Office Setup - Cry for help!

[Jarvgrimr]

A cry for help from a computer nerd with not enough business knowledge!

I have been asked to do a list of IT based tasks for a family friend who is setting up a small company. He asked if I could help, I said I would try my best but warned him that my IT knowledge is zilch, I just know enough to setup a home network and get my computer running well enough to game and do 3d art!
However non-computer people never seem to understand that there is a lot of difference between PC hobbyists and actual IT types so I think he's overestimating my abilities.

So I am making this thread in the hopes that someone or many someones can guide me toward sorting out everything I've been asked to do. As I feel like I am in a bit over my head...



What I need to do:


Email

Setup 5-10 people with email accounts that are accessible online and from Outlook/Thunderbird/Etc. They all need to be aliases that go [email protected], The domain is already bought and I have the ability to setup the aliases. That was all fine, the Outlook setup, alias setup on the domain registrar and the like. However...
I was using free googlemail accounts as the source email for the aliases, but the googlemail addresses tend to come up when an email is sent to certain addresses eg:

Or it mentions the source email provider like so:

I need a solution so that the only email addresses ever visible are the @domain.com ones. Is that possible to do with free email accounts (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, fastmail, etc...) or does one need to buy a hosting service/specific type of email account?


VPN/Remote Access

Setup a VPN or some kind of network that is accessible over the internet for about 10 people/computers. It needs to be secure and running 24/7. I'm not really sure where to start with this. It's not going to be used as a big business server would be used. So I don't even know what sort of hardware I would need for this.

It's going to be run from a home Internet connection (BT Internet) and be on the local network (as well being accessible by the other 5-10 or so people from over the internet) and run through a standard router-modem provided by BT (link here).

We have a couple old home PCs but i'm not sure if they would be enough of a machine to run a VPN... any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. If anyone could let me know what hardware I'd need and what software too, it would be greatly appreciated. Preferably in a basic way as my knowledge of IT lingo is somewhat lacking...


Hosting

I need to find a host to run a basic business website off. We already own the domain and I just need to find a good, reliable host to use. I've looked up a few hosting companies but I'm not entirely sure what I am looking for... any advice for a good UK based host would be very appreciated!



I have also been looking at Google Apps for a solution to the Email issue, however it doesn't mention whether or not it will get rid of the googlemail addresses being shown.

In closing all and any advice would be very helpful I can provide more information if needed, I just need to try and get on top of all the tasks I've been given!

This is a bit of a tall ask for my first post i reckon, but i have no idea where to find more help... i'm completely stumped. All the tutorials and articles i've looked up tend to be over 3 years old and i just can't get any solid information...

Thanks
Jarvgrimr

 

[fini]

Vidahost.

You want to set the e-mail addresses up in the control panel and then setup outlook to get them straight from that e-mail address not through yahoo etc. If you're using freebie accounts so that you can access them online most decent host, including vidahost, allow you multiple methods to access email via a webmail system thus getting rid of the need for yahoo etc.

I'd say either go for the starter or medium shared hosting from vidahost. I've used over 30 different hosts for different projects and they're by far the best.

 

[Jarvgrimr]

Vidahost.

You want to set the e-mail addresses up in the control panel and then setup outlook to get them straight from that e-mail address not through yahoo etc. If you're using freebie accounts so that you can access them online most decent host, including vidahost, allow you multiple methods to access email via a webmail system thus getting rid of the need for yahoo etc.

I'd say either go for the starter or medium shared hosting from vidahost. I've used over 30 different hosts for different projects and they're by far the best.

Ah thank you for the link. So if i setup the emails straight through a host-provided webmail i can cut out googlemail entirely. I've just emailed vidahost with some questions and if it seems like they are the one to go for, i shall use your referral link.

 

[fini]

Yes that's correct - no need to use googlemail at all. You'd just go to

www.yourcompany.com/webmail/

and login to whatever email address you'd set-up.

What do you want to do with the VPN? If its just as a file store then an FTP server might be the way to go for that.

 

[tolien]

You're right. Referrals aren't allowed.

 

[fini]

Thanks for the clarification - wasn't sure whether we could mention them as long as we didn't post the links themselves.

 

[Jarvgrimr]

Yes that's correct - no need to use googlemail at all. You'd just go to

www.yourcompany.com/webmail/

and login to whatever email address you'd set-up.

