HELP Regarding Network Design and Equipments

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- udi
  
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posted
16 years ago

Sun, Jul 29, 2007 3:13 PM

I Need Help Regarding setting up a small Hybrid Network for My Office and Home which are in the same building.

Current Scenario: Ground Floor is used as OFFICE I have 2 PCs here, Netwoked via a simple HUB and No Internet

I donot need any PC on the 1st Floor

My HOME is on the 2nd Floor with just 1 PC connected with an ADSL Modem (PPPOE) via USB port, I have an 100 Mbps Ethernet Card in this PC and my Modem can also be connected using this Port.

I recently bought a Laptop (802.11g) and from this laptop I now want to wirelessly access Internet (w/o turning ON any of the PCs) , my HOME PC and Office Network from either of the Floors.

I cannot move my ADSL Modem to anyother place / floor and the network will be a mix of Windows XP and Windows Vista Machines.

In my HOME I just want to access the Internet anywhere on the Floor and when my HOME PC is Switched ON I wud like to access files on it (again Wirelessly).

In My Office I would like to build a foundation for a network which will in 12-18 months grow to total 4 PCs excluding the laptop. Any of these PCs should be able to use the Internet Connection when they require.The Office PCs will be however a mix of Wired and Wireless PC/ Laptop.

I would also like to a Print Server and a facility to centrally store my file (which are not much in size less than 4GB mainly MS Office docs)

both the Print Server and the facility to centrally store the files is VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME (but w/o keeping any PC turned ON)

I was thinking the following setup.

In my HOME: A ADSL Modem cum Wireless Access Point (always ON) (I will dump the current modem as it is giving some problems)

In my Office: A Wireless Router with 4 Port Ethernet Switch, 802.11g (no Draft n for me), Advanced Firewall, Qos Support, a Print Server and perhaprs a facility to add a USB Flash Drive for accessing my files from any PC.

The Access Point on the second floor will connect to the Router on the Ground Floor via a Cat 6 cable.

I would like to know if my design is technically and logically correct and where can I improve esp on costs, I would like converting my Office Network to a Gigabyte Ehternet in Future if possible.

I would also like to know if it is possible to add a USB Flash Drive in the Router's USB Port and use it as a File Server. All my Shared Files would rest on this Flash Drive and any Computer on the Network will access it from there.

I donot need the High Capacity Devices like NAS as the total Size of the Files to be shared is very small (less than 4 GB) and a Flash Drive can easily accomodate them.

Please advice me as I am new into these things. I would Prefer D-Link Hardware beacuse my Current Wi-fi Cards (2 nos.) (802.11g model: DWL G520+) are from Dlink.

Thanks to all you wonderful people out there.

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- P
- Peter Pan
  
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posted
16 years ago

Sun, Jul 29, 2007 7:38 PM

udi wrote:

Couple of thoughts, First, forget the Gigabyte network, it's VERY expensive...

Look into just a DSL modem rather than the POS one most providers have (modem/wap combo, I got a POS Westell, and wished I had a sledge hammer for it, finally sent it back and got a modem only)

Are you against NAS altogether or just high capacity storage ones?

I have a similar situation here (but in reverse... the office is upstairs and home downstairs) and have two linksys wrt54g wap/routers ($49 each at walmart, note they are "G"s, not "GS"'s those are about $79 each), connected by cat5 cable to the router part of the second/upstairs device (DHCP off, cable into the ROUTER and not the wan in on upstairs, same SSID but different channel ((so I can roam with a laptop from downstairs to upstairs))), or use my PDA (dell xv51) to use the wireless part (nice when I am in the backyard on a hammock :), however, the reason I ask about NAS, is that I have a Buffalo Technology BUFFALO HSDH250GL LinkStation (250 Gigabyte) Live Multimedia Storage Server (under $200, for the linkstation live page see

formatting link

plugged into one of the ethernet ports on the wap router, that can be shared with any device at both home and office, and it has two USB ports, one I use for a USB printer (makes it essentially a network printer), however, from their specs page "Built-in Print Server to Print Files from Anywhere on your Network. Multi-function printers not supported. Works in Windows only." (they only support about 30-50 different makes/models, so the elcheapo ones you see on sale that require a PC running their software won't work)... The second USB port I use for an additional 500 Gigabyte drive (again, from their specs... "Expand Storage by Adding a USB Hard Drive"), got my 500 GB drive for about $179 at best buy... Why a second drive instead of just getting a bigger drive for the NAS? Cause regular wired ethernet is about

100 Mbps, Wireless about 54, yet once every two weeks I back up each computer on the network and want it much faster, and USB direct on each machine runs at about 480 Mbps (almost 5 times faster than wired) Why an second big drive? Aside from it being cheap and easy to get/replace/fix/etc, I can move it around from machine to machine for backup.... Just an aside, most NAS devices use their own operating system (probably linux like), that do NOT need to be defragmented, while a USB drive does have to be defragmented (after the biweekly backup I defragment the 500 GB drive, and even at the higher speed of USB it still takes almost all nite to do it)...

Know you asked about dlink stuff, but my personal experience with their products has been very very bad, matter of fact I looked at buying a sledgehammer to 'adjust' one of their wap/routers, but I ended up mailing it to an ex as a freebie instead... I chuckle every time I think about that :)