Small Business Network Setup

michaelogalarza · ‎10-15-2013

Hello,

I'm working for an Internation School here in Dongguan, China. For years the school has used a network setup in this format ISP Connection > Basic Router > "Cheap" Unmanaged 24 port Switch. All DHCP being handled by just the router. The switch would connect all LAN devices to the internet via ethernet and any wireless routers as AP's. (A Mix of different brands acting as AP's.)

We are now about to move our central office to a new building. I wanted to take this opportunity to setup a more structered network. The ideal office setup for me would be to have a Cisco router, Cisco 24 port Switch and 3 Ap's in the Office. My problem is i don't have any knowledge of CLI and using it to configure ports etc. Are there any models that are mid-range enough for me to setup through a GUI? I've only come to be familiar with setting up a static address on a home router and then just using a basic switch to connect devices to the internet. What Cisco Equipment should i buy? To start a friend suggested a Cisco ISR 1841 or 871. Can anyone help? Am i in the correct forum?

michaelogalarza · ‎10-16-2013

1.Support 30 users in the office.

2.At the moment we won't need to use VLANs but in the future I'd like to incorporate them for different needs.

3.Servers will be added next October when a new budget hits. But not now.

4.For Security we'd be fine with just a firewall in place or a router that supports the feature.

5.Redundancy is low priority to my boss but I think otherwise.

6.Budget isn't really defined I was just told not to go crazy.

michaelogalarza · ‎10-16-2013

1. No link aggregation will be needed. But I'm curious if it should be considered since my hopes are to get a MPLS connection setup for cross communication between sites. Though we can't afford a second connection at the moment anyway.

2. Will have Wifi users with mix of BYOD.

3. Centralized management would be a huge plus. I know my old job used a WAN controller to maintain all the info for the AP's. Individual with the option or capability of being centrally managed in the future?