Need input on office internet setup

[CAK]

Here's whats in place already.....a file server running netware and 7 PC's connected to that running winXP or 2k.

And here's what a compnay proposed to do........Internet would come in via cable modem to a new internet server running XP/ICS with zone alarm, then to a hub and out to 4 of the 7 PC's. A second network card would be installed in each machine for the internet connection.

Thats the plan anyways. Does anyone see a problem with that? Or any problems with also making the internet server act as a file server along side the current one? Would zone alarm just on the internet server be effective or does it HAVE to be on each PC?

 

[WannaFly]

haha, you might want to check and see what this "company" has done before, because thats probably the worst setup(IMHO).

ICS is not the most secure or most efficient or the most cost effective.
Zone alarm would not be enough.
No reason to have 2 NICs in each machine.

Buy a SOHO router (you can get them for ~$50-75) and your problems will be solved. You could probably even install it yourself and not have to pay the "company" anything.

 

[Fatt]

You can get a netgear router with stateful packet inspection for around $100 now. I wouldn't go with anything less.

You can also get a Cisco 831 broadband router for around $500, which frankly, isn't really a whole lot of money if you have important data in your network.

I mean, what were they going to spend on this "internet server" anyway?

 

[Rapidskies]

Get a router.

 

[scorpioLP]

get a router. Might also want to put a firewall between the router and the cable modem.

NO internet server.
NO extra NICs for your PCs.

That's just garbage.

 

[mboy]

Yeah, either get a Cisco PIX a Sonicwall Pro 100 or something of the like which will route and SPI firewall (also allowing u to create in/out ACL's, content filter, block access, etc with 1 Box after the cable modem.
The company in question is recommending an ASS-A-9 solution!

Oh yeah, the PIX or SW pro 100 will probably be cheaper then an Internet server itself (or close to it anwyay), be 1000xs easier to manage, 1000000xs more secure, and will even let u do VPN from outside if need be.

 

[CAK]

What they wanted to do seemed kinda goofy to me, thats why i asked

The company wanted $1500 to do what i listed above.

I'm going to look into different routers including those you all spoke of and see if I can't do it myself for them. Should be cheaper and keep some kind of simplicity.

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: CAK
A second network card would be installed in each machine for the internet connection.

Don't put a second network card in each PC. As long as the gateway (weather it be a WinXP PC or a router) is on the same subnet and set as the defualt gateway for each of your PCs, they will be able to access the NetWare server and the gateway via the same NIC.

Use a router instead of ICS. ICS unstable and very feature limited. As mboy said a PIX or a Sonicwall would work great.