Computer upgrade / network advice needed

[Simpleliving239]

First time poster here, so I hope I'm putting this in the right forum.

I run a online mail order company and am running on some pretty old technology (circa 1999). My current system is an AMD 1.2ghz, 512 RAM. Also have another AMD 350 mhz, 512 and about six hard drives between the two systems, including one CD-RW. Both run Windows 2000 Pro. I like AMD - haven't used Intel in years now and haven't a clue if I should. They are not presently networked.

Also have an HP Deskjet 970 (slave) and a refurbished Dell 962 arriving shortly. I think I can setup a wireless connection for the Dell, but any comments would be appreciated (can I network the Dell?). My printing needs are not that great (faxing, order printing, etc., I produce an electronic downloadable catalog and don't bother printing them out anymore).

I've gone through several computer upgrades in past years and have installed a new motherboard, RAM, drives, tape backups, etc., and can stumble my way through a hardware install. Also used to use a linksys router when I had a cable modem Internet connection (not currently using this). Right now, I'm stuck with a horribly slow dial up (28k) and this is probably the #1 problem I have.

I'm not sure upgrading is what I need, brand new hardware may be a far better choice - here's what I'm after. The main focus is "business need", but I'm also a heavy "consumer computer user", spending 12 - 18 hours a day using my computers / programming / surfing / writing and a little bit of gaming.

A) Networking - I need a wireless network in my house (I work from home). I want to network my office computer to my other computers, wireless. Want to be able to add additional laptops or desktops (kids) to the network.

B) Need a wireless networked printer, accessible from any computer on the network.

C) Wireless or DSL Internet. Only one company offers wireless, and one offers DSL. Not sure which one to choose - or even the right questions to ask. The DSL guy recommended a system setup as a server, always connected, always on. Which is better?

I absolutely must upgrade my Internet connection, I run a large website (600 pages and growing) and do all the programming / updates / marketing myself.

Internet connection MUST be "shared" with other computers on the network. Right now, I'm hogging the dial up, mostly because I have to.

D) Need a RAID (maybe) or Achronis Backup or something, to ensure data redundancy. The tape backup I have is defunct and I really should be backing up my drives safely, daily or weekly.

E) Presently using all 6 USB ports on the main system. Also have a digital camera, Palm, etc, thinking of getting a 9-1 card reader.

F) Will be buying additional software shortly, such as Dreamweaver MX, Photoshop, etc. Son is also a photographer and the need for high-end graphics processing will be there.

G) Would like to copy my DVD's, CD's, etc.

H) What about Windows XP Media as an operating system? Some of the features look pretty cool - watch television on your computer, access your system from your bedroom, etc.

I) I envision a (hahahahah!) tightly integrated system / network, if possible. It'd be great to tie everything together and grow my business with this technology upgrade. Main issues here of course are data / file / printer sharing / backup / recovery.

There might be other issues that I've not considered. Advice / comments would be appreciated.

Oh, almost forgot - what I would also like to hear comments on is the specific hardware I should be looking at - processors, motherboards, video cards, wireless routers, network cards, etc. - thanks!

[saphalline]

Welcome to the PC Guide Forums!! :D

You know, it seems to me that your first post here kind of negates any meaning in your screen name. :p

Ok, I'm thinking it would help if you could give us itemized lists of what you have, and what you need. You explained your problem very well, but a good detailed inventory is always useful. And of course, going along with the "what I need" list would be a budget. We can't work without one!

A) - This is pretty easy. You just need a wireless router and wireless adapters/cards for your other computers. New laptops have built-in wireless, of course, but desktops are still do-it-yourself. You will have to sort of explain your house layout, though, because the location of your wireless router is crucial to your network. If you put it next to a big metal vent, your signal won't be good. Find out where the modem would have to be for both your wireless and DSL internet service options (the wireless router is usually kept next to the modem).

