Small Office/Home Network Types (Suggestions Needed)

Has anyone set up a scalable network for the home or small office?

With past small offices I used wireless or RJ45 Cables with hub and worked from this with a couple of laptops or PCs and one PC holding the core programs and data.

The wireless was far to slow when trying to run office programs like Quickbooks ect through the network. Currently there are only 2 of us so we have set up a direct Firewire connection between the 2 laptops as it was the fastest we could get it. Problem is scalability - how do we increase users on the network???

Does anyone know if Firewire Hubs work so we can add further PCs/Laptops into the Network. Or is there a better low cost option for adding Users onto a network without sacrificing speed of programs to much.

Another option was to put in a server and proper small office network in. The problem with this is I take a lot of work away with me so I like the core data to be portable so it has always been on my laptop. Another possible solution again was to just run it all off an external harddrive - and maybe into a server and off to the network when in the office - or if I need to take it out of the office it comes with me or anyone else.

Does anyone have recommendations on a low cost small network option - with speed and portability??

It's all a matter of trade offs.

To be honest, I doubt you're going to find something that's low cost AND fast (I'm guessing here that 100Mbit isn't good enough) AND portable.

You'd probably be better using something like gigabit. Some serious CAT6 cabling (buy it in a large drum & keep it somewhere safe, it's cheaper in the long run), and some RJ45 connectors. Depending on how many cables you're going to make, it might be worth buying an RJ45 crimp tool. If this isn't justified, I have one I can post to you, but I'd need it back. I can also give you all the advice you'll need about making the cables up.

The problem there is you'll need to shell out on gigabit network cards, and probably a hub. This means it wouldn't be exactly cheap. However, as I'm sure you're aware, firewire cables aren't that cheap either.

For portability, a gigabit lan really isn't. I prefer cables to be neatly hidden inside trunks, and that's a pain in the rear to rip out & re-fit etc. It depends what you want in terms of 'portability.' Do you want multiple OS' seemlesly integrated? Or do you mean that you want to me able to move the laptops around freely? If it's the latter, then about your cheapest option would be a single machine with a Wifi USB stick, that can share the connection to any other machine that happens to use Wifi. Be careful here, because wireless networks are NEVER secure against a determined attacker. Risk assessment needed.

EDIT: I've proven in the past that if you seperate a wired network from a wireless one, using a switch as opposed to a hub (I can explain the difference if anyone needs it) that your data is in no way shape or form safe. The people I proved this to was a law firm, and I was sat in their car park. Needless to say, they were shocked. The only real solution is the same as pregnancy, either don't do it, or invest in some decent barrier protection. Encryption is just the same, not considered safe. PLEASE PLEASE don't upset me by allowing anything you'd consider remotely sensitive access anywhere near a Wifi network, you're only asking for trouble. [/EDIT]

Let me know specific details of what you want to achieve, and I'll give you all the pointers I can. Handy thing is that I used to be a self-employed IT consultant, and gave it up pretty much solely because I hated the 18 hour+ days. I'd rather have time with my family than the money I was earning.

Any tips you need on phyiscal layout, or security you'd need to impose, I'm sure there's others on the forum besides me with the knowledge to help out

[Luckypants]

What wireless standard did you use previously? 802.11G runs at 54Mbps (5 times faster than older 802.11b) so might be up to the job for a small office.

If speed is essential, wired is the way forward. Most small hubs run at 100Mbps, but a little more cash will get you a 1Gbps Hub. This is lightning fast.

Just remember that both wireless and Ethernet will run at the speed of the slowest connected client. So if going the wireless route, make sure all wireless adaptors are 802.11G. All wired (ethernet) clients should have a 1Gbps network card to get maximum benefit.

All wires used should be of high quality and at least to CAT5E standard and routed away from sources of EMI.

HTH

I have 3 PCs, a couple of old laptops, a printer & a wireless adsl router (11g)

The wireless adsl router also has 4 ethernet ports (100mb) so my pc plugs into this, an other cable (Cat5 jobbie) goes through a hole in the wall into my daughters bedroom (don't tell Mrs Toad I've drilled through the wall) and my son's pc uses the wireless connection from upstairs. Printer is attached to my pc, and is accessable as long as my pc is switched on, ie. you don't have to log in. Some folders have been set up to share with other users, so we can share files, photos, etc.
The laptops use plug in USB Wireless sticks (about £11 iirc) for when we need to use those

Hey presto, a small network at virtually no cost

My house is pretty much the same as Mr. Toad, except that my kids use my machine as they're not old enough.

