Networking Newbee

Question

I am trying to manage a small business network.  We are finally crawling out of the last century and into this.  We have several PC's hooked together via ethernet and a older hub.  We currently share a dial out which, thank god, we will be getting rid of soon in lieu of a DSL.  My question:  We will take on this dsl after moving to a new location.  I know our older hub should be updated and am eyeballing a couple of Dell hubs but am not sure which will fill our need in that we are growing now.  Sharing a DSL hookup, less than a dozen current stations, shared printing, up and coming web cam hookups.  Can anyone recommend a good Dell hub for us, and then tell me why they would think it fits?  I have been eyeballing the 2324 as the low end, and 2724 as the high...   Any input is appreciated.   :smileyindifferent:

renooperations · Answer

And just to be sure, the DSL shares direct via the hub, not via a shared connection in a pc, right?

ReliablePartsIN · Answer

How many PC's are you going to be hooking up?

You can get pretty cheap hubs these days from Linksys (Now owned by Cisco) and uplink them into another hub. So you can buy 2 16 port Linksys hubs for roughly $70.00 each and have 32 computers connected.

Your DSL will most likely plug into one of these hubs. Your DSL Provider will provide you will the IP Address and Gateway of the hub. From there, you can manually add IP address's of all the machines and make them point at the Gateway of the DSL router.

Now you will be able to share printers, files and DSL connectivity.

Hope this helps.

Jim Loveland
Information Technology
ReliableParts INC.

The House Of A Million Parts

Message Edited by ReliablePartsINC on 04-05-2006 06:03 PM

jmwills · Answer

Modem to router to switch. PC's connect to the switch and should be set for DHCP unless you have some special apps that need for one of the mahcines to have a static address.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/howto/
http://www.theeldergeek.com/quick_guide_to_simple_file_sharing.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/default.mspx

XP Home or Professional??

BBraxton · Answer

In our Windows 2003 server Domain we are using one Dell PowerConnect 2124 (connects about 24 computers, in our student LAB, there are actually fifteen but printers and others connect 'on the fly' -- it came 'free' with one Dell server we bought). It is 10/100 and has always worked flawlessly, efficiently and effectively. Thinking ahead you might want to consider Gigabit (all our devices so far are 10/100 Ethernet).

ReliablePartsIN · Answer

If your computers are connected to the same hub as the DSL, and are set to obtain an IP addresss automatically, and the DSL is set up for DHCP, then yes, all you have to do is plug in the computers to the hub.

Jim Loveland
Information Technology
ReliableParts INC.

The House Of A Million Parts

Message Edited by ReliablePartsINC on 04-06-2006 09:49 AM

renooperations · Answer

Lots of input, thanks.  I want to make sure I understand this.  My DSL provider will have a wire to the office, that will attach to a modem that they provide.  From there, I can plug directly into a new hub?  Then share that connection via hub?

renooperations · Answer

Great.  Thanks everyone.  Just need to pick the right one now.  Can anyone answer as well if there needs to be a special type of hub needed to accomodate a dsl (powered, managed, web managed)?

BBraxton · Answer

Are you talking more than five computers?
More than ten?
Are you using Windows XP Home? Professional?
Windows 2000 Professional?
Wireless?
I realize you are doing planning now so my questions are about both present and projected (how far grow?)

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Networking Newbee

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