[nycbug-talk] Recommendations For Data Closet Hardware

[Gordon Smith]

Thanks, George.  I appreciate your interest.

I've been asked to spec out the hardware to be installed in the data closet
of a new small office space.  If this is an appropriate place to ask the
question, I wanted to see whether anyone might have any preferences or
recommendations for me to keep in mind when outfitting the data closet.

The network will be used for fairly generic office automation and software
development.  No more than a dozen people should be on the network at a
given time.  One fact that you might want to know about network loads:
several staff members use Groove for peer-to-peer file sharing (business
related stuff only!).

- The room will be used as a demarc for: 
    - POTS service 
    - Business cable modem service
    - Down the road, possibly one or two T1s; for now, I want to make
certain that anything that needs to be built into the premises is there to
facilitate that future direction
    - Down the road, possibly Verizon FIOS (fiber optic) service when it is
available in NJ
- For future use, the room will be outfitted with CAT5e home runs going out
to each desktop
- I need to select termination panels ("patch panels") through which we can:

    - Bring in the POTS service
    - Bring in 75 ohm coax for the business cable modem
    - Down the road, bring in T1 and/or FIOS service
    - Hook up a small business phone system and distribute phone service to
the "station" at each desktop
    - Bring an RJ45 network connection out of the cable modem and, through
the patch panel, connect it to a wireless router/access point located in the
middle of the office for optimal distribution of the signal
    - Down the road, install a hard-wired router and switch to connect to
server machines in the room, as well as hard-wired desktop machines
throughout the office.

Other info about the room:
- The room is 5' x 5' and has a door that locks with a button lock.
- The door has a ventilation grate on the lower half of the door.  I've
requested that the room be outfitted with a covered HVAC grate fed by
ductwork with a 90 degree bend close behind the grate (to keep any foreign
matter from falling through the duct into the room!).
- So far as we know, there are no water pipes over or near the room.

I've already seen several members of the group recommend vendors in the NY
Metro area who know how to configure server machines for FreeBSD 6 with RAID
1+0, and that's going to be very helpful to us; if anyone knows of such
vendors in central New Joisey, that would be even more helpful.  Any
recommendations for the patch panel, phone system or other hardware
would be appreciated, as well as any tips that might save some agony down
the road.  

Thank you for your anticipated help on this!

Cheers,
Gordon Smith 

-----Original Message-----
Greetings Gordon.

This is certainly an appropriate list for your query.  But please fill
us in as to the function of the boxes you are looking for.

Are we talking servers?  other network devices?  routers?  mail servers?

And what loads are we talking about?

Fill us in on the details. . .

George
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