I don’t want to buy everyone a color laser printer when I know the one we have now just sits there taking up space most of the day. So wouldn’t investing in a network be better than buying a color laser printer for every computer?
Business is so good that one person typing in orders eight hours each day can’t keep up. If the sales and accounting data existed on a network server, I could hire another person to help, and I won’t have to pay overtime to either person.
My sister-in-law just upgraded the network at her office, and I don’t want her to think that I’m behind the times.
My existing network performs like it’s made of kite string and tin cans. I should have upgraded it five years ago to speed up access to shared files, provide better security, and easier management.
Make sure that you identify all the reasons why you think you need a network and then write them down. Don’t worry about winning the Pulitzer Prize for your stunning prose. Just make sure that you write down what you expect a network to do for you.
If you were making a 500-page networking proposal, you’d place the description of why a network is needed in a tabbed section labeled “Justification.” In your network binder, file the description under “Purpose.”
Taking Stock
One of the most challenging parts of planning a network is figuring out how to work with the computers that you already have. In other words, how do you get from here to there? Before you can plan how to get “there,” you have to know where “here” is. In other words, you have to take a thorough inventory of your current computers.
What you need to know
You need to know the following information about each of your computers. Don’t sweat it right now if some of these terms don’t make sense. They’re all just pieces of the puzzle.
The processor type and, if possible, its clock speed: It would be nice if each of your computers had a shiny new Core i7 eight-core processor. In most cases, though, you find a mixture of computers: some new, some old, some borrowed, some blue. You may even find a few archaic Pentium computers.You can’t usually tell what kind of processor that a computer has just by looking at the computer’s case. The easiest way to find your computer’s processor model is to open Windows Explorer, right-click This PC, and then choose Properties. A Properties page appears that includes the type of processor the computer has. For example, Figure 5-1 shows the Properties page for a computer that uses a Core i7 processor.
The amount of memory: This information can also be found on the computer’s Properties page, as shown in Figure 5-1.
The size of the hard drive and the arrangement of its partitions: To find out the size of your computer’s hard drive in Windows 10, open the File Explorer (found in the desktop taskbar), and then right-click the drive icon and choose the Properties command from the shortcut menu that appears. (The procedure for earlier versions of Windows is similar.) Figure 5-1 shows the Properties dialog box for a 126GB disk drive that has about 115GB of free space.FIGURE 5-1: The Properties dialog box for a disk drive.If your computer has more than one hard drive, Windows lists an icon for each drive in the Computer window. Jot down the size and amount of free space available on each drive.
The operating system version: This you can also deduce from the System Properties dialog box. For example, the Properties page shown in Figure 5-2 indicates that the computer is running Windows 10 Pro.FIGURE 5-2: The Properties page for a computer with Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM.
What kind of printer, if any, is attached to the computer: Usually, you can tell just by looking at the printer. You can also tell by double-clicking the Devices and Printers icon in Control Panel.
Any other devices connected to the computer: A DVD or Blu-ray drive? Scanner? External disk or tape drive? Video camera? Battle droid? Hot tub?
What software is used on the computer: Microsoft Office? AutoCAD? QuickBooks? Make a complete list and include version numbers.
Does the computer have wireless capability? Nearly all laptops do. Most desktops do not, but you can always add an inexpensive USB wireless adapter if you want your network to be entirely wireless.
Programs that gather information for you
Gathering information about your computers is a lot of work if you have more than a few computers to network. Fortunately, several software programs are available that can automatically gather the information for you. These programs inspect various aspects of a computer, such as the CPU type and speed, amount of RAM, and the size of the computer’s hard drives. Then they show the information on the screen and give you the option of saving the information to a hard drive file or printing it.
Windows comes with just such a program, called Microsoft System Information. Microsoft System Information gathers and prints information about your computer. To start Microsoft System Information in Windows 10, right-click the Start button and choose Run, then type msinfo32 and press Enter.
When you fire up Microsoft System Information, you see a window similar to the one shown in Figure 5-3. Initially, Microsoft System Information displays basic information about your computer, such as your version of Microsoft Windows, the processor type, the amount of memory on the computer, and so on. You can obtain more detailed information by clicking Hardware Resources, Components, or other categories in the left side of the window.
FIGURE 5-3: Let the System Information program gather the data you need.
To Dedicate or Not to Dedicate: That Is the Question
One of the most basic questions that a network plan must answer is whether the network will have one or more dedicated servers or rely completely on peer-to-peer networking. If the only reason for purchasing your network is to share a printer and exchange an occasional file, you may not need a dedicated server computer. In that case, you can create a peer-to-peer network by using the computers that you already have. However, all but the smallest networks will benefit from having a separate, dedicated server computer.
Using a dedicated server computer makes the network faster, easier to work with, and more reliable. Consider what happens, though, when the user of a server computer that doubles as a workstation decides to turn off the computer, not realizing that someone else is accessing files on his hard drive.
You don’t necessarily have to use your biggest and fastest computer as your server computer. I’ve seen networks where the slowest computer on the network is the server. This advice is especially true when the server is mostly used to share a printer or to store a small number of shared files. So if you need to buy a computer for your network, consider promoting one of your older computers to be the server and using the new computer as a client.
Assuming that your network will require one or more dedicated servers, you should next consider what types of servers the network will need. In some cases, a single server computer can fill one or more of these roles. Whenever possible, limit each server computer to a single server function.