Small Office Network

Don't use wireless, there is a reason network cable is still used.

If you plan to grow your business install at least 4 network points at each desk and anywhere else you can.

Installing cable from the start is far cheaper than having to try and do it later.

godskitchen wrote: »

Don't use wireless, there is a reason network cable is still used.

If you plan to grow your business install at least 4 network points at each desk and anywhere else you can.

Installing cable from the start is far cheaper than having to try and do it later.

Its 6 people in a office who are currently using wireless, can you justify why they need to install cabling to each desk?

godskitchen wrote: »

Adding value to the office infrastructure.

Wireless is unreliable.

Wireless is not as secure as cable.

Wireless is slow.

I have seen offices that thought wireless was good enough, I then get called and have to tell them they have done it wrong and need to rewire the place.

If the op intends to grow their business then wireless is not the answer. It's not the answer for a one man band.

It's often the cheap answer but never the correct one

Spot on - have witnessed 6 laptops on a 100mb upc install on 54g router before and not understanding why they weren't getting full speed

godskitchen wrote: »

Adding value to the office infrastructure.

Wireless is unreliable.

Wireless is not as secure as cable.

Wireless is slow.

I have seen offices that thought wireless was good enough, I then get called and have to tell them they have done it wrong and need to rewire the place.

If the op intends to grow their business then wireless is not the answer. It's not the answer for a one man band.

It's often the cheap answer but never the correct one

In a leased office, cabling adds no real value to the lessor.

Wireless is not unreliable, cheap wireless setups are. Cheap setups in general are. Dual AP's are more reliable then a switch, as they provide failover.

WPA-2 is secure with a decent length password, not as secure as cable but offers far more versatility. This is a 6 person company here, not the CIA. You don't plan for the absolute worst, you simply consider it as a risk and take it on board.

I have conversely seen offices that have been cabled wrong, running them well over 100 meters, creating patching cabinet nightmares(routers hanging from the cables), buying brand new 100Mbps cheap switches from China which drop packets randomly. Implying a bad setup is specific to wireless is a fruitless argument.

If you can move past the "cheap" option, most small businesses could benefit from decent wireless implementations. In a enviroment like the OP's, is perfect for a mid range Router/AP combo.

The cost differences between wiring a office with 4 Ethernet points per desk, buying a switch and assuming all laptops bought will have a Ethernet port is a bit silly versus buying a decent 4*4 Mimo Ac router is something you have not addressed.

Rgb.ie wrote: »

Spot on - have witnessed 6 laptops on a 100mb upc install on 54g router before and not understanding why they weren't getting full speed

So they should install network cabling and not simply buy a better wireless setup(with the new knowledge that it is only a 2-3 year investment)?

Nate--IRL-- wrote: »

As others have said, invest in a cabled network, there is really not a discussion to be had about this. There are a few places that do cloud based servers. Where I work we sell a cloud server service to customers to work from. This hosts all their shared files and is accessible from any internet connected computer or device (iPad etc), anywhere. You login to a familiar windows desktop, and work from there.

The alternative is an on-site Physical server. both have their pros and cons. But the cloud based servers are becoming more and more our core business, as business seem to prefer opting out out of the costs associated with purchasing and maintaining on-site servers.

Ideally you would sit down with an IT company and thrash out how your company operates currently and what you want to achieve. Only then can proper advice be given as to how you should proceed, and proper options to fit your company presented.

Nate

I think we have reached a point where wireless should be taken seriously. I say that as a full time net OP's in a multinational whose plans are to scrap all cabling outside of call center locations.

Dual band N and above have removed most of the con's from the argument in office situations.

On the cloud subject, I think the OP's was asking if there was any way to minimize the infrastructure on the site(as in get rid of the networking in general) and have shared storage. Although, if you could recommend a cost effective VDI solution for 6 people, it would be a good idea to investigate.

Synology for your storage requirements https://www.synology.com/en-global/
cheapest distributor for these i've used: http://www.easy-tecs.de/Netzwerkspeicher-NAS/SYNOLOGY/

Recommend maybe a deployment of 1 or more of these:
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/
with distributor here that ive used: http://www.irishwireless.net/ubiquiti

For anything that's fixed into place, eg: your photocopier... I'd recommend wiring it directly back to a main gigabit switch (with POE for the wireless APs above)

so:

- gigabit switch which will connect all your Accesspoints, photocopier, voip adapter, ADSL router etc.
- 1,2 or 3 of your Ubiquiti N or AC access points for your laptops to connect to the network
- Synology disk/rackstation for all your local storage requirements (everyone can have their own network drive or all use a common shared network drive on the LAN so nothing is stored locally on a pc/laptop)