Networking four small office buildings?

[ainok3a]

Hello everyone..I'm new here and also new to this networking stuff..well i know networking but i havent actually started one from scratch...Can someone help me on how to network 4 small office buildings?how many routers and switches are needed?Tips and suggestions for a reliable setup?

 

[USAFRet]

Hello everyone..I'm new here and also new to this networking stuff..well i know networking but i havent actually started one from scratch...Can someone help me on how to network 4 small office buildings?how many routers and switches are needed?Tips and suggestions for a reliable setup?

Someone would need a whole lot more questions answered before any parts recommendations could be given.

This is when you turn yourself into the Project Manager, and ask your boss for a large check.
Then, hire a local networking consultant.

 

[ainok3a]

I'm into basics here..there are cat5 cables running through the offices but I have really examined each building..I just want to connect all those small buildings so we can do files sharing. I just need technical suggestion from you pros..please any help will be appreciated. Its a new job and I dont want them employer's first vision of me is a failure..

thanks

 

[USAFRet]

I'm into basics here..there are cat5 cables running through the offices but I have really examined each building..I just want to connect all those small buildings so we can do files sharing. I just need technical suggestion from you pros..please any help will be appreciated. Its a new job and I dont want them employer's first vision of me is a failure..

thanks

You also do not want it to fail horribly, resulting in you getting fired.

Questions like....(don't answer these...think about them)
How many users?
How many devices?
Wired or WiFi?
How much bandwidth do you need between the buildings?
How much bandwidth do you have to he outside world?
How far away are the buildings?
What is in between?
What is the budget for this?
What do you people actually do?


You were hired as the IT guy to do this?
hmm.....

 

[ainok3a]

At least 40 users..one of the buildings may contain more than 10 computers and the other 3 buildings less than 10 users in each of the 3. The buildings are atleast 20-30 feet apart. It should be a wired network. Im from an island of less than 50k people and we are currently adapting to technology so we are not that pro when it comes to the IT field. The budget depends on the equipment I will recommend. I was thinking 1 routers and 3 switches in each of the buildings to connect the network. You seem surprised that I was hired as the IT and yeah I am not that experienced so I came to this site. When ever i try to do research on some computer problems, I found reliable answers here so I decided to post this thread here.

 

[bill001g]

What you are doing is saying I changed the oil on my car and I now I have been hired to overhaul the engine on a airplane...what tools do I need and how do I do it. Do you honestly think you can learn to do that just by posting to a forum or watching a youtube video.

People spend years learning this stuff. There are many profession certification that take a lot of effort to obtain that most people in this field have. You actually have not even thought of the right question to ask yet. I suspect you still think networking and the file sharing function provided by the server are the same thing. These functions are actually very different and in large companies actually handled by different teams of people. In small companies one guy can do it but you now must have knowledge from 2 very complex areas which takes even more time and effort

You can just hook a bunch of equipment up and likely get it to work but when you have a business depended on a network that does not fail and if it does fail can be recovered quickly. Every hour of down time has lots of expensive employees sitting idle.

If you had come here asking which do you feel is better link aggregation or spanning tree to provide for redundancy the user of this forum could provide a lot of input. Problem is you likely have no idea what those terms even mean. What you have done in effect is I have a job I am being paid for can someone please do my job for me but I get to keep the money.

In most cases like yours the company hire a consultant to come in evaluate the situation and give you a design. Once you have a design a person with little skill can implement the recommendations and maybe learn some of the basics and then keep it running.