Sample Designs and Configurations!
The purpose of this page is to indicate to a small business:
a. what can be done with what they have;
b. how to configure some available devices
What we will do is to create a block diagram of a typical small business network. By doing this it is easier to both design a reasonably secure network as well as utilise existing equipment.
A small business typically has the following
a. internet connections that are utilised by the staff and management;
b. remote access, whereby, the staff and management can gain access to their network remotely (even in a small network workers need access to their email, etc);
c. in-house web hosting (even though most small businesses would outsource their main web hosting, they may run smaller development/test environments internally which would have direct access to the internet);
d. most will run both a wireless and a wired network
Now, just looking this you may say that since the web hosting is outsourced then, what is the problem, and, l would say, that the potential problems are these:
1.running a wireless network requires that the proper security is applied to it otherewaise a potential intruder (hacker) may gain access to your internal network, find out how to gain access to critical data such as customer details;
2.remote access, if not configured propery, can permit a potential intruder access to your network;
3.internet connections that are not configured properly can allow a potential intruder access to your network;
4.most small businesses either do not log all events, or, log them but do not alert on them, thereby, permitting possible unauthorised access to the network (i.e.they have been and gone and no-one knew);
5.policies relating tothe authorised users are usually non-existant
There are several other points that could be made but, it would only complicate matters. Nearly all of the points listed above may be handled very easily without pouring out hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it
Last updated 4th January, 2008