Living
with a
Small
Office Home Office (SOHO)
Network
2008
Edition
Tom Schmidt
Schmidt Consulting
Revised 12 January 2008
Abstract
This paper discusses our experience setting up and using
a small office home office (SOHO) network over a number of years. It offers
guidance on selecting a high-speed Internet Service Provider (ISP), presents
Local Area Network (LAN) options, describes Internet sharing methods, and
discusses typical network services.
Internet access
is via 1500/384 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), provided by the local Telephone
Company. A NAT router enables multiple computers to share the connection. Fast
Ethernet (100 Mbps) switched LAN provides high-speed internal communication.
LAN services include: file backup,
network printing, NNTP timeserver, DNS server, Syslog log file server and local
private web server.
A local hosting service hosts our business web server and
e-mail. Use of a Hosting service moves web site traffic off the broadband
connection. It also significantly eases task of securing local network.
After several years of minimal change we have gone
through major revamping this year replacing just about everything except
wiring.
Table of
Contents
2 Internet – Much More Than World Wide Web
2.4.1 Domain
Name Service (DNS)
2.8 TCP Slow Start – Receive Window –
et al
2.9.3 Class
vs Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
2.9.9 Address
Resolution Protocol (ARP)
3 Local Area Network (LAN) – Networking for
Everyone