Office Networking - Advice & Planning

[buddhantraining]

Hey Gang!

This post might be a bit on the long side but please bear with me. I thank you in advance for your advice and replies, it's greatly appreciated.

Here's the deal. A local kennel wants to get their office computerized. Currently they're doing everything on paper and it's just becoming overwhelming for them. They've appointed me the task of handling the job and maintaining their systems, and...well...I have no idea which direction to go with their setup. I've never networked in a business location before and never had to network more than three systems.

They have a large U shaped front desk where they will need three computers. The employee in charge of bookeeping/finance will also need a computer - her office is sort've behind the front desk in a cubby hole kind of thing. I plan to custom build all computer systems. All four computers will be running a boarding program called Kennel Connection (www.kennelconnection.com) - but only the finance office PC will also need Quickbooks. However, all four computers will need access to a central database where the QB and KC files will be stored. They'll also be sharing a printer. I'm not too sure what else they'll be sharing but I imagine maybe a fax at the most. It would be nice to set up remote access so I could offer them support off-site but it's not mandatory. I'd like to avoid using a server; I've just never worked with them before and would hate to get involved in something I'm not sure if I could handle. I'm also not too sure if a server is REALLY needed for only two programs and a relatively small office setup. I'd prefer to just build a workstation in place of a server.

I also don't know what would be more beneficial in such a small office space - wired or wireless neworking?

With that said, how would you networking gurus plan out this project? What sort of things should I be taking into consideration, what things do I need to find out before taking the first steps? What system specs would you recommend for this project?

Really, any advice or suggestions would be helpful. Feel free to ask any questions if I didn't explain things well enough. I've never tackled this sort of project before so want to get as much planning and advice as I can before I get started.

Thanks guys!

[NUTNDUN]

Well with only two apps and nothing system bogging I wouldn't worry about system specs as anything cheap yet new would suffice. I would go with an 8 port router and I don't think I would go wireless due to it being a business even though the information may not need to be all that secure. I would make the accounting pc the server, put lots of memeory in it and a big hard drive and partition it with probably 4 partitions, one for the operating system, one for the quick book files, one for the kennel files and the other for a spare and if the accounting pc is the only one using the quick book files don't share that partition, then share the kennel partition to all the other pcs. You could also use the accounting pc at the print server or use a all in one printer/fax/scanner with built in networking and will work as it's own print server which is probably the best option.

[bob83b]

Wonderful pages! Keep up the great work.