Need advice for small office network build

[umamimon]

Hey Guys!

Ive been tasked with building out our office and setting up the network and voip phones. I don't have too much experience with this however so I've been doing some research over the past few days. I really could use a helping hand in what to buy and what constitutes as an appropriate setup.

Our office is two stories with the primary office and reception area on the upper floor. The lower floor is a conference room and kitchen/living space. The hub where all the wired Ethernet ports lead to is also in the lower floor. The structure is mostly concrete and metal with lots of exposed metal AC ducts.

What we need is a network where we can have priority on the VOIP phone service and video conferencing through Lifesize. There will be a couple of wired computers but the majority of the people in the office will be operating off of their respective laptops and mobile devices. The network needs to be able to accommodate ad maximum 15 voip phone lines and 15 computers.

I've been reading a lot about the tomato firmware for being a good start in being able to manage QoS. I'm a bit afraid however that I wont be able to get a wireless signal upstairs with all the concrete so I was planning on setting up a Asus RT-N16 downstairs and another router/access point upstairs to extend the network. In this scenario would it make more sense to have the Asus Tomato as the primary router or the access point? Does it even matter? I'm also assuming I need a nice switch to connect all the phones to so it would be great if i can get a recommendation on that as well.

Lastly, in my situation I would like some clarity on what order everything plugs into each other. I'm thinking something like :

(1F) Internet -> (1F) Primary Router -> (2F) Access Point Asus RT-N16 QOS -> (2F) Gigabit Switch -> Phones/Computers

Does this look right? Sorry for the long winded post. I'm trying to learn alot really fast here =_= Hardware recs outside of the Asus Router would be a plus =D

Thanks ALOT!

 

[stevech]

Business: Don't use WiFi unless they know the risks and don't fault you when a breach occurs, or an over-zealous dolt in the parking lot hears the SSID and makes false claims that the WiFi has been hacked.

If you must anyway, choose a Cisco or ZyXel or some such SOHO WiFi access point. Use the pro grade managed router to AAA every WiFi user with your AAA (Active Directory/RADIUS). Set WiFi to require AAA 802.1X.
Ideally your AP can do two SSIDs, both encrypted, one for non-employees, hard-routed only to the internet gateway. The other SSID, WPA2 and 1X, is for employees.

Tomato and DD-WRT firmware has no place in a corporate setting, in my opinion.

With all due respect, if you don't know all this stuff, hire a pro and learn, then next time you can do it.

 

[thiggins]

+1 to stevech's suggestion to hire a pro for the initial setup. Getting a VoIP setup tuned correctly can cause plenty of hair loss. BTW, how much uplink bandwidth do you have? If it's only 1 Mbps or so, 15 people are not going to be happy when they all want to yak at once.

A good managed / smart switch will be able to handle VLANs and QoS for VoIP. Spend a bit more and add PoE so that you can power the VoIP phones directly (assuming they are PoE equipped). You probably want to look at HP ProCurves, which get good props from the pros, but can be a bit pricey. Check the warranties, BTW. NETGEAR, D-Link and others now offer limited lifetime warranties on biz-class switches.

I don't care how you do it, but get a couple of CAT 6 drops run between floors and install a switch on each floor. Now you can have multiple APs on each floor if need be, all with a high-bandwidth connection back to the network. You do not want to depend on a wireless link to carry that much interfloor traffic, especially with concrete construction.

Leave the alternate distros like Tomato, DD-WRT, etc. for the experimenters. The extra features they expose are often supported in commercial products.

Stick with business-grade stuff like the Cisco RV series for routers.

 

[cvito]

Response to your Network Inquiries

Hi! My name is Carie Vito and I am part of Cisco Small Business Organization. I agree with the comments above - you must consider carefully what equipments to use for your networking needs. You want to consider replacing your hub with a gigabit or fast ethernet switch to support not only the internet traffic but voice and video as well. I also agree with Tim about choosing a PoE switch - a lot of IP phones nowadays are PoE capable switch. Have you considered having a Unified Communications solution in place? This will resolve your worries about internet traffic since you are going VOIP and Video Conferencing. I'd like to help your company get relevant information about your network needs - you can email me at cvito@cisco.com. I'll be happy to provide you assistance with this.

Regards,

Carie Vito

 

[youneeq]

I agree with what they said and...

Based on the general info you provided I'm assuming limited budget, etc so here's some options. I don't feel like typing up an essay for why I spec'd what I did, but ask questions if you want and I'll try to answer. I'd pick up one (or more) managed 24-port gigabit switches w/RSTP and LACP trunking listed below or at least two of the 16 ports and create 2 vlans for data and voice if you want. Establish some LACP trunks and interconnect each of the switches so you have some speed/redundancy.

