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My neighbor is starting a small billing business and has asked me to help design the network.

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  • Networking
  • Design
  • Business Computing
Last response: in Business Computing
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March 16, 2014 6:45:45 AM

My neighbor is starting a small billing business and has asked me to help design the network. Currently, my neighbor has nothing, but needs the following:
•2 workstations, 2 laptops, and 1 server supporting 3 users
•Wireless networking
•1 quality networked printer
•File and folder sharing
•Internet access
•Multiple email addresses
•Basic security environment (similar to home environment)
•Initial investment $5,000 or less
•Recurring costs less than $200 per month

More about : neighbor starting small billing business asked design network

March 16, 2014 6:51:46 AM

If it's hosting a publicly available site, the server should be hosted remotely - consumer internet connections tend to have crap uploads.

Pick up a domain and emails from someone like GoDaddy.

Don't know on the printer, but definitely needs to be a laser.

The remainder can be done easily with standard consumer/prosumer gear. I'm assuming billing isn't particularly processing power intensive?
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March 16, 2014 7:00:05 AM

Printer - Laser. Color if needed
Email - Let someone else handle that. No need to do it inhouse. gmail or Office365 or similar.
Server - Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

Apart from the hardware, you have to decide on a software track. Windows or Linux.
You also have to factor in some backup strategy and hardware.

$5,000 for everything is pretty tight. I think the budget needs to rise.

Moving this to Business Computing. You'll likely get more direct answers there.

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March 16, 2014 6:33:00 PM

I'm gonna say that $5,000 is just too little for the startup infrastructure you are talking about. You may get your network and computers for that budget, but it's not going to come close to the server as well. The server alone is going to be more than half of that projected budget.

Don't skimp though because often you will end up spending even more down the road to fix bad initial decisions. I've seen this happen all too often with clients that call me up because their business has gone grinding to a halt because the cheapo computers they bought from Walmart all are failing at once, or don't support features now required by the software they want to run.

So, look into something that is being currently advertised at a good cost from the business line of your favorite vendor. Dell, HP, Lenovo, they all have good deals going all the time for different offerings. Stick with Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8 Professional. Its best to get the Pro upgrade included in your initial purchase than have to hassle upgrading it later if you need it (such as joining a Windows domain with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials on your new server.) You also don't need to break the bank getting hardware performance capabilities that you will never use. If all you are needing is something that can do email, web browsing, and work with some word documents and spreadsheets, there is no need to go for a high end Core i5 or i7 processor. In fact the cost savings of sticking with the Core i3 could warrant you upgrading to an SSD which would probably net you better performance and responsiveness anyways.

You don't have a big network, and unless you need to do something specific with it such as multiple sub-networks, network-level VPN, etc. then you don't need much to begin with. Get a decent mid-range wireless router for now, I personally like the ASUS brand routers. I don't know the size of the office you need to provide wireless for, but the wireless router itself may be enough but you also may need additional units to act as access points or one single long range access point. I'd also suggest getting a gigabit switch. Again, doesn't have to be anything fancy for your needs, but be sure you get plenty of ports for growth, not "just enough" for what you need now.

Now the server. Do you actually need a server or just shared storage? It's hard to recommend anything here as we don't really know what they are doing with their computers and what you would need a server for except that you need shared folders. Again, if all you need is shared storage on the network, you can buy a NAS and it will be cheaper than purchasing a full server. It's not quite as flexible (you're not going to be able to run shared applications, do remote web access or remote desktop with it, etc.) but for sharing out files on your network it is much more cost effective. I again prefer the Synology line for NAS units, they are very robust and easy to work with and set up.

And for licensing, get set up with subscriptions for Microsoft Office 365 if you need email and licensing for Microsoft Office software. One fee for everything and I've been incredibly impressed with how well this system works for handling email compared to older solution provider systems. Another option for email of course is to get it through a domain provider when you buy a domain name (such as from GoDaddy) or even go with Outlook.com or Gmail.com for free accounts if you need to conserve your funds to begin with.
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