Will this work?

hargi · 22 Jan 2010 at 12:34

Looking at setting up a small training suite, will be set up as a peer to peer network as theres no long term storage or anything needed, as most of the training is web based.

The plan is 10 pc's wired and 8 macs wireless but will hardly be used at the same time looking at 10 concurrent users at one time max. And 2 networded printers.

So far we have a 100 MB connection comming in.

So if we get a 24 port switch connect this to the incoming connection and then connect the ports to the patch cables, this will work for the PC's?

If we then connect 2 Apple Airport Extreme Base stations to the floor boxes which are connected to the switch, would this provide connection for the Macs?

If the printers are connected into the switch to we could then print over ip?

Does this sound right or am i missing something obvious?

TIA

Caged · 22 Jan 2010 at 12:43

What is the incoming connection? Is it an internet connection or is it connected to a switch elsewhere in the building? Is it setup to give you one IP address or can you request several?

rz30 · 22 Jan 2010 at 12:46

100mb is overkill imo, if only 10 conc at one time, are they going to be some reasonable downloading?

Obvioulsy you will need a router also for the NAT and ideally DHCP.

But generally a peer-to-peer is as simple as you say.

router --->if you want firewall --->switch--->workstations

You will need to set the printers an ip, mask and gateway address and then add them to each pc in turn.

You could consider getting a hardware firewall with built in AV that would allow to apply some kind of traffic shaping.

anything I don't mind · 22 Jan 2010 at 13:05

use pfsense

(two network cards)

then connect the switch to the pc running pfsense, then you could either connect the wireless access point (for the macs) to pfsense on a third network card and setup a new interface within pfsense, or you could plug it into the switch. i would plug it into the switch. then i would have pfsense do the dhcp.

plug the printers into the switch and setup them for dhcp. should work easy.

can substitute pfsense for any router realy.

hargi · 22 Jan 2010 at 13:45

Thanks for the replys,
The 100MB is just what we are given, so glad you think it will cope no real downloading will be done.
Caged

Is it setup to give you one IP address or can you request several?

I dont know, how would i find this out and is it going to be a problem?
Our connection is seperate to the other networks coming in to the building so as far as i know not connected to any other switches.

rz30

Obvioulsy you will need a router also for the NAT and ideally DHCP.

so we will need a router as well? is there any you would reccomend for this?

We have a cache pilot that we will need to incorporate into the network to where would this fit in?

anything I don't mind · 22 Jan 2010 at 13:53

you basically have a router or your choice, seeing as it is a small business network you would be best on getting a decent router/firewall then you connect the switch to the router and everything else will connect to the switch.