Recommendations for Building a Small Business Network

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skchan

Weaksauce
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Hey Guys,

I'm helping a friend build a small office network and was wondering if you guys had any recos on a wireless router & access points. Was thinking of getting the ASUS AC1750, but maybe i should stick to one thats made for small business, like one of those cisco ones.

The office is about 4-5 people right now, but plans to expand as the year goes on, so will need something that can support up to 20 people or more on wireless.

Thanks in advance.
 
ASA5505 and Unifi Access Points. Cisco APs are usually a bit out of reach for small businesses.
 
If you're on a tight budget I'd go with something like this (does include some work and unix/linux knowledge)...

Main router:
Mikrotik (if you're a fan of RouterOS) or Netgear WNDR4300 (OpenWRT will do most of your fancy stuff such as QoS, VPN (IPSec, OpenVPN, vTun) and so on) however this doesn't include any kind of high level content filtering (you can do simple stuff such as domain/port blocking etc. Do not use this for wireless, use it as a main router only. If there's a need for a more powerful router later on its not the end of the world since they're about 100-120$

Wireless APs:
2 * TP-Link WDR3600 with OpenWRT
Set these up as APs and you have both 2.4 and 5Ghz networks for a cheap penny and they'll handle 10-15 clients pretty good given the cost. Somewhere 60-70$ each, I havent tried myself but I'm quite sure you can setup OpenWRT as hotspot too (look it up).

This will do fine and if he needs to upgrade later on its a really small investment.
Make sure that all workstations have a decent AV such as Kaspersky, NOD32, Vipre and so on.
//Danne
 
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Look into a device like this:
http://www.meraki.com/products/appliances/mx60w

Call them up and get a local sales rep on the phone, you'll save a lot off retail on both hardware and license (potentially half price). If you're looking to go enterprise grade wireless right away something that is has no hardware controller is the way to go. The above device kills two birds with one stone.. wifi and firewall. It can handle wifi, layer 7 traffic shaping/visibility, routing, dhcp, firewall, etc.

If you're not looking to go enterprise right away and instead want to look at a high end consumer level AP I'd check out the AirPort Extreme. It's a little overpriced, but uses quality components and is rock solid.
 
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This kinda sounds like a startup or similar, I somewhat doubt that they want to invest 500+ on hardware for a simple network.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
This kinda sounds like a startup or similar, I somewhat doubt that they want to invest 500+ on hardware for a simple network.
//Danne
Click to expand...

I assume that is directed at me. I run that combo in my home where I don't depend on it to make me money. Are you actually suggesting that I put some crap that can be bought at Best Buy in a business that actually depends on the network? Glad I'm not your customer.
 
diizzy said:
This kinda sounds like a startup or similar, I somewhat doubt that they want to invest 500+ on hardware for a simple network.
//Danne
Click to expand...

He is looking to build a small business network from the subject of this thread, the devices in this thread are largely targeted to that clientele. The thread starter didn't list a price or state he wanted consumer grade garbage that he would have to keep running over to support on a bi-weekly basis when the router locks up. I run Meraki equipment in my home...
 
Nicklebon said:
Look into something like a Fortigate 80C and a FortiAP.
Click to expand...

We did not have any luck with our fortigate. It is sitting in a rack unplugged, I wouldn't give it away. Of course it could've been the guy who implemented it....he's no longer with us lol


Wrench00 said:
ASA5505 is outdated and slow and not exactly user friendly. I rather see a zyxel anyday.
Click to expand...
Please explain. ASDM is just fine for people who can't handle a command line.


sheesh721 said:
Look into a device like this:
http://www.meraki.com/products/appliances/mx60w

Call them up and get a local sales rep on the phone, you'll save a lot off retail on both hardware and license (potentially half price). If you're looking to go enterprise grade wireless right away something that is has no hardware controller is the way to go. The above device kills two birds with one stone.. wifi and firewall. It can handle wifi, layer 7 traffic shaping/visibility, routing, dhcp, firewall, etc.

If you're not looking to go enterprise right away and instead want to look at a high end consumer level AP I'd check out the AirPort Extreme. It's a little overpriced, but uses quality components and is rock solid.
Click to expand...

Didn't cisco just buy meraki? I've heard good things about them, never used it though.

Edit - yep they did. Looks like they are staying independent though.
 
Sheesh, so just because its expensive is has to be good? Mikrotik "RS-series" and many Ubiquiti products also use the Atheros platform but they're also crap? Of course they're not suitable for all situations but such platforms will cover a lot if done right. An interesting question would be when mid-range/enterprise network hardware actually does make a difference on a small network that's most likely on some kind of cable connection or possible DSL....
If anything the Zyxel suggestions looks very reasonable if you want a nice price/performance ratio for a OOTB solution for a small network.

//Danne
 
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dashpuppy said:
Didn't we just talk last week at your house, about how this forum sucks ass, and it's really not worth posting on any more ? AND yet now i see you posting, BAH ! TRADER !
Click to expand...