B) - Easiest way to do this is to buy a wireless print server. It's a small device that connects to either a USB or CAT5/6 printer, and sends the signal out wirelessly. Being a network adapter of sorts, the print server will draw an IP from the router so that the printer will show up as a networked printer. Wireless print servers are not cheap, however, so I don't know how practical this would be compared to just connecting the printer to a computer and sharing it over the network.

C) - What are the prices? What are the bandwidth options? What sort of equipment is required for each one? What are the limitations/logistics of the wireless service? A decision like this one requires a lot of research. You're just lucky you have more than one broadband option in your area!

D) - Hmmm... there are many many back-up options available these days. Having a RAID array (like level 1 for instance) is relatively easy and inexpensive, and it's convinient to have it all hooked up via hard drives for fast access. But having an offline back-up plan is also important, if only because data backed-up onto DVD's won't get fried in a storm. ;) RAID 1 on a new computer is a snap, so it's a good idea. But CD's & DVD's still have many uses.

E) - You can always get USB hubs. They're relatively inexpensive for 4-port hubs. Otherwise any new computer would have between 8 and 10 USB 2.0 ports available - 4 or 6 on the back, the rest as mobo headers. And with a new computer, you can perhaps spread out all those USB devices! :eek:

F) - In addition to the new system you want (you're wanting to add a new one, right?) think about adding some more RAM to that Athlon 1.2 system you have now. 512MB is nice, but 1GB would be better for PS and DW MX. An Athlon 1.2GHz is decent enough for those programs, but the RAM will be holding it back. For the new system, 1GB should be your minimum, and 2GB is certainly attainable these days (depending on your budget).

G) - Dual-layer DVD burners (in retail package no less) are about $40-50 these days. At that price, get two! One for the new computer and one for the Athlon 1.2 computer.

H) - Media Center Edition is great for a home theatre type of system! If you have the hardware and drivers to support it. MCE works best with things like a TV tuner and an IR remote control and a large high-def TV capable of a VGA or DVI input. That stuff costs extra. Plus, MCE really isn't advisable for a business-oriented computer. I'm not sure what sort of security MCE has, but XP Pro is a much more flexible OS.

I) - Well, we'll do our best, but your "question" covers so many topics that certain consultants would charge you big bucks to deliver that! What you're getting here is free. :D I don't want to use a cliche like "you get what you pay for" but... ;)

[classicsoftware]

For your network needs:

1) DONT DO WIRELESS......... It is usually better to get a wired connection. It is faster and more secure. If you are on line that5 many hours a day, get your buisness PC's wired. You can have a combination wireless/wired router.

2) For backup, I have completely given up on any compressed backup. The only thing I would back up is your OS and programs. For Data backup I use an external hard drive and a program called Second Copy (http://www.centered.com/). I partition the hard drive into two partitions one called storage and the other called archive. The second copy will keep up to 5 versions of a file. I put the daily backup on the storage partition and the extra copies in the archive partition. This works great for kids who are working on a term paper and you 6 different versions of it.

I have done systems with swapable hard drive backup. The system has two hard drives internally. One is a data backup. The user has two swapable hard drives that he puts in first thing in the morning. It backs up from the backup hard drive to the removable hard drive every night.

I have support dozens of networks and I have wireless at my vacation house. I just don;t think wireless is as good as wired especially in a business setting. Are there time when wired is not practical or affordable, there sure is. But for the most part if you can run the wire, run it. You won' regret it.

The OS you want is XP Professional. You want cable and not DSL. You want a Linksys router. You have to decide if it is more economical to pay someone else to do this for you or if you can afford to not work while you do it yourself.

