small business computer hardware advice

david90

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I'm looking for some recommendation on which small business (10 or less workers) router, firewall and NAS (for file serving and backup) to buy.

I prefer the firewall, router and wireless AP to be one unit.
 
I would go for Cisco systems, although you must have some industrial experience/very good knowledge to set up the system.
 
Hmmmm cisco would be best, but many places hire someone to set it up and do all of the work to save hassle.
 
Hmmmm cisco would be best, but many places hire someone to set it up and do all of the work to save hassle.

since it's only 10 or less workstation, is it ok to use lower end or home networking equipments?
 
since it's only 10 or less workstation, is it ok to use lower end or home networking equipments?

I would say so.... lower end. Any more than dozen or so nodes will have to start requiring more network hardware stuff. Although you do have to make sure that your network hardware has the ability for DHCP, a DNS server, and other storage servers... that is of course if the ISP doesn't already supply those tools.

As for you router... just get a wireless router and make sure that it has a firewall built into it and you'll be fine.
 
I'm looking for some recommendation on which small business (10 or less workers) router, firewall and NAS (for file serving and backup) to buy.

I prefer the firewall, router and wireless AP to be one unit.

personally I'd use a physical machine to do the firewall/DNS//DHCP/Proxy etc etc etc.

that's because it's going to be the most configurable and extensible option for you. and there are a lot of different systems out there that will let you do it, some ever for free.

as for NAS, again, these can be quite expensive, I'd go down the file server route for a small business, again because it's easy to set up, and going to be more configurable than most NAS solutions.
 
personally I'd use a physical machine to do the firewall/DNS//DHCP/Proxy etc etc etc.

that's because it's going to be the most configurable and extensible option for you. and there are a lot of different systems out there that will let you do it, some ever for free.

as for NAS, again, these can be quite expensive, I'd go down the file server route for a small business, again because it's easy to set up, and going to be more configurable than most NAS solutions.

yes the current NAS solutions suck. Why would a small business need a DNS server?

I'm not sure about putting everything into one computer (firewall, file server, dns etc) because what if that computer fails? I'm currently looking for a standalone firewall hardware that is right in terms of functionality and price for a small business.
 
here is my advice on your setup:

for a good router: I would get a old computer with P4 with 1GB memory and 40gb hard drive with 4 nic cards and install smoothwall.

for NAS I would get a computer that have P4 with 2GB and at least 400GB hard drive and install FreeNas.

then get a 16 port switch so you can wire all the computers up.
 
I'll go against everyone else and recomend a NAS enclosure. I have this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155009 and love it. After getting off of the firmware that shipped with it (shouldn't be an issue now) I had no stability issues at all.

All you would need to do is pick out hard drives ("Green" drives work great in here) and go. If you won't have that much saved/backed up to it, you can set the drives in RAID1 so it's all mirrored just in case one happens to die on you.
 
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