I thought you stoped posting here.
I never said I will stop posting..

I am a trader.. are you thinking of Traitor? That be you since you posted.
 
staticz said:
Didn't cisco just buy meraki? I've heard good things about them, never used it though.

Edit - yep they did. Looks like they are staying independent though.
Click to expand...

Yes, Cisco just bought them out for $1.2b. They were initially funded by Google (their first customer) and Sequoia Capital. Their products are extremely user friendly and customizable. They're not the most powerful products on the market, but their pricing (after discounts) is very cheap providing a very low TOC. Their performance is strong. I was in a seminar with Meraki and they took one MR24 for 100 users giving them a total of connected clients browsing the web and checking email. Everyone was pounding on it and the thing didn't skip a beat. They had a Skype session going on a projector for everyone to see and there were no hiccups. Not as powerful as a top of the line Ruckus or Cisco, but strong for its price point.

The MX60W is essentially an MR16 AP and an MX60 firewall shoved into one device. For a small office it provides easy setup, remote management, and powerful performance/features for a low price. If they need any work done on the network the OP can log into the cloud controller and do everything remotely in a very easy to use environment. If there are any IT professionals on the board I recommend checking out their webinars for a free MR12 access point: http://www.meraki.com/webinars

I don't work for them, please excuse the glowing recommendation. I'm just a fan of their products.
 
marley1 said:
Zyxel USG50 or USG100 as firewall and a Unifi Access point
Click to expand...

+1 This is exactly what I would do. If you need faster better inner network speeds add either a HP Procurve 1810 or a Dell Power Connect 28xx series switch.

You should be able to build on that framework until you hit 50-100+ users
 
thrash408 said:
Are you basing that off of the first 5505 ever made? lol
Click to expand...

I am basing of the asa5505 from a year ago that I unfortunately I inherited. Overpriced, and slow. Thanks but no thanks.

You can also setup a VM server with your small network and install something like astaro(sophos UTM).

Hardware firewalls have their days numbered.
 
I disagree again, i don't know of hardly any large networks that use sophos as their firewall. Not saying cisco is the only game in town, but hardware firewalls are very much still in and dominating.
 
I have had 5505 on 100Mbps connections and got around 80Mbps out of them so they aren't too bad on the speed side either.
 
As a firewall only, the ASA5505 is a decent unit. But as soon as you need any stateful inspection or real VPN throughput, its easy to see its a extremely low powered piece.

Fortigate equipment is very good with a more recent firmware, IE 4.0mr3 patch1+

But as with all of these type threads made, we need more information. What features do you require? What is your budget? What is your WAN throughput?
 
Lol, so many recommendations and yet we still lack a lot of the info we need to provide an informed answer.

I'm one of a few people that manage all the rented enterprise managed routers for a large ISP. We use ADTRANs and Cisco routers exclusively, and we do manage a handful of Watchguards sold by a previous acquisition. Most of our medium-size customers have us manage an ADTRAN for them while they use a Fortinet firewall behind it. This is usually adequate and despite my being a "Cisco guy" I would recommend the ADTRANs in environments where there aren't any Cisco proprietary protcols needed.

Obviously my experience with some of the alternatives is limited (though we have Juniper equipment on our back-end) but if you want near-Cisco level performance, plenty of reliability (I RMA probably equal quantities of either), an easy-to-use GUI and a CLI that any Cisco-trained guy should be able to work with, an ADTRAN is a solid investment.

But again, I'll withold any serious recommendation until I know what the OP is working with. This may be one of those scenarios where having someone else install and manage the equipment is the best solution. I see a lot of poor decisions made by businesses in terms of networking equipment. Typically it's related to limited scale-ability, so investing in decent equipment early on and having someone who knows what they're doing set everything up is usually a good idea unless you can be very certain the business network won't be expanding significantly in the foreseeable future.
 
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wow...you guys are awesome. Thanks for all the recos, gonna research these and present him with a few options. Will most likely be something on the budget side as he is just starting up.

I'm thinking he will need 1x router, 1-2x APs, and 1x switch (incase he needs ethernet connections)

THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!

Will let you guys know how it goes.
 
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Looks like I misunderstood; you're the one setting up the network for the guy.

Just let him know that if you put in a budget network now, he may have to buy all-new equipment in a year or two when (if) his business gets larger. Most business owners are fine with this, but they have a habit of forgetting to actually upgrade the equipment later on, and getting angry at the guy who installed it when everything starts running poorly. But then, if you've warned him, that's his problem.
 
you definately want to stay away from whitebox stuff or consumer level stuff for a business. No matter what solution you go with, stay with business gear that has good support behind it. they may not want to pay for it now, but the minute something goes down and you have to wait days to get a replacement after banging your head against a wall "troubleshooting" with consumer level tech support for a while, they will wish they got a good business grade network built in the first place.

I use Cisco small business router/ap and switch at home and its works great. I hear good things about the cisco small business support, but have never needed to call them.
 
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