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recommendations for 7 pc network

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by admin 1 view

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I venturing out to setup a monstrous 7pc network. Ok its not monstrous. The company's budget is small, so NT is a little expensive. What recommendations do you have for setting up this network? Most of the PC's have 98 on them.

Also, is therea way to share Outlook data without an exchange server? Or can you have an exchange server without NT?

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by timwalsh

I'll answer your last 2 questions first (as they are the easiest).
The only way to share Outlook data (I'm assuming you are talking about address books / contact lists, calendars, etc.) is to export to a .pst file and then import at each computer.
Exchange 5.5 will only install on NT 4 Server or Win2K Server. Exchange 2000 will only install on a server in a Win2K Active Directory domain.
Now on to design: much depends on what you want to accomplish with a network; What are the probabilities of future growth? Will you be connecting to the Internet? Will you be hosting a Company web site or installing Exchange? Do you want/need centralized user authentication?
The more things you want to do, the more sophisticated your network must be (and the more money you must spend on it.
The most basic form of network is called peer-to-peer (p2p) networking, can be set up using your existing software and will probably suffice given the following conditions: you aren't concerned about security; you aren't connecting to the Internet; you aren't hosting your own email or web sites. P2p will provide a basic capability to share files and a few printers among a small number of users.
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by timwalsh

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If you are new to this whole networking thing, I would suggest looking at a couple books in the "XXX for Dummies" series, specifically
"Networking for Dummies" (make sure you get the latest edition). This will give you a broad overview of the various network operating systmes available as well as general hardware requirement guidlines. The series also includes a few other networking books that are more focused (i.e. Cisco Networking, Windows NT Networking, Home Networking, Small Business Networking, Windows 2000 Networking, Networking with Netware, etc.). I recommend this series to people just starting out in a given subject area because the writers manage to get across the necessary information, without a lot of technical jargon, and managing to inject some humor into what is usually a very dry subject, all within a concise inexpensive book.
It really pays to sit down up front and determine not only what you want to be able to do know, but also where you think you might be 6 months or 1 year down the road. This will help you accomplish 1 of 2 things: implement a solution than can be expanded to meet growing requirements when your business starts booming down the road; or keep you from implementing way more network than you will ever need.
Good luck, I know networking can be a daunting task if you are new to the subject.

by admin

Thanks for the response. P2P is what I was considering. The expected internet access is via DSL. They won't be hosting anything. The proposed hardware was a hub and a router. The DSL is currently run to one workstation with an internal DSL modem (NIC?) supplied by the DSL company.

Other that security, is p2p a problem with DSL?

As for Outlook, can the .pst file be accessed by more that one user at a time?

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