Having all of your PCs hooked up in your small or home office is often
easy, inexpensive, and effective. But before you decide to speak to your
IT person to help you out here are what you want to take into account
to help provide him or her some direction.
Cabled or Cable-free
Ten
years ago, possibly even five, we may have suggested wiring the office
up: threading 'Cat5' or 'Cat6' cables through the walls. Not so today.
With the latest Wireless-N Wi-Fi devices giving excellent speed and
coverage for a larger area you might like to save the price tag as well
as effort of cabling. For general web browsing, email, copying of files,
and working in your regular business software, you should not have any
reason to question wireless network performance. When your small office
isn't so small after all, wi-fi repeaters and boosters can be purchased
and tend to be relatively inexpensive at less than $100.
Situations you may choose to stay hard wired occurs when:
Your workplace is presently cabled up, and all you have to do is plug in a network switch, or
You work on very large documents and need to copy these around
regularly: for example large raw photos from digital cameras, videos,
and large databases, or
Your IT guy has issues regarding Wi-Fi
stability or another technical limitations. Be aware: IT people could be
very busy and so in the event they are proposing something in all
probability it means they are seeking to save more work and
complications for yourself and themselves later on.
Data Storage Devices
A
'NAS' or 'Network Attached Storage' a very good idea for keeping files
in a central location. A NAS is a compact device, attached to the
computer network, that contains hard disks inside; at the very least 1,
yet commonly 2 if not more: generating redundancy in the event that one
disk stops working. Should you have a server (say for example a
Microsoft Small Business Server) you could possibly already have 'shared
drives' set up, which you can think of the equal to a NAS. Otherwise,
you can purchase a NAS for two hundred dollars, along with a hundred or
two more for a couple of large disks, and store everybody's data files
in a central spot. All NASs feature various security options to limit
staff to just the folders they need to operate in.
We suggest
a NAS over saving information on personal computers and laptops. They
let employees to share files much more easily, makes sure that there is a
'master' copy of any one file centrally stored, and makes backups super
easy. They are worth the investment.
Printing
Ink jet and
laser printers these days often have wi-fi functionality, giving you
convenience to place them anywhere in the office where you can find a
power socket. Although you may have no need for a wireless printing
device we would recommend at the least getting a network enabled device
(also called an 'IP Printer' or a printer with a '10/100 interface'). A
network enabled printer permits you to plug it in to one of those blue
network cords directly, avoiding the need to connect it with a
powered-on computer for staff to print.
Small and home workplaces
can get away with a single multi-function centre (MFC) printerthat does
printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. Just be certain you purchase a
reputable brand name and, when possible, get it serviced regularly. It
is painful when the printer starts failing and there isn't any other
device in the office for staff to print to.
In addition check out
the 'duty cycle' cited in the product brochures, which states the
highest suggested number of pages to print a month. Realistically you
should divide by three or four to obtain the 'actual' duty cycle:
manufactures are unfortunately very confident on how much load their
printers can handle!
Telephones
Internet telephony (often
known as 'VoIP') is growing in popularity owing to more affordable
solutions, inexpensive telephone calls, and far better internet
connections from your workplace to your service provider. If you have a
good internet connection, plus your internet or VoIP supplier is willing
to guarantee that for telephony applications, you may want to
contemplate going for a VoIP system as opposed to the standard PBX.
VoIP
will save you a great deal on phone call expenses, and provide you with
increased versatility for example being able to hook up a head set to a
computer avoiding the need for a separate telephone handset. There are
cordless phones that are VoIP enabled as well. For most small offices
VoIP may also remove the need to speak to a specialised phone
technician, because so many IT people have ample knowledge to set up a
VoIP system on their own.
You need to be aware of the constraints with VoIP before you jump in:
If your internet connection is not that quick, or maybe you have
minimal bandwidth or data allowanace, you may find it hard to sustain
call quality
Setting up VoIP phones demands a dose of
specialized know-how, and not anywhere close to easy as just plugging a
cord to a wall when you wish to relocate handsets around the office
If internet goes down, or electricity, so will your phone system. Maybe
you still want one or two analogue phone lines (also known as 'PSTN' or
'POTS' lines), or mobile phones, for this kind of downtime, as well as
making emergency calls.
No comments:
Post a Comment