Networking tips for an office?

[ozzy]

Were making a pretty big upgrade and moving our office to a new building, and I'm pretty much the final say in everything. Right now I'm trying to come up with a small list of things were gonna need to make this office run smoothly as far as networking goes. I've never set up wireless network before nor have I looked into it at all yet, but I know its not hard.

Any advice from someone knowledgeable on the subject on how to set it all up?

And since I'm making this thread I might as well throw this out there: Anyone familiar with backing up a system?

[lolturnip]

How many PC's are there in the Office? Wireless is going to be slow if a lot of PC's are connecting to it, so it would be better in the long run to get some electricians in and wire up the place.

Make sure the printer(s) are networkable (eg have a network card or wireless)

At work we use Symantec backup exec. It works ok and isn't too hard to use once you get to know your way around it. Read up about that or another backup programs and obviously this program will need to sit on a server or a PC with plenty of disk space.

[goku]

pay someone to do it for you, and don't cheap out on the hardware

[Harner]

Stay away from wireless unless you want to spend some money. Have it wired up professionally, make backups of your servers and desktops if need be, and set them up at the new facility.

[ephekt]

Wireless should be a supplement to the wired network, not the the only network. For an SMB you can get an Aironet 1100 and be good without spending too much cash.

For the wired part, just make sure you get professional wiring if you don't know how to do it yourself. Use quality switches, go Cat6, use a proper 110 punch block and keystone jacks. That's pretty much it for the physical part.

If you have questions about design you're going to have to be more specific on how many servers, clients, services, VoIP etc.

[sudo]

Yes whatever you do, have professionals do the wiring.

If you have any say in the servers, suggest that you run a VM shop. It saves on energy, processors, and is very easy to manage.

[ozzy]

Thanks for all the replies. I would have replied sooner, but I made this thread as soon as I found out about the move and since then we've been working on what we actually want. We won't be running wireless. I think for now we will have about 7 computers and 1 server. Having the office wired professionally isn't really a big deal seeing as how we're a construction company and we can take care of that.

turnip, I'll look into Symantec backup exec. Thanks.

Sudo, I do have a say in the servers. Whats a VM shop? And on that note does anyone have suggestions of what to look for in a server when we go to get one?

Btw we'll be moving and setting up the new office Monday/Tuesday.

[Harner]

A VM shop is a company that runs most of their servers on VMware. One large, expensive server will run many other servers virtually.

What you need is to call some kind of vendor like Dell and have them set you up with the right equipment.