[AngelinaTheElf]

Hi, what would be the typical configuration of a say 7 computer LAN? What would be all the neccessary hardware/medium and what operating systems would you suggest?

[AngelinaTheElf]

most likely all of those and possibley some web hosting. I don't really want to spend more than a few hundred bucks. Also security is of top importance.

[Stasher11]

most likely all of those and possibley some web hosting. I don't really want to spend more than a few hundred bucks. Also security is of top importance.

7 computer LAN for a few hundred? Good luck with that!

Are you talking about LAN or WAN security? If LAN security is really important, you might consider creating a domain with Windows Server 2003. If WAN security is important to you, you'll definitely need a firewall or at least a NAT router. All depends on your budget.......

[AngelinaTheElf]

Why? How much does a LAN cost? Can you tell me what kind of hardware I would need? Why would I need WAN security? Now I'm starting to get confused.

[AngelinaTheElf]

Ok, so how would the physical layout look like? I would have 1 server and 6 hosts. Should they just be routed? What type of topology is best?

[ImmitsRom]

Great suggestions from lord micron.

Who is doing the install and who is supporting it?

Forget about the topology for this setup, you are going to have a single switch which they are all going to connect to. You will have no real backbone to the network with no edge switching of any sort.

What about network infrastucture is the physical network points already in place. Are the machines going to be close enough to get away with Cat 5e instead of Cat 6 but the difference in cost might be negligable depending on your area.

[ImmitsRom]

How cheap does this thing have to be is a few hundred really the max on the budget.

If it is and the machines all have onboard gig NIC's you could do it really cheap but its not the sort of professional setup you would expect for a business.

Just a suggestion thinking about cost been a problem.

Network

If the PC's / Server are close enough and situated correctly you could build your own cat 5e cables and just run them from the PC's to the switch.

The switch you could get a non managable 8 port gig switch and connect all PC's and the server to it.

Server

Build your own intel duo box with at least 2GB of RAM. Onboard gig NIC. Then get a separate SATA card with at least 4 ports and setup a raid 5 + spare HD setup.

Router

Any single port wireless router with VPN passthrough and decent firewall.

Now you would have a choice on how to go about connecting the machines to the web, you could connect the router to the server only via a second NIC in the server and use the server as a proxy server. Or uplink the router off the switch and give the client PC's direct connection to the web.

If you did go with the proxy server you would only have to connect the router to the server and only secure the server. Use the hardware firewall on the router and the W2k3 built in software firewall.

But this is really a cheap as chips something you wouldnt want to run at home type setup, never mind a business.