Get a SonicWALL wireless-n UTM router (way better and not much more than a consumer WiFi router) which support QoS/bandwidth mgmt/L2 bridging/WAN failover/load balancing/multiple virtual access points ie. corporate/visitors. Or splurge and get the wired-only version (which is less) + Sonicpoint AP with PoE which gives you more flexibility with antennae placement for your wireless ie router (1F) and AP (2F). Setup a PortShield interface/group on the SonicWALL and plug one RSTP enabled switch into each LAN port on the router.

You didn't mention if you needed to have 15 concurrent phone callls all at once but each call will consume ~100Kbps up/down x 15 = 1500kbps up/down. A T-1 aka 1.5Mbps aka 1544kbps is pushing it. You will probably want more bandwidth. The WAN failover and load balancing feature of the SonicWALL will be useful if you add a second internet connection for more bandwidth and if one inet connection goes down you don't lose your communications.

You may want to consider the SonicWALL remote start and config service as there is a lot that needs to be setup on the router to make this all happen. It is a gui interface but there's a reason it has a 1200 page manual. But for business use, it's features, performance and price it's great.

On to the phones... Ok, so do you already have any kind of existing analog phone system? If so, you can save some money by just putting a few pieces of equipment in to handle the analog to digital (VoIP) conversion. If you have a RJ-21 amphenol connector anywhere where your phones all come together (typically), you can plug a Cisco SPA-8000 (an 8-port ATA adapter) in or individual RJ-11's or get a RJ-21 connector spliced in to your existing 66/110 block and up to eight analog phones will be able talk VoIP. Get two of those and you have 16 digital extensions for about $500. Or for cost reasons do a combination and just have eight or less analog phones and get new IP phone for the rest. Also, you may want VM, call attendant, music on hold, etc so I'll cover that in a sec.

Now if you need/want to go the more costly all digital route, get some Cisco SPA942 or IP phones for flexibility which I'm going to explain. Like the other guys said either run network drops for each phone and optionally do PoE which requires way more $$$ for PoE switche(s) or injectors but will give you a reliable, hassle-free connection. Or, you can still make the SPA942 and some simialr Cisco IP phones wireless by getting WBP54G's which are WiFi phone adapters that pull power off the phones and make them wireless.

The final thing is you might want/need VMcall attendant/MoH, etc so then you get a 16-port Cisco SPA9000 which is discontinued as of Oct last year I believe but is still readily available and pretty good price and works well with the SPA942's or get some other software hardware or software IPPBX solution. I listed a few options below.

Also, there's some other cool Cisco stuff like the UC500 and UC320W hardware which you might like better. They're more of an all-in-one solution that I'm sure Carie from Cisco can tell you about.

I prob forgot stuff I'll add to this later. Good luck researching everything! Sorry no hyperlinks. Too much work.

P.S. Oh, and if you haven't decided on a VoIP provider then check out VoIP.ms. They're per minute plan offers 25 concurrent channels (inbound/outbound phone calls) for $.0105/min and as low as $.99/mo for ea DID and six sec billing. Porting of your existing #'s is like $10 ea IIRC.

Switches:
(The best value 16/24 port gigE managed switches that I can find right now.)
RSTP, Up to eight trunk groups, "lifetime warranty" (until model gets discontinued), fanless, Ok gui
(1) D-Link Web Smart DGS-1210-16 $250 OR
(2) D-Link Web Smart DGS-1210-24 $400

Router/Wireless:
SonicWALL TZ-100W $400
OR
SonicWALL TZ-100 $250
AND
SonicWALL SonicPoint AP w/PoE Dual-Band $400
Optional:
SonicWALL 01-SSC-8580 Remote Start-Up
& Config Service for TZ Series $275

Do you have an exisiting analog phone system?
YES
(2) SPA8000 $500

NO
Cisco SPA942 $125
AND
network drops and possibly PoE $$$
OR
Cisco WBP54G WiFi Bridge $40

IPPBX VM/IVR/MoH Options:
SPA9000 Unlocked 16-user ~$350
OR
3CX IPPBX 16-user $1295
OR
NCH Axon IPPBX ~$200
w/ IVM Call attendant VM, IVR ~$900
w/ MoH ~$200

All-in ones to an extent:
OR
Cisco UC 320W $700
OR
Cisco UC500 ~$1800