'Network' management improvements for a small business needed.

August 10, 2007 7:28 AM

Suggestions to improve 'Network' management for a small business? See for more details.

I just started working for a small company and need some input on better system/equipment for the company "network". Everyone is using Windows XP operating system.

Current hardware:
- One wall-wart CAT cable highspeed internet connection into the office.
- One D-Link wireless router with the CAT connection inputed. The router is then CAT cable connected to (a) a ‘network’ printer (which is then shared by all the workers via wireless router), (b) a stand alone enclosed 250GB Netdisk harddrive (which is then shared by all the workers via wireless router), and (c) the older desktop computer described below.
- One older (Pentium 3) desktop system that is ‘hardwired’ into the D-Link wireless router. This system is the extra computer that is used as backup if someone leaves their laptop at home.
- Five newer (all Centrino) laptops that each worker brings home every night. Some of the workers wirelessly occasionally backup key files to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive, but the connection is so slow that it is done infrequently.

Current shared network:
- The above mentioned wireless connection to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive
- The above mentioned wireless connection to a shared printer
- The company has a service that hosts the company’s website, operates the email service, and also provides some drive space to store files. The service is a couple cities over, and those stored files are accessed via SharePoint. Unfortunately, SharePoint over our connection is horribly slow and does not seem to be a real option for common use.

How things currently work:
- Each worker maintains all current work on their individual laptops, with rare backups to the 250GB Netdisk harddrive (if in the office), or through SharePoint (if on the road).
- The in office wireless connection speed is slow. I am not sure if this is a limitation of the wireless (newer D-Link system), the number of connected laptops (up to 5), some combination, or something else.
- The way the 250GB Netdisk harddrive is set up (via wireless) is such that it hs to be mounted everytime the computer is turned of or leaves the office. This mount is often lost (not sure why), so the drive has to be remounted several times a day. The connection to the Netdisk harddrive is also slow….but this may be a fuction of the wireless connection, as opposed to the drive itself, being slow.

What I would like to have:
- Fast connection to the internet for all the office computers. Does this mean we have to run CAT cables all around the office and manually plug-in?
- A common drive(s) that everyone in the office can read/write to and have fast (as fast as connection to individual computer harddrives) connection to. Do I need to add a server to the office to do this, or can the current 250GB Netdisk harddrive somehow be hardwired to do this?
- I want to insure security of the system. I’m not sure if the current wireless arrangement does that. Can people outside the office pick up the signal, and if so, how do I secure it?
- I want to insure that all work is backed up on a regular basis, but to get everyone to do that will require making it simple (software suggestions?) and easy (faster network connection).

I appreciate your suggestions. Being a small company, costs are an issue. But to get the right system I am willing to push for needed improvements.

posted by wylde21 to computers & internet (8 comments total)

What you're asking for doesn't seem like it will cost the earth, so I'd suggest you spend your money on a professional network consultant. All your asks aren't overly complicated, but you do want a lot and both security and performance seem to be important. You'll be able to do it with some guidance but you may be better consulting a professional and telling them cost is also a key issue and that you want to minimize your spend.
posted by dcbarker at 7:50 AM on August 10, 2007

1) Fast connection: Wireless is probably not your bottleneck, and there are a ton of things this could be. This would be the one issue I'd look for some outside help on.

2) XP's built-in ability to share a folder is all you need. Right click on a folder you want to share, select properties, click the sharing tab. You can now browse to this folder in my network places (assuming all systems are in the same workgroup). Alternatively, you can simply type \\servername in the address bar of explorer.

3) If you haven't turned on WPA2 with pre shared key (PSK) (read the manual. If you're responsible for this stuff, get used to reading lots of documentation), you need to. Do not use WEP; someone can crack this trivially.

4) The easiest way would be to have everyone's My Documents folder redirected to a personal shared folder on the server and have them save everything to My Documents. I wouldn't recommend manually editing the local policies on each machine to do this. Instead, I'd install a Windows Server OS on the server, promote it to be a domain controller, and learn to administer Active Directory.

Note, these suggestions may not be the easiest in terms of "done by Tuesday," but going this route will get you on the path towards saving a lot of time and having things done correctly in the future.
posted by bfranklin at 8:03 AM on August 10, 2007

Two suggestions:

1) Invest in wired connections to all the workstations. This may be the only way to resolve your bandwidth problems if you are in a high-noise area. It is also infinitely more secure.

2) Buy a server (Dell has some good entry-level ones for around $400) and install eBox on it. eBox is an all-in-one network services software package and it's free. It will give you the ability to provide "network drives" to your employees. Have employees use their network drive for all important work that needs to be backed up, and then you only need to worry about backing up the server regularly (which you can also do easily with eBox).

Given what I'm assuming about your technical expertise, you may want to find a college computer science student to help you get eBox setup initially, but once someone shows you what to do with it it's a snap.
posted by chundo at 8:50 AM on August 10, 2007

Also, what area are you in? My business actually specializes in building low-cost open source infrastructure for small businesses, so I'd be happy to help if you're in the Chicago area.
posted by chundo at 8:53 AM on August 10, 2007

dcbarker - I agree that it would be better left to a professional network consultant. Unfortunately, the money guy in our small company is tight fisted, and not inclined to bring anyone in. As you an tell, Im no networking expert, but I am the only design engineer. Being responsible for the maintenance of all the engineering documentation (which is all stored on my laptop), I am looking to better network and back-up solutions.

chundo - we are in Cleveland, OH.
posted by wylde21 at 9:18 AM on August 10, 2007

-When you map a network drive, there should be a checkbox "Reconnect at logon." Make sure this checkbox is checked.

-How large of files are we talking about? If you're talking in the multiple megabytes, it's not going to be an instantaneous transfer even if you're CAT5'd.

-For the wireless, definitely make sure encryption is on. Most people are not going to break you security as long as some kind of password is on. They'll just move on to the next wireless network w/o a password. You can also see connections to your wireless router by going to the config panel, where you can also configure the secuirty. In your address bar, usually 192.168.0(or1).1 with admin/admin does the trick. Also, you can usually turn the radio broadcast off making it that much harder for random snoopers to get on your network. Of course, no amount of online security is foolproof.

-What kind of wireless spec are you using. a/b/g? 802.11a/b can be quite slow at transferring bigger files, and the newer wireless protocols aren't that expensive.

-Although it can be an expensive solution, the idea of a Windows Server and then defaulting everyone's home path to a network share folder would resolve a lot of issues as everything in My Documents with by on the network drive. The only problem is saved files in random directories would still need to be backed up and good backup software tends to be expensive.
posted by jmd82 at 9:44 AM on August 10, 2007

er, no amount of online wireless security is foolproof.
posted by jmd82 at 9:45 AM on August 10, 2007

wylde21, I'm in Pittsburgh and am always up for the occasional odd job (on weekends to boot, so no disruption to production). I've got a background working in small companies, and have Windows and security certifications.

Email is in profile if you'd care to discuss in more detail.
posted by bfranklin at 10:30 AM on August 10, 2007