Small business networks don’t have to be complicated. In fact, they are pretty easy: use good equipment, best practices and keep good network notes. While I think all three are important, most owners can save a lot of hassle and money by using the best equipment for the right job. Here is my list of recommends for most of the critical elements in ALL networks.
Firewall
We of course like our ASOK firewall that is VoIP optimized and packed with tons of throughput capability and firewall/router features. We also like the Watchguard product. A bit on the expensive side but stable, powerful and has a good support system.
VoIP Phones
Yealink is on top of the list based on both quality and price point. They have a great feature set, easy to configure and offer HD voice quality. We also like the Polycom phones as they are solid but more expensive and a little more cumbersome to configure.
Network Switch
We like the Netgear Prosafe series for a lot of reasons but the main one is the lifetime warranty. We’ve evoked this several times and it was easy to set up the exchange; no questions asked and it was fast. Pick your flavor: POE, GB, 48/24/16 ports, managed or unmanaged.
Printers
Brother has several printers in our office and we have recommended them to several other offices with great success. You get free, unlimited phone support for the life of the printer and toner replacement is very affordable. Print quality is exceptional and reliable. PPP (price per page) is low as the toner cartridges provide a high yield of pages.
WiFi
Only really one player here for both range and scalability and that is the Ubiquity UniFi access point. Download the controller, install on the network and configure. Need to add another one; plug into the network, open up UniFi controller and configure.
Dual WAN
Make sure you use two different mediums for this. Two Centurylink ADSL connections will provide load balance but NOT redundancy. If one DSL goes down, they both go down. Better to use a T1/DSL, Cable/DSL or an Ethernet/DSL combo. Both the ASOK and Watchguard have DUAL WAN functionality.
Final Thoughts
Make sure to keep use GOOD passwords and keep VERY GOOD network notes. Nothing worse than having to reset a device and reconfigure it because it can’t be accessed. Don’t use the default network (a good Firewall will use something obscure by default) like 192.168.10.1 or a 10.x.x.x subnet. Define an adequate DHCP pool with 1 day lease times. Keep a range available for static devices like APs, printers and other shared network devices.
A good network is simple, effective, efficient and secure. That doesn’t mean it needs to be overly complicated.
Keep it simple stupid ;)
A good network is simple, effective, efficient and secure. That doesn’t mean it needs to be overly complicated.
Keep it simple stupid ;)