help...............

[ishak786]

I need some help my friends....
I have a small business which specializes in providing service to SMEs. I have a networking problem and other problems. need some help on what to do???

I have a office of 10 standalone windows xp computer which are used for accounts and general admin work. I also have 3 imacs running MACOS X and 2XP laptops and MACBOOK laptop.I also have a range of printers.4 high end printers, 3 of them are for producing magazines and brochures and 1 is used for glossy printing. I also have 3 color laser printers for general office printing and an impact printer for computerized accounting purposes. and plus 2 scanner

In my business I have 7full time workers and 3 part time workers. Plus 2 members of staff are often off-site on company business. My workers are responsible for their own backups onto external hard drives which are then kept in a locked stationery cupboard. Only a few staff have internet and email via a shared broadband modem. I fell that the rest of the staff should not have internet but have some type of internal email to improve communication among staff, especially those who work part time.

Most of my hardware is less than a years old. and i have a budget of £20,000 for this project to go further.

Can someone please give me a solution on what i should do......

Tanx

 

[thiggins]

Please do not post the same question in multiple forums. The duplicate posts have been deleted.

Your question is very general. What, specifically, are the problems that you need help with?

 

[ishak786]

help.....

What soulutions could i take to improve my business

 

[ishak786]

Help....

meaning like shall i get a network up? a server or somin. do i need more wokers. and do i need to change my backup soulutions

 

[scotty]

I have a networking problem and other problems. need some help on what to do???

What exactly are the problems you're having currently? Network slow? Not doing what you need? Unreliable?

What solutions could you take to improve your business? The first thing that comes to mind is your backups. It's probably worthwhile to looking into getting a NAS or simple file server to start consolidating your backups. Having everyone back up their files to separate external hard drives is time consuming, not terribly secure, and messy overall. If you throw a NAS or some kind of server in there, that right there could make everyone's life a lot easier as far as backup goes. Keep in mind, it's not necessarily a silver-bullet, you always want to have some other backup in hand should the NAS or server fail (i.e. tape backup in a server, or online backup).

A server of some type can also help centrally control access to the various resources in your network. From the server, you can centrally control most aspects of your network and maintain security and control. It can also host email if you want you own in-house email (for smaller business, sometimes externally hosted email is a little easier/cheaper). It could also potentially make remote access a little easier.

You could do a lot with 20000 pounds, but what exactly are you trying to fix/improve/implement?

 

[ishak786]

help....

ermmm am trying to get a network up and a server. i have 10 standalone computers how do i get started

 

[jdabbs]

Homework?

SBS w/ Exchange for server/email. Backup can also be handled by the server, but budget allows for standalone NAS. Internet restrictions implemented at the gateway.

 

[scotty]

You can get a pretty nicely loaded server (HP, Dell), with tape backup, software licenses, and all for well under $10K. I usually quote something like an ML350 w/ Windows Server / SBS, A/V, Ultrium2/3/4 Tape Backup, BackupExec 11/12, for around $7500 ($CAD, about $6K USD). Add on that perhaps a nice little router (Linksys RV042, Sonicwall TZ180), and a beefy little switch (ProCurve) and you've got yourself a nice little network. Even then you're barely breaking $10K (6-7K pounds). 20K pounds, being roughly $30K USD I would probably say is overkill for a network of 10 people. Even if you bump up the level of hardware 2 or 3 notches, you're still at barely half your budget (not factoring in any kind of labour).

It really boils down to needs but when I'm looking at a business around 10-20 people who need something sturdy and need the features of a server versus just a simple NAS, that's usually where I point. If your business is a 24x7x365 critical operation, you might need to look at more/redundant hardware, but just about anything less and you'd be fine with something like this.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

//nods head

Yeah...so far, without knowing more details....SBS should be given a good look.

Not knowing your storage needs...not knowing what line of business software your biz runs on....quite a few things to think about.

Sounds like graphics...which means large files....which I'd look towards fast 15krpm hard drives, and lots of 'em for good storage capacity of all those big files.

SBS has MS Exchange built in...so it satisfies your e-mails needs..in the office..and for the road warriors with Outlook over http.

Good remote access portal to remote access workstations at the office, also allows flexible quick access to e-mail via Outlook Web Access.

And Sharepoint intranet collaboration.

Shared faxing.