another small office network/hardware thread

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Feb 4, 2005
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but i couldn't find much information with a search.

here's the deal. my crappy-part-time-job-while-at-school is at a local liquor store. the owner has recently discovered i'm good with computers, so i've been doing some maintenance on the register computer, which is a dell with microsoft POS software on it (also windows, which is a different kind of POS...).

the store is moving to a much larger location next door, and boss man wants me to do install the network and POS systems. it's my guess that he is trying to save money by having me do it instead of hiring a company, because he mentioned having a server, and i don't think he knows enough about computers to know what that is, i'm guessing he heard it from a company.

so, we will have up to 3 register stations, and he wants a server, likely to store the inventory database. so my question is, how can i handle this? i dont really know what his budget is, apart from "keep the cost down, but whatever it is, it is, we just gotta do it". so my initial plan is, buy 3 POS systems from HP, and use the current POS computer (P4 northwood 2.8 GHz, 256 MB ram) as the server. this P4 would be plenty fast enough to host the database, there would only be 3 registers going at once.

do i sound like i'm on the right track? i've set up small networks before, but never for a business. it's not difficult to connect to a database through a network is it? the server will be running ms sql server. i know i'll be able to figure everything out, but i can't have all the time in the world to do it, as we close this store on may 15th, and open the new one june 1st, and i really only work here part time. any help or advice is much appreciated.
 
Is he offer you more for this?

If he isn't I would not do this. Otherwise this will get tacked on to your extra duties and you'll be the fall guy if something goes wrong. Not only that, unless you have certifications, he could turn around and possibly sue you for damages if there's a major problem.

Honestly, if you do not have much experience working with small business networks, you should at least have someone who has some experience to back up your decisions or guide you on site.
 
If your buying a server for a company DO NOT BUILD IT YOURSELF.

Unless YOU plan to be availible 24/7 for repairs or down time.

get a low end dell with a raid 1 set up and be done with it.

If you build it he is going to make you responsible for the down time or any hardware problems and replacements, and RMA's and such - sure it "might" be a "little" cheaper to build it yourself - but you are not factoring in the dell warrenty services, next day replacement parts et cetera.
 
i doubt i'd be getting more to do this. you bring up some good points. i'm not in the position where i can drop everything if something goes wrong, so i think i'll tell him i have to pass. i'm sure he has a company ready to step in and perform the work, but i'd be far cheaper to him. i've never done a small business network before, but i'm confident in my abilities. however, it could be a day or two before i could get to the store if a problem arose, which could easily put me on his shit list.
 
If your buying a server for a company DO NOT BUILD IT YOURSELF.

Unless YOU plan to be availible 24/7 for repairs or down time.

get a low end dell with a raid 1 set up and be done with it.

yep i planned on putting a raid1 array in this P4, no way i'd build myself for a company.
 
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