Need advice for setting up a small 10 computer office network.

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divato

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Ok, So a friend of mine is opening up a small collections agency in a decent sized office. He is planning on having 10 computers working this collections agency software.

As far as I know so far. I do not think the computers need to communicate with each other. Obv some of the workers will need to communicate with each other. But at this day and age is there really any reason to have some sort of LAN chat?

So this is what im thinking would be the easiest Way to set up the network but maybe not cost efficient. Using desktop computers previously used from another office (you can buy them in lots) Throwing PCI Wifi cards in them. Setting up 1-2 routers in the office. With a wireless printer also (Maybe 2?)

I mean is there any benefit of setting up a server and all of that and running the network though that hard wired? Or would it be just efficient to do everything wireless. What Kind of problems might I run into.

Any opinion would be greatly appreciated.

 
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bill001g

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You likely could use just a single wifi router. I would still wire as many devices as possible especially if they are desktop machines unlikely laptops that a user might carry to a conference room.

Wired of course you have the hassle to get it done in the first place but once it is running you seldom ever have to look at it again. Wireless tends to be somewhat quicker to get up and running because of no cables but it tends to be a constant battle with random strange issues.

I would cable as many as is practical and then run wireless on the rest.
 
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abailey

abailey

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Having wired connections is best but I just finished an office build out with wireless clients and a NAS storage wired. If you are going to do wireless don't use 2.8ghz, use 5ghz. I would use a shared storage of some type, like a NAS or storage server. I assume there will be some data collected that needs to be saved and backed up? If so you will want a central location to store it. Also it would be best to use professional wireless AP's if possible and not consumer types.
 
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divato

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Thanks. Honestly I think its going to be all in one space, there wont be any conference room or anything like that.. With spacer cubicles.So maybe I could have the Router located in an optimal space to where I can get as many machines wired as I can. The only reason to really set the up networked to a server is for them to be able to share files with out disk transfer right?
 
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divato

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Ok. So wired would be the best. I am very very new to networking im more of just a troubleshooting guy. How hard is it to set up a NAS/storage server? I would assume that there will be data that will be needed to be stored and backed up as well. But I honestly have no idea. I am going with him tomorrow to a meeting about the agencies software its self.
 
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bill001g

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It really depends on the business. Most business have some need to store certain data centrally. It also makes it easier to do backups and such if you have a policy that important business data is not stored on end users machines. If you were to lose a hard drive on a end user machine you could just give them a different machine with the standard load and they would continue on. If there is too much unique stuff on the end machine you need to have a way to back them up. You wouldn't really have to have a actual separate server you could just use say the managers machine for that function. Still there are sharing restrictions based on the software versions you are running so I would post a question to one of the server forums for exact help.

 
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montosaurous

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I would probably go with a decent broadband router and unmanaged switch to get the devices connected. If it is an option, I would go for a Windows Server 2008/2012 R2 box for Active Directory, DNS, File sharing, printer server, ect. Try to keep things wired. Especially when it's stationary devices.
 
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