? about expanding a small business lan to a wan

[sgw]

Hi, please forgive any of the following questions if they seem very simplistic, but I am not a tekkie

I have a small business LAN with a single Windows NT 4.0 server acting as the primary domain controller connected to a Linksys 24 port unmanaged hub. There are about 15 desktop/laptop computers, running Windows 98, NT or 2000, also connected to the hub. A second identical hub has about 20 computers connected and this hub is uplinked to first hub. I have a 128kb ISDN line that comes into a box and a cat5 cable connection to a Netgear RT314 router. The RT314 has a 4 port switch and the first hub is uplinked to it. The RT314 acts as a DHCP server, handing out IP addresses in the range from 192.168.100.100 to 192.168.100.255. The single Server has a static IP address of 192.168.100.10 and the RT314 itself has an address of 192.168.100.1. We are going to open a new office which should grow to be of equal size and setup. My questions follow:

1. Can I connect the two locations to form a WAN and what do I need to do it?

2. If I need a faster line like a T1/fraction T1, what is involved with that?

3. Do I need some kind of dedicated line between the two sites and what is involved with that?

4. If I can connect them, can I have just the one server at the main location and have the second location log into the Server over the WAN?

5. All the users, have a single mapped drive on the server, that they keep and share Word and Excel files on, but they work using Word and Excel loaded locally on their desktops/laptops. If the WAN users are connected to the main location server, does having a mapped drive impact performance? does the vary fact that a drive is mapped use up bandwidth, for that matter? does a user being logged in use up bandwidth?

Any thought would be appreciated, Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[jeter]

I have an idea! If this is too be a point to point connection between two sites than the isdn circuit should do just find. What you need is 2 routers host and remote, with a isdn at both locations. This will be required so that you can call from the host to the remote. I use the Lucent pipeline 85 for this application. programming is very simple and they work great. Jeter@LasVegas.com
Fisher CCNA
Sprint-Data

 

[salserocito]

There are quite a few things to consider here...

First off, will there be a Server at the new location, in addition to the Server that already exist at the 1st location? If so, will they be in different Domains, or seperate Domains?

Do you want the Users at the new location to have the ability to access data that is located on the Server in the 1st location? If so, how much and what kind of data are we talking about? Will they need to run any Server-based applications?

Attempting to login or run applications across a WAN link can greatly degredate performance!

Now, how far apart are these offices going to be... Same city, different area? Different cities, states, countries, etc... ??? If you are considering a Point to point circuit, the price is based on distance.

I am assuming that your present 128K ISDN line is connected through an ISP to the Internet. What about connecting the 2 sites via a secured VPN over the Internet. There are several DSL companies that are offerring some incredible deals on business DSL packages.