Networking expertise needed

[jim1976]

I want to present a project for my college and I would like the help of everyone.It goes like this:

A company (say ABC ltd) which is a manufacturing one wants from a consultant (me) to give advice on some issues.
This company has for the moment 12 people working force: 6 engineers,1 secretary,1 motor guy,2 accountants,2 logistics
The hardware+software assets of the company are: 3 cad stations,2 accounting pc's+1 simple accounting program,1 secretarial pc,3 pc's for math calculations and the most important NO NETWORK IS AVAILABLE.
What they want is to update this simple system and that's why they came to my company to consult them.

I must tell them of course that for a small company like them NO ERP is needed and neverthleless it's way too expensive for them.

Now what I need to know is what type and structure of network I need to consult them to buy.I mean a network must be surely installed and I need to ellaborate on that.

So any advice wil be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[busmaster11]

What are the programs specifically and what OS is everyone running?

 

[jim1976]

Sorry that I didn't mention it.You can choose any software program or operating system you like. There are no limitations to this point.
I want just to present a network structure and of course to ellaborate on it.

 

[Alptraum]

Thats such a small organization that it really only calls for a LAN. Probably throw in a server for file sharing and to run an email server. But you don't really need much in the way of a network. You could just wire that all up with one hub or switch and some sort of router for an external connection. There really isn't much involved as far as "network structure" goes.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Alptraum
Thats such a small organization that it really only calls for a LAN. Probably throw in a server for file sharing and to run an email server. But you don't really need much in the way of a network. You could just wire that all up with one hub or switch and some sort of router for an external connection. There really isn't much involved as far as "network structure" goes.

I would really need some info if that's possible.Or if that's not possible just tell what to google for so that I can make a more detailed report.

 

[Alptraum]

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: Alptraum
Thats such a small organization that it really only calls for a LAN. Probably throw in a server for file sharing and to run an email server. But you don't really need much in the way of a network. You could just wire that all up with one hub or switch and some sort of router for an external connection. There really isn't much involved as far as "network structure" goes.

I would really need some info if that's possible.Or if that's not possible just tell what to google for so that I can make a more detailed report.

If you are pretty much starting from scratch on learning about this sort of stuff just google "networking" or something. A slightly more detailed plan could possibly be (I'll use MS products in this example)=

Make sure that if at all possible all the workstations are running the same OS. Windows 2k is good for this.
Set up a W2k (or 2003) server. This can hold the user accounts, shared files/folders, an email server and so on.
Decide how you want to hook the machines up. Cable is always easy and fast pretty much. Run 100meg ethernet.
Connect them all with a switch (3com for instance). Just get enough ports to handle all your connections.
Depending on if they want to connect to the internet (the email server for instance) get some sort of broadband connection. Get a router to connect this too (type depends on type of connection).

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Alptraum

Originally posted by: jim1976

Originally posted by: Alptraum
Thats such a small organization that it really only calls for a LAN. Probably throw in a server for file sharing and to run an email server. But you don't really need much in the way of a network. You could just wire that all up with one hub or switch and some sort of router for an external connection. There really isn't much involved as far as "network structure" goes.

I would really need some info if that's possible.Or if that's not possible just tell what to google for so that I can make a more detailed report.

If you are pretty much starting from scratch on learning about this sort of stuff just google "networking" or something. A slightly more detailed plan could possibly be (I'll use MS products in this example)=

Make sure that if at all possible all the workstations are running the same OS. Windows 2k is good for this.
Set up a W2k (or 2003) server. This can hold the user accounts, shared files/folders, an email server and so on.
Decide how you want to hook the machines up. Cable is always easy and fast pretty much. Run 100meg ethernet.
Connect them all with a switch (3com for instance). Just get enough ports to handle all your connections.
Depending on if they want to connect to the internet (the email server for instance) get some sort of broadband connection. Get a router to connect this too (type depends on type of connection).

Thanks.Bump for some more info??