This section touches most other categories on the site. This should be the glue between topics, which should enable you to build a network for your business.

Even though people usually talk about ‘the server’, this project will use more than one PC to establish the infrastructure neccessary for the network. The decision is up to you. You can provide a separate box for each task (or service), or you can use one box for most services.

There are some functions however that should be taken care of separate pieces of hardware, like Internet-routing and/or firewalling as well as all services that should be provided for the internet (from the so-called DMZ). This is the case not only for LBoS4SB, but also for the ‘big-guns’ sold by Novell, RedHat or Microsoft.

All of the terms below could be referred to as ‘clients’. Some of them as ‘servers’. In order to minimize confusion, let’s please stick to the following convention:

• PCs or Servers will be referred to as ‘box’, like in ‘piece of hardware’. Sometimes this should be specified as ‘server-box’ or ‘client-box’
• Humans will be referred to as ‘users’.
• Software that runs on boxes and provides or uses services to/from other boxes or users will be referred to ‘server-process’ or ‘client-process’

While this will not cover all cases, it should be clear in most contexts.

Basically, all the boxes are connected to each other. They are all plugged into the same switch (directly or via uplink and another switch). Exception to this rule are those boxes that manage the internet-access. So we have something like:

DSL-Modem / ISDN / regular modem
 |---> Router ([Internet access and Firewalling], this box needs two network-connections)
       |---> DMZ-switch
       |      |---> Public webserver (No access to LAN)
       |      |---> Public WiFi-Hotspot (No access to LAN)
       |
       |---> Firewall ([Firewalling continued], this box needs two network-connections)
              |---> LAN-switch
                     |---> Servers
                     |---> Other boxes
                     |---> Secured WiFi-Hotspot

So what do we want our Network to provide? Unless stated otherwise, these services will be provided for our LAN, not the internet. This list probably includes things that are not for you. Just pick the items that are relevant to your needs.

• Internet access and Firewalling - Boxes connected to our LAN should be able to access the Internet. Access from the internet to our LAN should be disabled.
• Restricted internet access - Permissions for internet usage should be authorized on a per-user basis or on a per-box basis.
• Firewalling continued (DMZ) - Access from the internet to our LAN should be restricted to some server-boxes and/or server-processes
• DHCP and or DNS - Automatic network-configuration and Domain Name Resolution
• File-storage - For both, windows and linux clients
• Printer sharing - For both, windows and linux clients
• Data-storage - Database, not files
• LAMP - Web development platform based on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
• […] - Your ideas here :)