I've only recently added wireless networking to the mix as I'm going to be working from home 1 week out of 6 soon, and don't want to be in the lounge with kids TV on. That's a royal pain though, but an automated process means that I can almost securely use wireless (40k RSA key pairs on top of MAC-only access WEP Wifi and then, wifi connections are only allowed to connect to work, not my printer or file shares, not even google). From there I can use connections out to clients. Risk assessment means work are happy for me to use wifi at home like this, most people in the company aren't allowed to.

But then, my situation is different to most peoples, and we have stupid things like time access VPN (password changes over time, seemingly randomly) and you need to know that password for a 5 minute window in order to login.

Horses for courses, but I'm just overly paranoid about security.

Baph, Currently we run a couple of Toshiba Laptops so the main problem with this would be having to replace the network cards or replacing the Laptops??

Being Portable for me just means taking all office data (accounts, emails ect) home for the evening so I can work.

The current Firewire connection runs at 400mbps - and even 100 mbps feels slow when going back to standard CAT5 cables on the lan. Do you know if its possible to run a multi-user Firewire network??

Luckypants, How can I tell how fast my current Network Cards will run (if we went down the speedy 1GB Hub Route)? I have a feeling it also max's out at 100mbps.

Firewire networking is limited to 15ft. Anything more than that & you should expect to see some serious drops in transfer rate (due to noise) unless you use a repeater. With a decent repeater, you're looking at a max of around 240ft.

Also, firewire is only for IP, so you can forget expanding to NetBEUI IPX etc should that be needed at any stage.

Firewire networking is also limited to the latest versions of windows, unless you use UniBrain.

I've never seen more than two machines connected in a firewire network, but in theory, it's all good. Each machine would have a static IP, and the internet connection could even be shared by ICS.

If speed is more of an issue than cost is, it's possible to get a firewire-fiber-convertor, so the only part about firewire LAN I'm not sure about, is the hub. A fiber hub works the same way an RJ45 does. I think a firewire should do the same, but you'd need to be careful, as a USB hub doesn't (USB hubs have their own ID etc). However, USB networking still isn't out of the question, and offers 480Mbps, but is still limited at around the same as firewire.

No need to replace the Tosiba built in eth sockets, main problem there is you couldn't (if it's built in). PCMCIA is the answer here. PCMCIA (Cardbus etc) gigabit networking card addition, and you don't have to replace the laptops either.

It depends on how many users, what expansion plans you have in the future. If its just for a few home pc's etc.

First thing I would personally do is scrap the idea of using firewire for a network. Ethernet is the standard for a good reason, it works and is relatively painless to use.

If you’re looking at something fairly cheep, I would look at a netgear gigabit switch. You can run this at 10/100/1000. A 5port one i.e. GS605 can be had at about 25quid.

You can then look for network cards on your laptops, depending on your price range you can get either 100mb or gigabit cards. Both can be had fairly cheaply, just a quick look on dabs shows cardbus gigabit cards for between 25 - 30quid. Again the same for desktops, ethernet cards are dirt cheep.

Buy a bit of cat5(e), stick it all together, and you have a simple network.

Of course, you can then go down the route of installing sockets by your desk and running it all back to a central location and then using patch leads. It does make things neater, but if you’re doing things on the cheep its unneeded.

Dan

[timwilky]

My house is gigabit all over the place, each bedroom has 3 wall sockets, the lounge two, in the loft about 12 then into a 24 port patch panel and then a 24 port gigabit switch, the onward connection to my router/firewall is at 2 gigabit (duplex connection)

ok perhaps a waste for the printers that still run at 10mb, but all of my servers, pcs and even laptops are gigabit connected.

I get a moan from the kids as they want to use wireless, but if they can cope at 108mb then so be it. Personally I prefer the security, reliabilty and speed of wires.

Yes my wireless is secure, all mac addresses filtered, WPA encryption.

Originally Posted by timwilky

Yes my wireless is secure, all mac addresses filtered, WPA encryption.

I have more security on my wireless than that, and mine is not considered SECURE. Security is a concept, it only has to be good enough. If someone wants in, they'll get in.

EDIT: MAC's can be spoofed, WPA can be cracked.