What do you want to do with the VPN? If its just as a file store then an FTP server might be the way to go for that.

The VPN will be used for saving files so that everyone who has access to the server can get to the files,then DL them to their PC and work on them, then upload files to the server. That sort of thing. Nothing has to be worked on on the actual PC that would be the VPN or FTP. I shall have to look into an FTP as it sounds like something that may do the trick...

 

[fini]

Yep a NAS that operates as an FTP server would seem the best (and cheapest) idea to me - it'll take up no space at all and allow what you're wanting.

EDIT: Something like the Western Digital MyBook World might be a good idea.

 

[Andy100]

VPN/Remote Access

Setup a VPN or some kind of network that is accessible over the internet for about 10 people/computers. It needs to be secure and running 24/7. I'm not really sure where to start with this. It's not going to be used as a big business server would be used. So I don't even know what sort of hardware I would need for this.

It's going to be run from a home Internet connection (BT Internet) and be on the local network (as well being accessible by the other 5-10 or so people from over the internet) and run through a standard router-modem provided by BT (link here).

We have a couple old home PCs but i'm not sure if they would be enough of a machine to run a VPN... any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. If anyone could let me know what hardware I'd need and what software too, it would be greatly appreciated. Preferably in a basic way as my knowledge of IT lingo is somewhat lacking...

I'd pay a little extra money and get a fixed IP address. It'll save you an aweful lot of headaches. Most modern routers allow VPN connections these days but a dynamic IP makes it a pain to configure.

If you've got a fixed IP then you could also run an internal mail client. Just have your domain host point your mx record to your external IP and have the router forward all the traffic to the server.

 

[fini]

Whilst the fixed IP address might be a good idea I'm not sure what the point would be of running their own mail server for 5-10 people - it seems massive overkill.

 

[Andy100]

There's a bunch of free software out there that'll do it.

It probably is overkill, just shooting out ideas. If you've got the fixed IP, it gives you a lot more options for stuff like that though.

 

[DRZ]

What I need to do:


Email

Setup 5-10 people with email accounts that are accessible online and from Outlook/Thunderbird/Etc. They all need to be aliases that go [email protected], The domain is already bought and I have the ability to setup the aliases. That was all fine, the Outlook setup, alias setup on the domain registrar and the like. However...
I was using free googlemail accounts as the source email for the aliases, but the googlemail addresses tend to come up when an email is sent to certain addresses eg:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3600/emailprobhotmail01ac9.jpg[

Or it mentions the source email provider like so:

[img]http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2202/emailprobimage01bv0.jpg[/

I need a solution so that the only email addresses ever visible are the @domain.com ones. Is that possible to do with free email accounts (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, fastmail, etc...) or does one need to buy a hosting service/specific type of email account?
[/quote]

Either buy some hosting that gives you enough inboxes so that you can do it "properly" or run your own email server. Running your own mail server may well be overkill but its probably the best way to do it as it allows expansion better than anything else.

[quote]

[B]VPN/Remote Access[/B]

Setup a VPN or some kind of network that is accessible over the internet for about 10 people/computers. It needs to be secure and running 24/7. I'm not really sure where to start with this. It's not going to be used as a big business server would be used. So I don't even know what sort of hardware I would need for this.

It's going to be run from a home Internet connection (BT Internet) and be on the local network (as well being accessible by the other 5-10 or so people from over the internet) and run through a standard router-modem provided by BT (link here).

We have a couple old home PCs but i'm not sure if they would be enough of a machine to run a VPN... any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. If anyone could let me know what hardware I'd need and what software too, it would be greatly appreciated. Preferably in a basic way as my knowledge of IT lingo is somewhat lacking...
[/quote]

Setting up something like OpenVPN to do that for you is a piece of cake, but my advice to you is that even on the fastest ADSL link, you will struggle to manage 10 concurrent sessions (depending on what they are doing with the VPN, of course). The download isn't the problem, its the upload from your site for each of the 10 users thats the problem. If you are going with BT, you're upload will be dependent on your distance from your exchange but somewhere around the 300-400kbps mark. If your VPN users are going to be doing anything worth doing over the connection and they are all doing it at the same time, you're looking at 30kbps each (so slower than 56k dialup!) while making the internet connection for the office unusable.

