Setting up network for small business?

I need to setup a network for a small business (20 people).. what steps will I need to take to do this? As much info as possible is greatly appreciated .. thanks

Setting up network for small business?
No wonder zeskents has only 6% on his best answers! What small business can affort a T1? The last time I ask for a T1 in Puerto Rico it was in 1996 and it worth $14K a month.





To setup any network you start with the cabling of the site. If you can, and depending the area of support, you will like to add two lines CAT5 or CAT6 for each cube. Think well about the printers that are LAN base. Provide for those as well. Since you mentioned 20 people you will need probably 2 switches of 24 ports. If you can get 1,000/100/10 TX the better, if not go for 100/10 TX switches.





You will need to label each cable to know where they are comming from in order to support them latter if you move them from ports in the switch. The switches don't need to be at the same location, so you can wire them in separate closets. Usually CAT5 will work fine with a connecting cable for over 250 feet.





To provide Internet access get Cable Modem connection if possible, or DSL. You will attach the router (linksys, netgear, dlink, etc) and disable the dhcp server on it. That is because you probably want to use Windows 2000 or 2003 to lease the IP and pass the DNS information to your computers. You do this on the DHCP option of the Administration Tools. Create a scope with enough IP's for all your users. In there you specify the DNS Servers that will resolve the querys from the users. If you need details let me know.





Now, you can also use Novell and LINUX servers to support your IT Infrastructure so I will not cover those here.





Anyway, once you have the server with the DHCP and DNS running you should have Internet on the attached computers.





Other things will depend on the services and databases you would like to host in your environment, but you should have the infrastructure setup when you configure the router and the switches.
Reply:You will need a router and a switch.





or a switch with static ip address from your ISP.





Now, you have a choice of using Workgroup (simple), using Windows 2003 Sever, or Novell Netware to control your network and security
Reply:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813936
Reply:Join my storeonwheels group in yahoo groups.
Reply:get a T1 line . LAN connection

loose teeth