Network setup

[ImposeR]

Hi all,

I guess this post is a mixture of networking/software issues, but as the two go hand-in-hand, I'd figured it would be my best option to post here.

I have a friend whose current network setup for his business is as follows:

Internet (ISDN) > Router

> Server (SBS 03)
> Network Printers
> 2 Machines (inner office)
> Switch > 6 Machines (outer office)

I wanted to setup his network as follows:

Internet (ADSL) > Router > Hardware Firewall > Switch

> Server
> Network Printers
> 2 Machines
> Switch > 6 Machines

What I would like to know is firstly is this configuration correct so that the server can control ALL internet access?

Also, can anyone recommend a decent hardware firewall (I did think about smoothwall, but they don't have a spare machine)? As well as a decent switch?

They also wanted to make daily incremental backups (just around 10 folders), and weekly full backups (the entire server image). I was thinking of using either norton ghost or acronis trueimage to make the image. Can anyone recommend either of the two, and if so why? Can anyone recommend any software for backing up specific directories as they are, rather then as an image? Or can ghost/trueimage also do this?

I was thinking of buying them a 500GB external fw HDD, so that they could take the enclosure off-site every night, is this ok?

Thanks a bunch to everyone in advance. I'm sure there were one or two things I've forgotten, but I'll post them when I remember.

If anyone can suggest any improvements to the network model, please let me know.

Thanks again.

 

[Snapshot]

By 'control internet access' do you mean that the server is running the ISA component of SBS? The answer is yes as you just set the server as the gateway in DHCP. You only need two 8-port switches so Netgear FS608 will do but consider whether you're likely to need more than one extra port in the outer office so a 16-port switch might be a bteer choice - you don't want to cascade another switch onto the existing one.

A cheap PC and Smoothwall is probably cheaper than a hardware firewall.

I'd recommend differential rather than incremental for the daily backups as you only have to restore the latest one in the event of a failure rather than all of them after the last full backup.
I'm rather old-fashioned when it comes to backups and don't believe in compromises when you're working with a business's data. I'd put in a suitable tape drive that's capable of holding the whole server on one tape then using Backup Exec to do the differential and full backups (not images, just do a Ghost or whatever image to start with). You then need to decide what retention policy you need for the weekly tapes - do you need monthly as well? - and buy the appropriate number of tapes. I use the classic setup of four weekly tapes with a monthly tape on the last week of the month. Yes, this is not a cheap option but what is the data worth? One 500GB HDD is not adequate data security IMO.

My consultancy fee will be in the post.