Network Layout and requirements

I'm not going to get too in depth on this one here. If you are not going to have an ISP host your site, and you wish to do your own, you will need to take several things into consideration. You may have to provide your own DNS, mail, FTP, and other servers depending on which services you want to have set up and running. You will also have to have a very fast connection both up and downstream, and an SSL certificate if you plan on doing any type of e-commerce. You may also require a database server if needed. There are a lot of things to take into consideration as usual, like where will you get your bandwidth from ( more then likely the local phone company ) pricing, etc. Here is a typical internal network layout.

Sometimes the hub is not needed, if the router has enough 10/100 ports to accommodate internal users. If not a hub will be needed. Some routers also have built in firewall services, such as Cisco and Netopia routers, so a separate firewall may not be needed. Sometimes, a router isn't needed at all. A router is used to route one block of IP addresses ( yours ) to another block ( more than likely your ISP ). Even if you do not have static IP's, yet you have more than 1 machine using the bandwidth, you will still need some sort of router to assign internal dynamic IP's to those machines so they can access the Internet.

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