Need suggestions on networking an office buildout, WiFi AP, Remote Access...
Hi all,

I'm helping a relative on estimating an office buildout on the networking end.  
It's a healthcare related startup on the 1st floor of a 4 story building 
serviced by the Morristown NJ Transit rail line. Structure has concrete floors 
and a drop down ceiling will be put in.  8 typical enclosed office rooms to be 
built, and a reception area all on one floor.  Staff will be comprised of 2 
receptionists (2 desktops wired) and 2 healthcare workers (2 Fujitsu tablet PCs 
wireless) "roaming" between the offices.  They will be accessing an application 
running on a server from work and occasionally remotely.  There's no plan for 
an official IT staff so I guess it's me doing IT type administration.

I was able to sit in on Dustin's and Terry's nycwireless session discussing a 
Community Access wireless network design a few years ago so I was able to use 
that as a starting point on network infrastructure.

My architecture so far:

'net
|
broadband modem
|
firewall / router / vpn
|
unmanaged switch
|  |  |
|  |  12 ethernet ports in rooms (most of them used as backup if Wifi is down)
|  |
|  server (OS, application, data)
|
Wifi access point


So I need anyone's thoughts on the buildout especially with the following:

1. Architecture: especially placement of server with respect to switch and 
firewall.

2. Ballpark estimate of wiring the office with ethernet. Suggestions on 
implementers in the northern NJ / NYC area:  I'm thinking "fast" ethernet, cat 
5 cable...

3. Wifi access point:  I've only spec'd out Netgear stuff so far.  Any thoughts 
on Netgear Prosafe WG302? Specs say transmission power up to 100 mW.  If needed 
I can put an 18 dBi patch antenna.  I'm looking for cheaper alternatives to 
Cisco Aironet but similar specs.

4. Remote Access: I'm thinking of initially trying out the GoToMyPC Pro service 
before dealing with VPN setup/admin.  Any thoughts on GoToMyPC Pro?  With VPN, 
how hard is it to configure Netgear's Prosafe VPN Firewall Router (FVS318) with 
Netgear VPN client? Can I use OpenVPN client instead? Should business get 
static IP or use dyndns service if going via VPN?

Thanks in advance,
Patrick
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