Problem planning to revamp my network

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Ok,

Quick background. I have an office for my business that I share with an automotive company. I want to completely revamp the network. To put it simply the existing one sucks.

As of right now it's 20 something PC's
Ethernet connections running to I'm not sure what and using free proxy.

The IT guy and I use the term loosely set up the proxy because he he said routers weren't working. He also told me "the modem wasn't strong enough for a router" so I don't have much faith in him...

I'm looking to get a cisco 24 port switch. I know different models but I'm wondering what is wrong with going with something a little older and cheaper.

I don't see why I need gigabyte ports, there isn't much data flowing here. I'll probably set up two vlans, 1 for them and 2 for me.

The network is going to look like:

modem
^
^
^
-switch-
vlan1 ------- vlan2
2 hosts ----- 20 hosts


Can something I pick cheap and used handle this or is there a reason I should pay 1k for it?

If this is in the wrong forum or not the kind of question that I should be posting then please advise. Thanks!

 

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You will probably find you are running to some cheap nasty hub.

 

Do you have a server(s)?
Is it just 20 PCs sharing one internet connection and files between each other?
What do you need VLANs for?

Any half-decent managed switch will be enough for what you want by the looks of it.
24-port Dell PowerConnect switch goes for ~£250 brand new.

Do you want separate VLAN so you get the bigger chunk of shared internet connection? If yes, you're looking for traffic shaping capable router.
Computers (and printers/other devices) on different VLANs won't be able to see each other/work together.

Need more details.

 

Thanks for the detailed response.

0 servers.

It's just 20 pc's sharing the internet and files / databases etc.

The reason I want the vlans is so our two business can remain separate.
I don't have any need to access theirs and they don't need to access mine.

I'm thinking about a cisco 2950 because I can pick one up cheap. Any reason to avoid it?

Anything else that I should let you know? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of haha.

 

Wouldn't a centralized database be of benefit to you? On a server?
Everything was fine appart from when you said no servers and then databases????
If you could, I'd centralize those databases.

 

Hi,

I would consider looking into subnetting, that way you can create 2 seperate networks. Eliminating the need for VLANS, because with VLANS you will need more than just one switch...

check that you have a manageable switch as opposed to non-manageable.


Classic.

 

You can do VLANs with one switch.....

 

Tru dat. One of the main benefits of VLANs is that you CAN use one switch for multiple LANs. The clue is in the name 'Virtual' LAN

I concur with Sparky - get two unmanaged switches and a firewall with multiple internal interfaces (a small Netscreen or Checkpoint would be ideal). No sense you spending the extra cash on a managed switch when you don't need it

 

I'll sit down and get all the info from the owner and the "IT guy" if he's around today. Other than the network problems the database system works great and I'd prefer not to change it. I think he just has shared access on a drive and that's where they all store it, I could be wrong.

I think I'm going to go with Sparky's suggestion. I can find some netscreens cheap.
I'm going to price it vs a managed switch though because I need to ship this to Chile and that is insane. I think it might just be cheaper to go with the managed switch after shipping 1 vs 3 items.

 

I went ahead and bought a Juniper Netscreen 5GT NS-5GT-001.

Now I just need one or two switches. Was thinking cisco because it's what I know but I also like cheap. Anything wrong with some older switches like cisco 2950's or whatever? There isn't anything too crazy going on with this network.

Any suggestions on specific switches would be great, I'm not a buyer just a user.

Also thanks for all the help you've already given.

 

You don't need to bother with Cisco switches. Just get yourself a couple of cheap, unmanaged HP, Netgear or Linksys switches instead. They're so cheap you can pick up an 8-port Gb switch for about £50 (though not sure what the costs are like in Chile, LOL)

Something like this would be ideal. Since you haven't got servers to worry about, you don't give a monkeys about the backplane, throughput or anything else. I'm also guessing most of the machines are probably 10/100Mb NICs instead of Gb, but with the prices that cheap, it shouldn't bother you!

 

all networking gear is horribly priced here in Chile. I'll be in the U.S. in 2 weeks though. I'm going to pick something up there. I think you're right about something like the cheap one you linked. I don't need cisco and these computers are running 100mbs nics at best. They barely have color monitors. So what about something like this, it's cheaper than the one you linked and has 24 ports. I'm just wondering if there is something really big that I missed or if it's simple enough? I've got 20 computers so the 8 port cheapie won't do it.

Is there a disadvantage to those switches? I don't need exactly those, I'm just thinking the general idea. Used older cisco switches cost less than the linksys sometimes.

 

Shared access to a single shared drive, sounds like a single point of failure to me hope its backed up!!!!!
Could this also be the bottle neck in your network to many users accessing the one shared drive if its a big database?

 

Yeah no problem with it as long as it checks out, everything works and all the lights are green when they should be.

 

The database isn't that big. Also out of all the computers I don't think that many are accessing it. I'm a little excited to sit down with the "IT guy" and get this whole thing laid out completely so I understand it.

Yeah it has some type of backup, I'm not exactly sure what though.

The network isn't really bottlenecked or slow. I just can't do certain things because of this stupid proxy like FTP / my own email client etc. Obviously that isn't acceptable. That is the big reason behind it.