Consider SDSL instead of ADSL, IMO

[quote]
[B]Hosting[/B]

I need to find a host to run a basic business website off. We already own the domain and I just need to find a good, reliable host to use. I've looked up a few hosting companies but I'm not entirely sure what I am looking for... any advice for a good UK based host would be very appreciated!
[/quote]

I used Register1.net for a long time and were always great for me. There are a few others about which are also reputed to be very good. Shop about :)


[quote]
This is a bit of a tall ask for my first post i reckon, but i have no idea where to find more help... i'm completely stumped. All the tutorials and articles i've looked up tend to be over 3 years old and i just can't get any solid information...

Thanks
Jarvgrimr[/QUOTE]

If you break down each little bit into what you need to do and look at it like that, the complete solution will soon be staring you in the face :)

 

[tolien]

The bigger issue with running your own mail server is where and on what are you going to host it? Hanging a business-critical mail server off ADSL is a bad idea, not to mention power, redundant hardware etc...

 

[Jarvgrimr]

Hello folks!

Well i've gotten the people i'm working with onto Google Apps. We've gotten our hosting through Vidahost. Had a bit of a hiccup there with MX records but it seems that we've reached some stability in the website/email side of things.

I'm still in the planning stages of the FTP setup... though i'm now thinking it might be best for the people i'm working for to just use an online FTP service.

Fini i've gotten onto Vidahost as you recommended and they've been great. I'm now wondering if i could use them as a replacement for the whole in-house FTP debacle... as i don't believe we'll be needing much more than 15-20 gigs of space. It's going to be mostly spreadsheets and maybe some powerpoint slides and such. So 15 gigs should suffice...

Would you have any opinions on that?

Would you all reckon that using a 3rd party for the FTP may be the simplest route to go?

 

[fini]

I'm now wondering if i could use them as a replacement for the whole in-house FTP debacle... as i don't believe we'll be needing much more than 15-20 gigs of space. It's going to be mostly spreadsheets and maybe some powerpoint slides and such. So 15 gigs should suffice...

Would you have any opinions on that?

Would you all reckon that using a 3rd party for the FTP may be the simplest route to go?

I'd use a third-party ftp provider if you want to have web-based storage rather than Vidahost - it'll probably work out quite expensive with Vidahost. Something like box.net might work out well - although you're still probably better off setting up a local FTP server. It sounds like a lot of effort, but if you get a NAS with FTP built in it's practically all done for you.

 

[Jarvgrimr]

I'd use a third-party ftp provider if you want to have web-based storage rather than Vidahost - it'll probably work out quite expensive with Vidahost. Something like box.net might work out well - although you're still probably better off setting up a local FTP server. It sounds like a lot of effort, but if you get a NAS with FTP built in it's practically all done for you.

So if i got a NAS, hooked it up to the router at the home office (which is a BT HomeHub router) what would the other steps be to make it accessible from other computers in the country/world?

• So NAS hooked up to network through the router. (or PC?)
• Invest in static IP. OR would the services of http://www.dyndns.com/ make it so we didn't have to get a static IP address?
• Do i then need to invest in software (server side) for multiple users to access the NAS? Is there any sort of in-built limit to users? (I don't imagine we'd have more than 10 users.)
• For anti-virus/security how do i install that for an NAS? As it's a seperate drive striaght off the router... or does the NAS need to be hooked into a PC specifically?
• Do clients wanting to use the NAS need to get an FTP client software arrangement?

Would anyone have any brand or model recommendations for the NAS? I've gotten mixed reviews on the one i linked above...

Sorry for all the (probably) obvious questions but this is all rather new territory for me and you guys have been so very helpful and you've got such a collective knowledge of IT... i'm jealous!

I'm just trying to weigh up the pros/cons of NAS or just using an online company for it. VidaHost has made me a nice offer which is around the same price as thebox.net offers...

The NAS wouldn't need to be blindingly quick, just reliable. The max file size we'll be dealing with here would be... 50Mb-80Mb according to my boss. So i think a 1Tb is a bit of overkill... but better more than too little.

Thanks again for all the help guys, you especially fini, you've been incredibly helpful!

He's right y'know. We don't...

 

[fini]

EDIT: The link got you suspended

 

[fini]

[*]Invest in static IP. OR would the services of http://www.dyndns.com/ make it so we didn't have to get a static IP address?

