad as SQL servers with hogging RAM and CPU, and exchange hogs up your internet connection like mad, trust me it does even if you have one user!
Click to expand...


NICE!

I really appreciate the advice.

However; RU MAD>? 3 servers??? I want to run 1 PC and 5 LAPTOPS.
Buying 3 servers seems like abit of an overkill. Espec when they cost soooo much, then ive gotta employ an extra staff member to run it all.

I not being FUNNY like, just its only a small business venture.
I cant see how i would need 2 or 3 servers to run 6 system>?

Thanx again for taking the time to reply to my post. :)
 
well considering everything having a second server for redundancy is not a bad idea at all.

The main thing is you want to manage all your data in one central location and have a back up on top of that, only because computer crash, data is lost, and no matter what everything will break eventually.

At this point you may want to take the time and talk to a consultant one on one because getting advice like this over the internet can be over whelming. I am glad to give you my advice for free, which I do actually charge for on the side on this forum but since I can not physically go to your location and speak with you about your needs my advice is almost moot.

There are many ways to skin a cat they say and that holds true in technology. There are many ways to accomplish what you want, but really what you need to do is seriously outline what you need. Security, data, user access, applications, platform, accessiblity (vpns and such) are all factors in what you want to accomplish in business. Typically whenever I consult somebody I ask them their needs, then give them several solutions. One solution is always the most expensive but at the same time it is the most secure and sometimes the easiiest. I also give other solutions that will get the job done but will require work on your own end. These are all things to consider, and if your business ever picks up you will probably need a full time IT person to take care of these things. Which is something I always tell clients.
 
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