Modified Star Topology

In my opinion, the easiest way to solve this
would be to

1. Purchase a switch, and replace the hub in
your administrative area. By doing so, you will increase the efficiency of your network by at least 100%.

2. Run your single cable to the production area, ( though redundancy is always better, lest a inattentive worker snip that cable by accident ), ensuring that the maximum distance is less than 100meters or 300 feet.

3. Install your OLD hub in the production area to connect the new 6 PC's. Their performance will be no less than those in admin prior to the installation of the switch.

4. Leave your server in the admin area on the
switch.

Without getting too technical, this is the
most cost effective solution. At the same time you bring the production area online, the users in your admin area will notice a
significant speed increase in their network
access. You score points for efficient re-utilization of existing equipment.

Don't worry about being too technical, please.

I concur with Mr. Bradley's suggestion to purchase a switch for the Admin area and put the server on the switch. This will definitely provide a productivity boost for your primary user community.

You can try to re-use the hub in the Production area, but not knowing your specific environment, I have some concerns that performance might be impaired due to distance and the possibility of electrical interference from machinery or wiring in the area. As an alternative, consider installing multi-mode fiber optic cable between the Admin and Production areas and then purchasing switches that have fiber uplink capability. Installing the inner-duct and the fiber will cost a little more initially, but fiber is impervious to known forms of electromagnetic interference and it will be able to support your transmission needs for some time. We currently have several gigabit and close to 50 100Mb ethernet links running over fiber at our installation. We make it a point anymore to link two sites by fiber because of its resistance to noise and its ability to meet future needs. When 10 gig and up equipment is developed, the fiber will still be able to support it. All we will have to do to upgrade is replace the equipment at each end.

Fiber between the sites will "future-proof" the installation giving your company years of service. That being said, it may come down to a budget battle. Check out some data wiring contractors in your area and ask them to cost out both fiber and copper and then compare with the future in mind. Note: once the inner-duct is installed, you can run additional fibers through it pretty cheaply. Hope this helps.
- ck

(no need to give me any points for this answer)

I would definitely go with #1. Running Cat5 cable will give you 100Mbps capability which is certainly much more than 6 workstations will need for a long time. And, unless you have an identified source of EMR, I would not worry about the noise. Modern Cat5 and extended Cat5 cables are not nearly as susceptible to noise as they were at one time.

Running fiber, although you will not regret it, is much more expensive than twisted pair cable and,if you ever do need more than 100Mbps capacity in the production area, you can always run fiber at that time. Keep in mind that prices are always falling on network gear. The cost of a fiber run today will probably be 20-30% less a year from now.

Why would you want to move the server to the admin dep, this is defeating the object of having a switched network (location is not factor). How much money do you want to spend ?

I would replace the existing hub with a 10/100 switch since they are so reasonably priced nowadays (and later upgrade each PC to a 10/100 NIC, on an as-needed basis). Then I would run two drops to the new production area (you'll only need one - the second one is for insurance; cable is relatively cheap but labor can be expensive). I would use the best cable I could afford (suitable for Gigabit over copper) unless you plan to relocate within a few years. Minimally, I would use Category 5 cable. Then I would relocate the existing hub to the production area. Keep in mind that this solution means that the six "new" machines in Production would share a single port on the new switch. Therefore, if performance is an issue, I would replace it witha 10/100 base hub or switch (depending on budget/performance issues). Also, if the demands on the server are great, I would consider multiple NICs in the server (perhaps server-specific NICs). When you purchase new NICs make sure they can do full-duplexing. That way when you connect them to a 10/100 switch, each port should have a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 200Mbps.

This question was closed by the author