Setting up data communications for a small office

[KingDiamond]

So I'm in charge of setting up a new network and phone system in an old office building that my company is moving into. There are about a dozen employees that will be in this new office building. Our current office is 1800 sq feet and the new one will be much larger at 4800 sq feet.

There will be about a dozen workstations in the new office and there needs to be capability for wireless connections too in case a worker wants to bring in their laptop. We will be using Comcast Commercial cable internet service. So what would be the best way to set up the network? I'm thinking about getting a 16-port switch and then a wireless access point. How do I get the switch connected to the cable modem? Is there another router I need to get?

Currently we just use a Buffalo N wireless router and the printers and two workstations are wired to the router, the other workstations connect via wireless to the router. I find this setup to be frustrating at times and I want to workstations and printer to be all wired in the new office.

What are some good brands for switches/routers? I have some Zyxel stuff at home and it has been really stable compared to the Netgear and Linksys gear I have had in the past. I saw that Zyxel makes some business switches but I don't know if they're a reputable company.

 

[InvisiBill]

Currently we just use a Buffalo N wireless router and the printers and two workstations are wired to the router, the other workstations connect via wireless to the router. I find this setup to be frustrating at times and I want to workstations and printer to be all wired in the new office.

Is your only issue with the current setup that the workstations aren't wired? If so, just buy a switch and plug it into the current router for more ports.

There's really a huge range of solutions to this problem, from simply adding a SOHO switch for more ports all the way up to spending thousands of dollars on an enterprise router, switch, and AP.

 

[C7J0yc3]

Depending on how the office is setup you may need more then one AP.

If I were in your place I would go one of two ways.

The Expensive Enterprise Way.
Cable Modem, Sonicwall TZ210w with all the addins, that drops to a HP Procruve E2510-24G (or 48G if you need 48 ports). A HP Procurve E2520-8G will connect into that and then Sonicwall SonicPoints will be attached using POE to distribute WPA2 Enterprise WiFi.

The cheap on a budget way.
Cable modem, Supermicro Atom based system running pfSense or Untangle. That drops to a HP Procurve 1810-24G or a 1410-24G depending on if you need a managed switch or not. Then use Linksys or Asus routers running DD-WRT to do your wireless.

 

[KingDiamond]

Is your only issue with the current setup that the workstations aren't wired? If so, just buy a switch and plug it into the current router for more ports.

There's really a huge range of solutions to this problem, from simply adding a SOHO switch for more ports all the way up to spending thousands of dollars on an enterprise router, switch, and AP.

Well the Buffalo router and the Linksys router before it both have had problems with suddenly not working and usually need to be switched on and off so the dependability is a concern.