new to network building and doing so for children's center

[yari130]

Good day. I am relatively new to building a network from scratch (I did move and add computers) and would like to know where the best place to start is (after reading the intros to what is a network and which type to chose, ie. ptp or c/s). I like learning on my own, trying it out and reading the iformation. This is sort of a hobby. I am also doing it to help out this organiztion that helps disabled children. The pay 60 an hour for a twenty minute job and i was able to do some of it within the same time and little effort. I volunteer my time there and this is something that I really would like to do.

They are getting bigger. 30 children and about twenty staff using computers. Their network is very slow and viral.

Looking through the intros and what we have at school (I am an electrical technologist), I would give each staff member a username and password, the individual pc's would run on win 98se (that is what was donated and at school, they do the task well enough)and the hard disk gets flushed at log off. In other words, they could only save to their folders on the server. (Is this possible with winXP? I made a receipt program using MS Access XP and only their XP computers can run it). I am assuming that this a c/s type network. Hardware is not a problem for me, I know how to put them together. If possible to build our own server rather than spend a fortune on Dell or HP. And a little further, Linux information. (Something I am looking into because of cost). For more info on the center: yaldei.org

(ps. if this is possible with XP, can we somehow get a cheaper license for all the computers? 150 a computer is way too much and would rather wait a couple of years for donated computers)

Thank you,

Yari

 

[bofhrevenge2]

You would probably be better off posting in the Windows forums for advise on XP forum779
As far a licensing goes as you are doing this for an education centre you should be eligible for MS education licensing, this is usually 1/4 the cost as business licences.

 

[kg4giy]

One of the first things you need to do is determine WHAT you want to do with the machines/network. Rather than look at the technologies, be they peer-to-peer or client/server or eieio, sit down with the people that will use the system and find out what it is they hope to gain from it.

For instance. How many machines are you talking about? One PC and a printer is not a network (well, you could argue that if the printer is on a print server, it is, but I digress). What are you going to do with them (email? surf the web? Create posters and documents? Let the kids break them? Install educational software?). How many printers do you need? How are you going to connect to the Internet? If you are creating documents, do they need to be backed up? If you are letting the kids "experiment" with the OS, do they need their own sandbox so as not to affect the "business" side of the house.

All these questions will help guide you down the path that will point out the things you need in your network, including but not limited to, print servers, file servers, routers, switches/hubs/wireless access points, firewalls, security software (anti-virus, etc) email and "office automation" packages and finally the OS itself.

Given that there is a money issue, you may find that open-source tools (Linux/BSD at the OS, and then a miriad of others to fit your needs) may get the ball rolling, but may expose the system to unintentional support issues, while a closed solution (a al Microsoft) may be more expensive on the front end, it may reduce some of the support issues down the road.

Once you and the users can answer these questions, the you can start building the network. And you will discover that you have both p2p and c/s system running.

Best of luck.

DAVID