How to create an network for our lab

[bchang74]

Hey Everybody,

My boss wanted me to ask this question, since I had access to this bulletin board.

I work in a medical sciences lab. My boss wants to take us off of the department's server because the department's network administrators are getting to be very annoying and too controlling of our machines.

We have 6 computers in our lab and we would like to create our own network for our lab.

My questions are:

1. What kind of equipment do we need to buy? All of the machines already have network interface cards. Is setting up a network simply a matter of buying a router with 6+ switches and running some ethernet cable between each machine and the router?

2. Right now, each of our computers have an ethernet cable running from the computer to an ethernet jack in the wall. However, I do not know where the other end of the ethernet jack is. Can we somehow use the existing ethernet cabling to set up our own network, or are we going to have to string ethernet cable through the drop ceiling to wire our network. BTW, wireless is probably not an option for security reasons.

3. I assume that the benefits of creating our network is that we will be able to share one printer? Am i assuming correctly?

4. Most of our computers are running Windows 2000, but our newest machine, and incidentaly the machine that we will probably all back our data up to, is running Windows XP Pro. Will this create a problem?

Thanks,
Ben

[bchang74]

Being the dummy to networks that I am, can somebody explain to me the difference between a router, hub, gateway, and switch?

[rrfield04]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but...

If no one in your group knows the difference between a router, switch, hub, or gateway, you should probably tackle this issue in a different manner. Talk to your Network Admin, Network Engineer, IS/IT department head, someone, to work out your issues before you go and cut yourself off from the rest of the network.

I obviosuly don't know your exact setup, but you will most likely lose a lot of funtionality your IS/IT department provides for you - for example access to the Internet. You should already be able to share printers. Unless you setup your own Windows server and domain, you will lose a centralized user database.

To answer some of your questions specifically...

1. To setup a small network of 6 machine with no access to other networks, the minimum you will need is a 10baseT hub, which can be found on eBay really cheap. For less than $100, you can get an unmanaged 10/100 switch instead. Switches give much better performance for a number of reasons. If you want to connect to another network (like your corporate network or the Interhet) you will need a router (or if you are on a budget, I guess you could use a Windows machine running ICS or Linux machine running one of a number of router emulators). Routers connect networks together. Routers can run anywhere from $30 for a cheap broadband router to thousands of dollars. For your setup, a broadband router may do the trick. These often come with an integrated switch with anywhere from 3 to 8 switch ports. It's possible that this would be the only piece of equipment you need. At home, I have a Linksys Router with 8 switchports, works great. Another way to go could be a Cisco 1720, 1605 or 2611 router. These require a bit of knowledge when configuring, though. The 1605 can probably be bought for $400 on eBay, the 1720 for, oh, $700, plus a WIC-1ENET card for $80. The 2611 would run about $1500, depending on where you get it.

2. To use the existing cables, you need to know where they go. They probably go into a wirecloset. You could break into the closet, figure out which cables belong to your PC's, disconnect the cables and connect them to your choice of equipment, then hope your IS/IT staff never goes into that closet and notices what you have done.

3. Like I said before, you should already have the capability to share printers.

4. Shouldn't be a problem.

Hub - Device that ususally runs at 10 mbps (though there are 100 mbps hubs), all devices attached share the 10 mbps. All traffic is sent to every computer. It's essentially a repeater. Layer 1 device.

Switch - Device that can run from 10 mbps to 10 gbps. A switch learns what device is attached to each port. Once this is learned, traffic is sent out only the port(s) needed, unlike a hub which sends every bit of traffic out every port. Kind of like a "smart hub". Layer 2 device.

Router - Device that connects different networks together. These things can get pretty complicated (enterprise routers) but can also be pretty simple (broadband routers). Layer 3 device, though many have layer 4 functions too.

Gateway - Ususally refers to the device that connects your device to "the world". It can be a router, firewall, a PC running Windows ICS, a Linux box, other things too I'm sure.

rrfield

[bchang74]

Dear RRField,

thanks for your help. I will pass this information along to my boss. Maybe we will stick with using our department's server / network after all....


thanks,
ben

[rrfield04]

bchang -

I'm not saying it can't be done....everyone who has ever setup a network has had to ask, at some point in their life, what the differences are between different devices. Everyone has to start somewhere.

It's not un-doable, however you will probably lose some services you want. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good...

I am a network engineer at a small electric company. Our network administrator is very receptive to suggestions and complaints from end-users. Hopefully yours is too

rrfield

[bchang74]

Actually....

the whole reason that my boss wants to take us off of the departmental network is because the network administrator is not very helpful and is not terribly receptive when we need something done.

we cannot even change the time on our computers, and the system administrator is the only person who can, and he usually refuses to do it. The correct time is actually pretty important for us...most of our data is stamped with the time that it is recorded and it is quite annoying when your system clock is wrong.

Anyway...just venting....thanks

[Tuttle]

In a networked environment, anarchy sucks.

Rather than leaping to cut yourself off from the main network, work towards getting it changed instead - write up a document explaining what the problems are (eg incorrect time), why that's important from a business perspective (unreliable data devalues the reports you produce), and what needs to be done to fix it (NTP time synchronisation based on external sources). Then take that as high as it needs to go until someone acts on it.

[wetling]

I'd like to agree with what has already been said.

Cutting yourself off from the company's network is probably not a good idea. If you can't get your issues resolved by the admin, go up a level.