Help with small business network setup

[loremd]

I'm far from an expert with networks but it's sort of fallen to me to try to get our office network improved. I work in a small medical practice with about 10-15 computers and 2 networked printers. Right now we have a Cisco SB101 cable modem, Cisco PIX501 firewall, and 2 unmanaged switches. My goal was initially to add a wireless AP so that we would have wireless access (all our wireless devices would be 2.4g/n). However, I wasn't sure if I should add a router with built in wireless or buy a router and separate wireless AP. I initially thought about buying something like a WNDR3700 like I have at home, but I think we need better security given it is a medical practice. I'm open to suggestions please

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

That will work fine...just run the wireless router as an access point. Which requires a couple of extra steps...still easily done in a minute.

Unless you have a first generation PIX501 that's a bottleneck on a faster internet connection (older PIX501 were capable of about 11 megs throughput, newer generations are around 60 I think)....no need to rush out and replace that. Granted it's older and disco'd and no longer supported...they were still pretty stable units. Also we don't know if the PIX has a VPN tunnel setup to the hospital or some facility that hosts a software package for you like McKesson or MediTech or SOS or Optimus or Pharmerica or something like that...hence no rush to replace that and break access to business critical things.

Take a PC and plug it into one of the LAN ports of the Netgear.

Say the PIX has a LAN IP of 10.1.1.1, setup your Netgear wireless router to have a LAN IP of 10.1.1.254 (assuming that IP is unused). Apply settings..and log into that new IP. Now...disable DHCP on the Netgear....apply settings. Now....uplink the Netgear to your existing network..but using a LAN port on the Netgear, you will not use the WAN/Internet port. Now you're using it as an access point, not a router. Next...quickly go to the wireless settings, assign it an SSID ..and enable WPA2/AES wireless security. Make sure you change the default web admin password of the Netgear.

Sit back and enjoy!.

For business networks, we generally don't use a combo router/wireless, it's preferred to separate the duties.

 

[loremd]

Thanks for the suggestion. Adding a wireless AP certainly seems to be the easiest solution at the moment. I'll check on the firewall version if I can. The docs usually use a LogmeinPro account to access their computers during the weekend. Most of the patient data is hosted on an eclinicalworks server at an outside location. The hospital provides Meditech access through an http connection using cisco anyconnect vpn.

I was looking through some of the hardware reviews on this site. Is there much to be gained by upgrading the PIX501 to a Netgear UTM10 or equivalent? Or is it more of a sidegrade/downgrade?