networking equipment suggestions requested

kohinoorb

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Dear friends,
I am in the process of setting up an office. The office will primarily host software developers , burning some crazy code! At the moment most of the cabling is completed, and I have hooked up with tata to provide a leased line connection.
now i need to know what networking equipment will i need to allow the following:

50 Ethernet connections, and approximately support for a 100 wifi devices.
Note the cabling bit is done. What I am looking for are:
A> what kind of router should I use, that will support 50 ethernet and 100 wifi devices, or how many routers do i need to make this happen.
B> What other equipment do i need for this network.
 
100 wifi devices should not be a problem since theoretically most routers limit you to a 24-bit subnet mask, which limits you to 254 IP addresses. But performance might degrade as and when you go higher in connections. I would suggest to get a router with good processor speed and RAM. However more wifi devices you connect it will slow down the connection coz of wireless ratio. So its advisable to have multiple access points to support high number of connection. To have 100 wifi devices I would suggest to atleast have 3 access points (4 would be better) in addition to the main router, so all in all you would have 25 or less connections per device.

Coming to Ethernet wired connection get a managed switch..something like Cisco SG300-52 .......... I hope you know how to configure eerything if you dont then I would suggest to hire a networking guy would can set up the LAN for you.
 
Hi Sam!,
many thanks for your reply. I have only minimal home networking experience, but relish the prospect of setting this up myself :) a few fun days ahead.
 
i just ordered this router
Linksys Small Business RV042 Load Balancing Router
now i need a switch and your recommendation is what i am going for :)
 
Why do you need a load balancing router ..... Do you have multiple ISPs. If load balancing is what u were looking for then TP-Link TL-R470T+ for half the price performs equally as the cisco counter part....

...... and make sure you have 3-4 access points to distribute your wifi load (assuming you do have ~100 devices.) I would suggest Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AP (access Point) .. Loads of features for the price they are offered ...
 
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I plan to have one leased line and one broadband connection.Plus the VPN bit was also appealing. I ordered the 50 port hub you recommended. regarding the router i ordered a dual channel router from tp link. Archer c20i AC750 should i cancel that , i thought it would be good to support multiple ssids for a guest network.
 
yup went for those too
Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AP
hope i can set them up properly. interesting times ahead.:licklips:
 
In a business critical environment with 100's of users, it is better to buy switch / routers from mikrotik / ubiquiti if on a budget. They are intended for professional use and give you the flexibility and scalability when your network demands them.
 
I plan to have one leased line and one broadband connection.Plus the VPN bit was also appealing. I ordered the 50 port hub you recommended. regarding the router i ordered a dual channel router from tp link. Archer c20i AC750 should i cancel that , i thought it would be good to support multiple ssids for a guest network.

c20i does not look like a small business heavy duty router ..... If you have budget checkout Netgear AC3200 Nighthawk X6 Tri-band Wi-Fi Router (R8000).

Also multiple SSIDs are only advisable if you have different zones and for some reason you want to keep connected devices separate per the zones. Usually its advisable to have one SSID across network, so that when your device (mobile) for example move from one network to another, there is no breakup.(and you dont have to manually connect to a different neywork) With Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AP you done even need multiple SSIDs, your primary router SSID is automatically configured across all access points and the transition from one network to another is seemless (personal experience)

Also I dont think you need a load balancing router. The purpose of load balancing router is completely different ... same with VPN, I highly doubt you will need that.
 
I cancelled the c20i . I went for ubiquity. 3 of them. Got for 20k on Amazon plus I went for the cisco 50 port managed switch ... Do I need anything else you think? I am planning to set up a virtualisation environment to play with Hadoop clusters .. Is there a rack server you can recommend I am thinking 4 vms ...this is purely for experimental purposes and not production
One VM to host internal applications like redmine etc
Three vms for clustering experiments
Cancelled the load balancing router as well.
 
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