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Planning for a network revamped

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I am facing a problem with the existing network architecture. I am a new IT manager posted to a SME company. The company previous IT guy left the company without any foot print. The server room have mixtures of hardware like Cisco, HP, switches, watch guard firewall and a sonicwall, I am confused Wonder if anybody can advise me on how to re-do the network like step by step.
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Answers
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Hi,
I understood the pain that you are going thru. But what i can suggest now is if your company is tight on IT budget. You might want to follow the below phases which i often tell my customers.
1) Switch and firewall standardization. -- This is important, because when there is a support needed for hardware, with a single call to the hardware manufacturer, you will have higher chance in getting your case expedited faster than others. Because of 1 brand.
e.g if you are on HP Procurve switches, ensure the entire stack is HP stack. You can have mixture of Layer 2 and layer 3 stack. They must be the same brand. Sames goes to firewall. If is a sonicwall then ensure everything in your organization uses sonicwall and nothing else.
2) IP address allocation table, this is important because since you are taking over and planning for a revamp you should ensure the ip address being iron out on your end before handling the information to the vendor for configuration purposes.
3) VLAN tagging and network segmentation. This will make sense once your internal network have been recreate.
4) A Detailed Network Diagram. This will makes your job easier.
Let me know if you have further questions. I hope it does gives you a vision on what to do next.
Guowen Su
Cisco Certified Network Associate
Cisco Certified Internetwork professional - MPLS
Certified Information Systems Security Professional
Microsoft Partner Network 2011
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator:Security
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator
Certified Ethical Hacker
Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator
Certified Sonicwall Security Administrator
Microsoft Geeks
All replies
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Hi,
I understood the pain that you are going thru. But what i can suggest now is if your company is tight on IT budget. You might want to follow the below phases which i often tell my customers.
1) Switch and firewall standardization. -- This is important, because when there is a support needed for hardware, with a single call to the hardware manufacturer, you will have higher chance in getting your case expedited faster than others. Because of 1 brand.
e.g if you are on HP Procurve switches, ensure the entire stack is HP stack. You can have mixture of Layer 2 and layer 3 stack. They must be the same brand. Sames goes to firewall. If is a sonicwall then ensure everything in your organization uses sonicwall and nothing else.
2) IP address allocation table, this is important because since you are taking over and planning for a revamp you should ensure the ip address being iron out on your end before handling the information to the vendor for configuration purposes.
3) VLAN tagging and network segmentation. This will make sense once your internal network have been recreate.
4) A Detailed Network Diagram. This will makes your job easier.
Let me know if you have further questions. I hope it does gives you a vision on what to do next.
Guowen Su
Cisco Certified Network Associate
Cisco Certified Internetwork professional - MPLS
Certified Information Systems Security Professional
Microsoft Partner Network 2011
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator:Security
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator
Certified Ethical Hacker
Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator
Certified Sonicwall Security Administrator
Microsoft Geeks -
Hi Guowen,
First of all I want to thank you for always being prompt in replying. I like the way you provide me the answers, it comes with real IT engineer experience. I will plan and let my boss know. Thank you very much.
Jesu Tim bate = Myanmar Thank you/.
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No problem :) will be glad to assist you anytime.
Guowen Su
Cisco Certified Network Associate
Cisco Certified Internetwork professional - MPLS
Certified Information Systems Security Professional
Microsoft Partner Network 2011
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator:Security
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator
Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator
Certified Ethical Hacker
Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator
Certified Sonicwall Security Administrator
Microsoft Geeks