How to set-up a small office LAN/WiFi LAN?

Question

Hi guys, thanks in advance for your useful answers. =P

Anyhow, I work for a start-up company, and for the last several months, we've been making quite good on revenue, and I see it fit to start upgrading our hardware and network. we're currently working off a rather jurassic set-up: DSL modem hooked to a hub, which is then connected to a server, and the rest of us hook up to the hub (4 of us only so far, but we plan on expanding to 10 before the end of the year).

Since we're very much mobile, i was thinking on replacing our nineteen four-gotten era PC's with laptops. and since we're going with laptops, i was thinking we could go WiFi instead of cables. also, our current set-up is that we're all just hooked on the net - we're not networked in any way.

So, since we need a server anyway (is this correct? any wi-fi router needs a server of some sort?), i wanted us to be on in a LAN so that we all can share one printer.

What do we need to set this up? also, can a not-so-techie guy pull this off, or do we need to hire/contract a network specialist?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

One wireless router should be able to handle 19 machines should they all fit within the signal range.  You don't need to use the server as a router, but if you have secure information on your server you should not use it as a router.  If you were a family of 19 with a media server, I'd say no problem and have fun.  However, you have security liabilities if you have important and/or sensitive information on a server on the same network.  If you can't contract out for an IS guy, consider outsourcing your server setup.  Then you could just get a wireless router and encrypt the signal.  That would be something you could handle with more peace of mind.