Standard network set-up?

[dangerous123]

I am completely network stupid and haven't the slightest idea of how a general network is set-up. My spouse, who is just entering the field, is adamant about some particular points.

So for a medium sized company, what is a basic set-up?

If a line is coming in from the Telco (what a T1?) does it go to a router or a switch? Is the firewall/proxy behind that?

And what the heck is the difference between a router and a switch?

Anyone know a good link for Network 101??

[z1p]

First, T1 also know as DS1 is 1.5 Mbps. At one time it was the standard for long haul connections. Currently I'd say that T3/DS3 is more or less the minimum. This makes sense when you look at the speed and cost for DSL or cable modem. It is no longer reasonable to pay the high cost of installing a dedicated line only to get 1.5 Mbps.

Here are some networking related links from some other posts.

You might like to take a look at http://www.lantronix.com/learning/networking.html for some networking information, remember teachers take a dim view of students who just copy and paste information, so read the information and then use your understanding of it to answer the questions you have been given.

You might also like to read http://www.citap.com/documents/tcp-ip/tcpip001.htm for some more detailed information. Then if you wish to get a really detailed view read http://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/~jain/bnr/index.html
Google has always proved to be helpful to me.

It is all to do with the search critera that you use. A search engine reads web pages and stores information on what is in which page in the form of words in a database.

So to do a good search you need to have a little imagination as to what information a page that you seek may contain. So instead of placing a question in the search box you might be better off putting a series of words that are likely to appear in a desired page.

Example: tutorial network computer media cable type
Gets the following near the top of the list: http://www.d-m.com/documents/network/networks.html

These should answer all your questions except maybe what's a basic setup for a medium sized company. From my experience there's no such animal. ;^)

It all depends on the needs of the company. If it is one location or multiple. What you define as a medium size company. And, let's not forget budget.

[degsy]

How many computers are there?
Is there a server?

You could get away with a simple Router from the likes of Linksys.
There have built in Firewalls and some newer ones have serveral other features such as VPN and Bandwidth control.

[dangerous123]

How many computers are there?
Is there a server?

You could get away with a simple Router from the likes of Linksys.
There have built in Firewalls and some newer ones have serveral other features such as VPN and Bandwidth control.
Personally, my work is a large corporation. Probably 20,000+ computers on this campus alone with multiple locations in multiple cities/countries. The spouse has just started installing a small set-up in retail stores, ie 5 computers, 1 router, etc.

I'll take a look at the links provided. Thanks much.

[z1p]

In a small setup like that you could get away with DSL/Cable into a router. If you do that, you'd want a router with something better than a basic SP1 firewall. You want to control what ports can be used going in and out.

If you need to connect multiple sites, you could still do so using VPN software. In that case you may want to go with a standalone firewall that has VPN built in. Again it comes down to budget, faster and more secure costs more money.