Either really - maybe start out with dyndns and change over to a static URL if you get annoyed with it.

[*]Do i then need to invest in software (server side) for multiple users to access the NAS? Is there any sort of in-built limit to users? (I don't imagine we'd have more than 10 users.)

No server side software is necessary. I shouldn't imagine there'd be an in-built limit to users. That one you linked to might allow only one FTP login - but probably wont mind more than one user using it at once - check for that particular model though.

[*]For anti-virus/security how do i install that for an NAS? As it's a seperate drive striaght off the router... or does the NAS need to be hooked into a PC specifically?

Straight to the router. It doesn't need anti-virus as it's too 'dumb' to get a virus. The files themselves may become infected just like any file, but you just need the anti-virus on the computers accessing it not the NAS itself. As for security the router should harbour you from most things and the NAS will be secure through requiring a login.

[*]Do clients wanting to use the NAS need to get an FTP client software arrangement?

They'd need to access it via FTP, but you can do that in windows without any software - though they may choose to use some.

Would anyone have any brand or model recommendations for the NAS? I've gotten mixed reviews on the one i linked above...

Don't know anything really about that model, but the QNap stuff seems to be very well respected around here - though probably overkill for what you're looking at.

VidaHost has made me a nice offer which is around the same price as thebox.net offers...

Really? I'll have to get in touch with them myself then!

The max file size we'll be dealing with here would be... 50Mb-80Mb according to my boss.

Remember that its speed would be limited (if accessing remotely) by your internet connections upload speed (usually anywhere between half and one megabits a second). For remote access the vidahost solution would probably actually be quicker then.

Thanks again for all the help guys, you especially fini, you've been incredibly helpful!

Ah no problem! Just don't come running back to me when it explodes!

 

[pjansell]

The VPN will be used for saving files so that everyone who has access to the server can get to the files,then DL them to their PC and work on them, then upload files to the server. That sort of thing. Nothing has to be worked on on the actual PC that would be the VPN or FTP. I shall have to look into an FTP as it sounds like something that may do the trick...

I'd go for a vpn/terminal services solution - if your users need access to their email, applications, files or what ever - they create a secure link to your network (vpn) , then open up a terminal services session and work directly on the network. This way you don't have to worry about your DSL download/upload speeds. In addition, this will scale quite well as your business grows.

 

[Jarvgrimr]

Sorry about before... i shoulda read the rules before i linked another place. I forgot this OC isn't like the Aussie one, which is just a site not a shop. Sorry Admins!

Either really - maybe start out with dyndns and change over to a static URL if you get annoyed with it.

Well by static IP i imagine i need to get my actual account to be static, not just the NAS on the network. As that can just be setup in the Router, right? Like making PC's on a network run on a static IP.

No server side software is necessary. I shouldn't imagine there'd be an in-built limit to users. That one you linked to might allow only one FTP login - but probably wont mind more than one user using it at once - check for that particular model though.

Straight to the router. It doesn't need anti-virus as it's too 'dumb' to get a virus. The files themselves may become infected just like any file, but you just need the anti-virus on the computers accessing it not the NAS itself. As for security the router should harbour you from most things and the NAS will be secure through requiring a login.

So i can access the NAS through the network like an external drive i imagine? Ok so i need to get a good anti-virus for all who might be using it then... i heard a lot of good things about NOD32. Would you have any professional opinions? Trend Micro PC-Cillin also got good ratings when i worked in PC retail but that was two-three years ago now... so i might be outta date.

With the staff i am working with it really needs to be a set & forget type anti-virus. As none of them are particularly PC savvy... i mean even less so than me!

They'd need to access it via FTP, but you can do that in windows without any software - though they may choose to use some.

Don't know anything really about that model, but the QNap stuff seems to be very well respected around here - though probably overkill for what you're looking at.

QNap does seem to be quite popular. Plus OcUK here have 'em!

Remember that its speed would be limited (if accessing remotely) by your internet connections upload speed (usually anywhere between half and one megabits a second). For remote access the vidahost solution would probably actually be quicker then.

Yeah that't what i was thinking. However my employer wants it to be an in-house thing now. So it's up to him to handle the speeds. He can always upgrade his internet connection.

Ah no problem! Just don't come running back to me when it explodes!