Need help (and cheap network solution) fast!

[jaybird]

My friend just opened up his own business and they need to get on line ASAP!

Here is what we have and what we need done as cheap as possible!

5 PC's all running on XP Pro that all need:

File sharing.
Printer access
Daily backups.
Firewall.
All may need to be connected to the internet at one time or another during the day.

Right now all we have are the PC's and a DSL line just installed with a patch cable box.

Suggestions please!

Regards,

jaybird

[headseed]

Sounds like the first thing you need is an IT guy

Everything you need is included with XP Pro, save for the daily backups and the networking.

For a business network, I recommend getting a $50 Pentium classic or Pentium II or celeron with 128MB of RAM and two NIC cards and purchasing the commercial version of either Clark Connect or SmoothWall linux firewall distros. Then all you need to network all the machines is a 5 port switch, should be about $20 tops. I have a 16 port switch with dual VLAN and it was only $45 or so.

The linux router PC will handle DHCP for the PCs, includes a robust firewall, and can also serve as a web server, mail server, DNS server, FTP server, squid internet cache, content filtering do-it-all machine.

For backups, I'd get a USB 2.0 external hard drive that has the one touch back-up button, like the newer Seagates. If the data is very important, then look into a dedicated, redundant, backup machine for storing complete hard drive images of the other 5 machines.

Have fun![/quote]

[Billl]

My friend just opened up his own business and they need to get on line ASAP!

Here is what we have and what we need done as cheap as possible!

5 PC's all running on XP Pro that all need:

File sharing.
Printer access
Daily backups.
Firewall.
All may need to be connected to the internet at one time or another during the day.

Right now all we have are the PC's and a DSL line just installed with a patch cable box.

Suggestions please!

Regards,

jaybird

Personally I'd just go with a hardware router. It's a lot simpler to setup and you don't need to be a Linux guru to keep it up to date and working. Most of them come with 4 ports. So you will just need a switch to connect the last machine. As for the printer if it's close enough to one of the machines then just hook it up to that and share it. Otherwise I'd buy a cheap print server. For backups, as much as I hate to endorse anything from Symantec I'd have to say Norton Ghost is hard to beat. I'm guessing if these are new machines at least one would have a CD-R in it. I'd use them for my backups.Their are only 2 kinds of hard drives, those that have failed and those that will. Nothing wrong with using the hard drive backups just as long as you have something more permanent. A good compromise for speed and flexibility would be CD-R's for weekly backups and the hard drive for daily incremental backups.


Billl

[Dave Rave]

xp does file sharing
and print sharing

and backup too

questions ?

[jaybird]

We are presently looking at a NetGear FV318 ProSafe VPN Firewall Router.

This seems to be an all in one solution to our needs:

Contains broadband router for our DSL, 8 Port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch and Firewall.

It is expandable for up to 124 users.

It is mostly self-configuring and uses a web based interface for fine tuning, best of all there is a 3 year warrenty with 24/7 tech support if needed.

At this point the company is not going the server route, we will just share files, printers with required apps loaded on all machines.

Until they star to grow we will just use the K.I.S.S. approach

Regards, and TNX for your help.

jaybird

[davd_bob]

Jaybird,
Sounds like you have a winner. Your friends network is much broader then my wives little video store but we basicly are set up the same way.

On the backup issues...I created a folder on one of the systems that receives lower usage(its named slave) and just copy each critical item to that folder each day. That way if something happens to a pc system we have the data backed up an available on the net at a moments notice.

For ease of people that have no idea about coping from their system to a folder out on the LAN I created a "command prompt" command and put an Icon that initiates it on each PC. That way they double click on an ICON each evening and they get a command prompt window that does everything for them then it closes and they can go home. I don't bother with total backups cause I find its just easier to grab the next PC and use it if you have the files available on the net...instead of trying to get the correct system backup put on the the right system. If I loose a HD it is just as easy to re-install the OS on the new one and hit the street running. Besides, everytime I reinstall from a backup I disover there was a critical change or other and I missed backing the change up.

I suggest 2 things different. 1st make each PC backup to a folder named with its name. 2nd back that whole set of folders to yet another system in event the "backup" system should fail. We also copy the folders to a zip disk every night so we can take the store home with us...in event the building with all the PCs burns down.

Your friend WILL want a notebook(the paper kind) with the naming convention, and each COA, and that other critical stuff that only matters if you loose it. Recomend that they save data in generic version...like RTF for wordprocessing stuff...that way there is no big deal if it has to be opened with an older version of Word or whatever.

I don't know how it will work with XP systems but it works great on mine which are all WIN98 and W2K Pro. (I still haven't got her snooty XP system to talk the the others yet.)

Lastly remind him no matter how much security he uses he could be hacked so his employees should NOT put anything on the network they wouldn't want to one day see on the Internet.

[kuun]

i know this is delayed..

but using a Linksys router instead of netgear would be a wiser choice.. as linksys is a division of Cisco, and cisco are pro's when it comes to networking..

for the 5 pc's, you could do as i have done with my small network,

buy the router and hook it to the modem, then get yourself a 4-12 port hub/switch (12 port switches are more efficient, but both will work) plug the switch into the router, and that way, you have already given yoruself plenty of room to grow, and you have the ability to access the router from any machine, this and you can always add more switches to the router..

as far as data storage, build a small machine with multiple harddrives (2-3 should suffice, with the main OS on one drive, and al lteh data you need stored on the others, this way.. if the OS on the machine fails.. you won't loose your data or cause youself extra work, as you jsut reinstall and go), instal radmin and then share all drives, this allows you to control the pc without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse and also allows anyone to store information onto each drive with relative ease..

my 2 cents