Help with networking a small Office

SiriusB

Adept
Hi all,
Since the last time I was here, I am no longer unemployed:p I just joined a small IT company that's starting its office in India. The office will have 3 to 4 PCs; most probably 3 desktops and 1 laptop (all xp pro). I think this is how the setup must be:

1. All of the workstations should be to connected to the Internet, probably through a nat. So a good business broadband is required and a nat-enabled device is required.
2. Each user should be able to connect to a vpn network, under different credentials simultaneously. Does vpn require a special broadband plan or can this be done in ordinary business plans?
3. All the PCs should be able to see each other and be able to access a few networked-office equipments like a printer, fax, etc.
4. It's preferable to have a shared/global network drive, though not really important to have one right now. If so, do I need a zombie-storage machine or something(preferably also acting as a gateway machine) for this?
5. There will be a constant need for ringing up the us of A. And we have an ip phone too. There might be another ip phone on the way as well. So, I also need a network that can support these devices and a broadband plan that can go do the same.

So the worst case scenario is 4 PCs accessing some vpn resource while 2 IP Phones are being used. But 80% of the time, 2 machines will be downloading/compiling some source code via vpn and the IP phones are all idle. The office is going to be near vadapalani, chennai.

What I want to know are:
1. Is there any advice for me based on the above points?
2. Which broadband? The grapevine says that only bsnl supports ip phones while the others block it. Is this true? That would reduce the choice to bsnl only.
3. For the above setup, can anyone be kind enough to provide me a network drawing:eek:hyeah: ? Or, more humbly, any advice is great for me.
4. Do I need a dedicated low-end machine with IPCop(linux flavor) running on it for this setup to work? Or, is there a wonder router/switch (or combination) that would work?
 
By Looking at your Requirement first of all you need good upload bandwidth. Becoz you're gonna run IP phones and VPN. well IP phones wont eat up good bandwidth unless you use good compression codecs(well tht depands on your VOIP service provider ) .

well as far as i know BSNL doesnt proivde good upload bandwidth in business plan . any BSNL business user can correct me if i am wrong .

And you dont need to run any IPCOP or any other Linux based Firewall .

i think chepaest solution is WRT54GP2

it has got Wireless AP so u can connect to it your lappy .
 
^Hey, thanks cisco_tech, that looks like a good router for our network. The others in the office are convinced of the ipcop-based-gateway solution. I'll just have to convince them of this router. How much do you reckon this will cost?

For the broadband, tata indicom Infinity (upto) 1mbps connection (3k p.m) sounds good. It's the cheapest 1 mbps I was able to find.
 
Ya cisco_tech is right abt the shitty uplink speeds of BSNL.. And no problem with VOIP on other providers.. I've tried it on both Airtel & Tata Indicom without a problem..
Well you could go for the WRT54GP2 if ur gonna connect analog phones to the router to be used for VOIP.. I'm guessing u've got proper IP phones with an Ethernet port so u could go for its older sibling the Linksys WRT54G for a much cheaper soln (arnd 2.5k).. Or even better if u want a WiFi router, ADSL2+ Modem (do away with renting an adsl modem frm ur isp), 4-port Ethernet Switch in one u could go for the NetGear DG834G (arnd 3.5k)..
For VPN i guess u'll need a system handling the NAT n all, but i dont really knw the details of that so wont go into it..
 
Yea i didnt read it properly. if you have got proper IP phones then there is no need to buy WRT54GP2 . get yourself a WRT54G (make sure u get the Older Version of it. so later on you can flash it with 3rd party firmware.) . and also buy an 5 Port Switch Linksys EG005W .

I m attaching rough diagram here . so u can get the Idea about it .

 
IPCOP is superb . i have tried it on my home network .and QOS just works perfectly . i have also tried monowall and smoothwall .
 
Hey,

Nice diagram cisco_tech! Thanks a lot. Yea, I found out that the gp2 had analog phone ports. But the plainer model that you suggested, WRT54G, looks right for the job. I'll try to match the switch model you gave too.

I'm kinda new to this vpn thing. How well will this router meet my vpn requirements? i.e, Will this router allow multiple vpn conections to be established from within the network to a private network outside the network?

I also shot an email to linksys and asked them which router they would suggest I buy, and they pointed me to this one, the WRV54G:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...nksys/Common/VisitorWrapper&lid=1893439789B05

It looks pretty fancy and am sure it costs fancy bucks too. But I am not sure that the "50 vpns" support they say is for running a vpn server inside my network or for connecting to one, or both. Can anyone clarify?

Thank you guys again.
 
Does Your company have VPN router at their end ? if they have then you dont need to buy VPN Router . Just VPN soft do the Job .

this is copied from Linksys Manual .
You must have at least one VPN Router on one end of the VPN
tunnel. At the other end of the VPN tunnel, you must have a second VPN
Router or a computer with the Linksys VPN client software
 
What kind of vlient software? Right now, we are in a temporary office using vpn by dialling to the remote vpn computer using windows's dialler. The router we are using is Ativa54G. But we are not able to establish more than 1 vpn connection at the same time.

Is the dialer what they are referring to as a vpn client software?

Side note: With this ativa router, we are not even able to share the dialed vpn connection. I even tried changing the windows routing table to redirect vpn-related IPs to the computer that dialed a vpn tunnel. I think that if the router had provision to dial a vpn connection instead of us dialing via windows from one of the PCs, we would be able to share a vpn tunnel. But this would be a non-issue now as we will be getting a seperate vpn for each user.
 
Hi cisco_tech,

Thanks for all your help but since the head office has started using ipcop, we are going with that as well.

Thanks and I'll make sure to ask you if I get any problems with ipcop ;)
 
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