Security

I would definitely suggest leaving it set up as you have it currently configured. The NAT may/should add a little bit of extra security and there is no need to use the public IPs for your workstations.

Reserve the public IPs for any public servers you may end up using, or any other special uses that may pop up in the future. I don't suppose they would give you any discount if you only need a single IP? :)

You only need a public IP address if you have a server that MUST be accessible from the Internet (such as a webserver). If you have have a firewall that will let you map ports to specific internal (private) IP addresses, then you really only need apublic IP address for your NAT box.

The consequences of using public IPs is that they are all potentially accessible from the Internet. Based on your description above, there don't appear to be any benefits.

Agree with both !!!

Don't use public IP's for internal clients.

"reserve" your extra valid IPs. Assign one to your outside nic and use NAT for internal use. You never know when you may decide to subnet even further and it is better (in my opinion) if you use DHCP to assign your workstations. you may want to install a firewall with a DMZ at some time... there is 2 valid IPs and a third for internal. This is where I would assign the rest of your valid IPS. Mail servers, SQLs, web etc could all be put in the DMZ.
In my opinion, a 50 user or 5000 user networkis just as hard to manage so you may as well set it up with growth in mind.

merv

I was once told by a little birdy (John the TAFE lecturer)... If you never need to use a public address; DON'T! They are exactly that - public, so therefore it makes a potential security hole. Hey, if it works and works well, why fix it?

Maelgwyn