Setting up Business network

[darren.dow.98]

Hi All

I help out at a local charity and we have just been awared a grant we have purchased 3 Dell Server and a copy of Windows Server 2012 with the intention of setting up a business network. Our previous network guy has left and it is only myself.

I am more than happy with installing Windows Server 2012 I have done this a number of times as I come from a system/virtualization admin background what I am bit hazy on is the network side of things. Will our ISP give us our IP range to use on our network for example DHCP setup etc? I am also guesing our ISP will provide a a router as our connection to the internet which will be our default gateway?

Sorry if these questions seem stupid but I am and have never in the past done this sort of thing and need help on it.

Thanks

[Stuugie]

Your ISP should provide you with a router and I'm pretty sure you will configure the DHCP settings.

[JorgeM]

What you get from your ISP depends on what you buy. If you purchase a typical consumber based connection (DSL, cable, uverse, etc..), the'll provide you with a modem/router box that connects to their network. The WAN port on this device they give you will be configured with a public IP address. You are responsible for what happens on the LAN. You will use a private IP space, so your ISP is not going to provide you with this range.

If you do nothing other than connect your devices to this router, you'll notice that they will be configured automatically via the DHCP service that runs on this router/modem box. The IP subnet will likely be a 192.168.x.x. You can change that if you wish, just log onto the router and configure the appropriate settings.

What you should do is figure out which computers on the network will require a static IP address (servers, printers, cameras, etc..) and log on to your router and make sure that you have a range of IPs excluded from the DHCP scope. Then hard code the appropriate IPs on these devices. For workstations, allow them to be configured via DHCP.

If you plan on setting up Active Directory (AD) services at some point, you will want to disable DHCP on this router and install it on your server(s) so you can fully manage DHCP as well as other services such as DNS on your own. With AD implememented, you must run DNS on your server(s).

Simple example of how you would layout AD services on a SOHO (small office/home office) type of network --> Designing Active Directory for a SOHO Network

[darren.dow.98]

Hi Jorge

Thanks for the excellent reply.

You have answered everything I was looking for there.

I will be disabling DHCP on the server and setting up our own as we are planning on moving it into our own office at one point and or possible data center.

As mentioned I am purely from a system/Virtualization admin side so I am not kind of up on the networking side. In terms of setting up DHCP I know how to do this I was wondering what do I need to consider in terms of subnetting?
Also how do I obtain a private IP address range?

Also as part of the setup I am going to setup direct access basically a VPN for Windows Server 2012 as part of the setup it requires a public IP address I am guessing this would be the one provided by the ISP?

[JorgeM]

in terms of setting up DHCP I know how to do this I was wondering what do I need to consider in terms of subnetting?
Also how do I obtain a private IP address range?

The subnet you choose will depend on how many hosts you plan to have on your private network. For most small networks a /24 subnet is sufficient because it allows you up to 254 usable IPs. So most of these routers come pre configured using 192.168.1.x/24 on the LAN side. The usable range is 193.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.254.

You don't have to obtain private IPs. They are not roubtable on the Internet. They are reserved for private use.

10.x.x.x/8
172.16.1.1 - 172.16.31.254/16
192.168.x.x /16

Your public IPs must be given to you by your provider.

[darren.dow.98]

Perfect

Thanks so much I appreciate this.

So in order to setup my LAN I would disable the DHCP and DNS on the ISP router if provided by the ISP.

Then configure DHCP and DNS on Windows server 2012 depending amount of hosts per segment?

Next question as we currently dont have an office we dont need people to connect as we planning on using direct access in the meantime. So the router would connect to the WAN connection and plug directly into the server is this correct?

However when we have an office we would purchase a switch the router would connect to this and hosts would connect to the switch?

[JorgeM]

so in order to setup my LAN I would disable the DHCP and DNS

Yes for DHCP if in fact you will be running active directory services and/or you need a more advanced DHCP service. DNS doesn't have to be disabled. Just don't point any hosts to use the DNS proxy service on the router.

So the router would connect to the WAN connection and plug directly into the server is this correct?

So that's fine or you will see that most of these ISP router/modems come with 4 built in ports. That's a built in switch. If you don't have any other hosts you don't need another switch.