[Simpleliving239]

Thanks for the replies and the advice. About my screen name. It's my way of objecting to the ever increasing complexity and software requirements. I've been a online and programmer since 1983. I'd love to move away from the techno-detailed side of computers/programming/hardware and its constant learning curve, and just concentrate on making a living, but you simply can't - unless you hire somebody to do all your thinking for you, something else I can't do either. As a small business owner, my income has dramatic ups and downs. My business is a do-it-yourself from repairing my systems to building the website(s) to shipping products. The rest of my "free time" (hahahaha, what's that?) is spent gardening, building, cutting firewood and doing rather simple things like feeding my chickens. I think this is what keeps me sane...

My home office situation would allow me to go either wireless or wired. There are central air metal vents throughout the floor of my house, but I could relocate the wireless router anywhere I suppose. Can these things penetrate wood / sheetrock walls? What is the limitation?

I can go wireless and wired? Is there a proper name for this type of router? Or do I need two kinds of routers?

My office is located at the extreme end of the house and the 3 bedrooms where I'd like to give the kids access (preferably wireless) are located at the other end (about 75 ft apart).

A cable modem on the other hand, is not available here. I only get one television channel here... satellite tv is an option, but nobody offers satellite and DSL, so I'd have to get both if I wanted to watch more tv.

For the Internet, it will have to be either DSL or wireless Internet access. Cost is about the same per month and equipment costs, but I forget right now what the bandwidth differences are. I've have used DSL in this area and the lag time is very annoying. I am clueless if wireless also has this problem (does it?), but anything has got to be better then 28k dial up.

I just read about mobo usb connections (this board contains a lot of good info and you guys seem to really know your stuff) - I'll open my case and see if my existing board contains any of these.

Any comments / advice on the new computer system hardware / setup I should be looking at?

[classicsoftware]

You would just get a Linksys wireless router. It has 4 hard wired ethernet ports.

As I said earlier, wired is better....

[Variable]

(Backups)
Windows 2000 and Xp both come with a good backup program that few use. Windows NT backup can be used to bck up everything. I have set these up many times for small businesses like yours. Here is the simplest and most economical backup. Go to newegg.com and buy a PCI usb card or buy a USB hub. Buy a portable USB hard drive large enough to backup your system/s. Connect the card and drive to the computer you want to backup. Go to Start, Programs, Accesories,System Tools, Backup.

NT Backup can back up everything, the files you want to backup or system state. You can also run ASR with XP or 2003, which will create a bootable floppy in case of total system failure. Not a bad idea to run this periodically. Anyway, you can run a full backup once a week and schedule to start at say 11pm Saturday night. I would run a differential everyday. This will backup everything on your machine that has changed since the last full backup. If these get to large, you could do incrementals. These backup everything that has changed since the last backup, whether it is a incremental or Normal backup (everything on Sat. night.) you would run these smaller backups daily except for the day you run a full backup.

NT backups work fine. We backup just under one terrabyte a night with NT backups. If you have multiple partitions then you can schedule the backups to go off for each partition on different nights.

The nice thing about backing up to a USB drive like Classic said and I agree with, is that if you have a fire or need to get out of the house quickly, you can grab the portable drive and go. If you go with RAID your going to have to grab the PC. If you can afford it, it is smarter to rotate two portable USB drives. One goes in a safe place, like a bank deposit box and one stays at home. Then you rotate once a week or so.

The best thing about NT Backup is it comes free with 2000, XP and server OS's.

(wireless/wired)

A new wireless router will have ports for wired and wireless. You can hard wire your main machines close to the router and DSL modem. Install wireless PCI cards in the kid's machines. Based on what you said DSL will be the way to go. Unless where you live has some really good wireless technology, DSL will be the best bet. Going from 28K dial up to DSL you should notice no lag in comparison. DSL is much faster than dial up.

As for a computer, I would take what advice you get here and have somone build a custom solution that fits your needs. Buy quality parts and build a solid core system with a powerful CPU, recent motherboard, along with a gig of RAM or so.

V

[saphalline]

Any comments / advice on the new computer system hardware / setup I should be looking at?Just need a budget. After that, I can get to work. If you need some ideas in the mean time, just read my sticky (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39018).