Pros and cons of these two network work diagrams

[audiopimp]

Hi, I\m not decided on which method to implement with my small office setup.
Please discuss the differences between these two diagrams:
Cable coax (WAN) Internet
I
Router
I
48 port Swtich
I
Win 2000 Server - Win xp workstations (25 machines) - Email server

Or if the Windows 2000 server went right after the Router (using 2 nic cards)
and then going to the switch and the workstations:

WAN
I
Router
I
Win2K Server ( 2 nics )
I
Switch
I
Workstations and email server

what would the pros and cons of these two setups be?
What is used more?
Any comments are greatly appreciated

Ste

 

[SelbyGlenn]

Use the second option. If you use the first option then you are effectivly having 25 internet facing machines which is a much higher security risk than having just the server with an internet facing nic.

Also make sure that you do not enable IP forwarding on the server between the two nics. There are a number of other settings and tweaks you must do to the server to harden it against attack. I really would suggest going out and buying a book on securing your network against attack. "Maximum Windows 2000 Security" by SAMS (

http://www.samspublishing.com)

is a very good book and will tell you what and what not to do with internet facing servers etc.

Hope this helps, Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA

 

[rbertram]

Does setting up the network using option 2 greatly increase the CPU load by having all workstation's Internet access route through the server?

 

[SelbyGlenn]

I haven't set this up myself a college of mine says it shouldn't do. If you give your workstations private IP addresses and set the default g/w on your workstations to the internal private address of the server and then setup the server to use internet sharing then the server is basically just acting as a NAT and will just forward requests.

Glenn
BEng A+ MCSE CCA