Tips for How to Build a Network

By William Vicary

The goal of every small business is to grow and improve. No business can afford to become complacent or stagnant in today’s competitive environment. Part of the growth that your company will need to stay relevant to customers relies heavily on a strong and flexible IT environment.

You have customers, employees and vendors that rely on your network and you need to make sure that it is robust and scalable to meet future needs. Information gets exchanged at a rapid pace and it is only going to get faster as the years progress. Your network has to be positioned to grow and change along with the changing demands of the market. If your business is ready to take the next step and build a true networked environment it helps to understand the basics of how to build a network.

Basic Network Components

When you begin to think about and map out plans for an IT network, it’s easy to get into some very deep waters in terms of technological jargon. There is a lot of new technology that has hit the market in recent years and if you’re not careful you can get distracted from the basics of a network and get needlessly bogged down with technological concerns. A network is a lot simpler in terms of getting started than most people think. The complicated aspects just need to be broken down into basic components. Here are the root level necessities for any network to get started.

Routers and Switches

If you are going to build an in-house network where your company owns or leases the equipment and maintains it on a day-to-day basis, you should consider routers and switches first. This piece of hardware helps to control and direct the reception of network information from your business ISP and distributes the information in the most efficient manner to all the servers and workstations that need that information.

Routers and switches help network information get to where it needs to be. You should be sure to get equipment that is powerful enough to handle your projected network growth for the next 5 years. That means you will probably be starting with a little more than you need, but it will save you a lot of hassles in the next few years if your company growth stays on track.

Servers

You will need to think about what type of information and applications your company will be using the most. The servers you purchase and configure will be contingent on your business model. Every network will need a domain server, at the very least. These servers act as the definitive source of information and network instructions on a network. Besides a domain server your company may need application servers, print servers, and file servers. Each of these types of servers provides unique services to all of the machines on your company’s network.

Besides servers, routers and switches, your network will also include network cabling and workstations to get up and running. When you combine all of these pieces you have the necessities, from a hardware aspect, to get your network up and running. There will be other considerations as you progress, but these basics should help you to get started.

Author Information

William Vicary writer for “The Caring Host,”  a green web hosting company that runs on 130% wind based renewable electricity – this means for every kilowatt of renewable energy they use they contribute 30% extra to the grid! On top of that they also give $1 to a local charity per client per month.

Photo Credit: Clix

WordPress 2.9 Is Ready For Download

The world’s most popular blogging platform has released an important update. Release 2.9 for WordPress is out and includes some significant changes. Just so you know I have seven blogs to update, but thanks to the automatic update tool, that job is over and done with quickly.

WP 3.0 Looms

Being that this is release 2.9, this particular update brings us one step closer to a major overhaul of the platform which will introduce WordPress 3.0 to the world. No doubt, we’ll see several interim updates before then such as WP 2.9.1, 2.9.2, …, but when it does show up I’m sure that it’ll reflect the best of what WordPress has to offer.

Before you upgrade WordPress, you’ll want to back up your database first. Select Tools > Backup to accomplish that task, but if you’re not in the habit of regularly backing up WordPress, I suggest that you install the nifty WordPress Database Backup to automate the process. Why chance having your site crash and then discover your database (which contains all of your articles) is old and your most recent articles are no more? That’s a lot of work to lose because you failed to backup your database!

Four Significant Changes

Automattic, the company which developed and oversees WordPress, says that the following major changes have been included with WP 2.9:

1. Batch Plugin Update – I like this feature because every time that there is a significant update of WP, many of the plugins fail or don’t work quite as well as they could. That means WP plugin developers will respond by making quick changes to bring their plugins up to snuff, which also means that you may have scads of updates to handle. FYI, some of my sites have as many as 26 plugins installed, but thanks to the new batch update process, I can handle those changes at once and so can you.

2. Undo Feature – Have you ever accidentally deleted one of your posts? I can’t say that I have, but I know if I did I’d be bummed. WordPress has created a feature which will allow you to find and bring back your killed off posts, saving you a lot of grief and anxiety.

3. Image Editor – A built-in image editor makes it easier for you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images without having to leave WP and use Photoshop, Gimp, or other image editing program to get this work done. I haven’t used it yet, but if it works according to plan, then this feature will save bloggers plenty of time and remove the excuse that you don’t have time to include a photo with your work.

4. Video Embeds – I don’t do all that many video embeds across my network of blogs, but that may change now that WP 2.9 has made this task easier to accomplish. All you have to do is paste the URL of the video in your post and WP automatically converts it to an embed code. Amazing! My personal recommendation for WP pros is to use videos sparingly as they tend to slow down the loading of your site. Too many videos on one page and your visitors may move on. Still, the updated feature sounds like a good one to me.

Upgrade Now

How do you perform an update to WordPress 2.9? That’s easy. A drop down notice is sitting on the top of your screen in the administrative control panel. Click on it and choose either to “upgrade automatically” or “download 2.9” and do the latter yourself. I always select automatic updates once I know everything is backed up and I haven’t had a problem yet.