Fishscene

My question is... what's the point of knowing this knowledge?

Most routers have LAN ports on the back that would function as a switch. Assuming the wall ports work, you'd just need two CAT5e Ethernet cables: 1) From your PC to the wall port. Double-check that there are 8 pins in the wallport. Some folks have confused telephone wiring (2-4 wires) for ethernet. 2) From your wallport to your router. Be sure your wireless router has LAN ports on the back. If you post the manufacturer and model number, we can give you a definitive answer. :)

From what I understand, you'll need to adhere to HIPPA standards. Additionally, no server build is complete without a solid backup strategy. I doubt you'll need 10Gbit ethernet at this point - but make sure in your build that there are expansion slots to allow for future functionality - just in case you need to add 20Gbit with fiber connections. You will want redundant drives. Without redundant drives, if it fails office fails. Probably a minimum of $500 recovery (if possible) and multiple days of complete outage. You'd still need a working drive to restore the backup to. If you're going for ultra-long term reliability, keep a cold drive around that's the exact same type and model (aka buy the drives all at once and keep a cold spare around). If a drive fails, you can pop the cold spare in and get back up and running - no need to panic as you hunt down a similar drive that will cooperate with your RAID. If you're checking out drive performance, be sure to also check out encryption performance - this also goes for your backup strategy as well. It's no good if you're still writing to your backup when the office opens in the morning due to encryption/drive performance. I personally recommend NAS rated drives meant to run 24/7. If you can, enable file history on your shared folders - this will allow you to easily restore files from previous versions without having to dive in to the (probably more complicated) backups. Be strict on folder security. (Dunno what HIPPA requirements are, but I've seen way too many places that just give cart-blanche access to any folders on the server.) Create a test folder and play around with groups and permissions - it's absolutely essential to maintaining security and for some reason, is one of the most overlooked items when it comes to server security in small offices. Be sure to place the server on solid non-vibrating footing, as dust-free as possible. ...and finally The liability for all this is on the office and/or you. Unless you hire an IT company who can manage it. Keep this in mind.

Mine for servers is: s-$Service-$alphabet letter (alphabet letter is optional) s=server $Service=Service/Role it hosts. $alphabet letter=a/b/c,etc.. Using this, I can have 26. At home, I doubt I'm going to have 26 of the same server. Using alphabet tells my brain that there's no particular hierarchy. Some servers host multiple services, in which case I stick with the primary service it hosts. For example, lancache hosts a DNS server as well as the caching part. It's main role is caching and the DNS services enable it to do that. "s-lancache-a" would be it's name. ------------ Network devices can also host multiple services. I just stick with the main role/service: n-gateway-a n-switch24-a n-wifi-a (when labeling access points, it's nice to just have "a" instead of "AP-3701" or some other long name everyone can see. Using this, it doesn't matter to me if a server or router is physical or virtual - the role/function is the same. On a larger scale, building the physical/virtual in to the name is important. For me? Not so much. Maybe If I did build it in, I might do "np-gateway-a" or "sv-samba-a". Looks kind of ugly for my taste though. ------------ In a business/work environment, my naming scheme is *completely* different. The name of the server is completely divorced from it's role/function. This adds an addition layer of befuddling for actors who shouldn't be on my network.

- QoS (Quality of Service) - Traffic Shaping 2 terms, essentially the same thing, but with a bit of history: Traffic Shaping is a kind of "consumer level" term for QoS. The term got a really bad rap in the early days of bittorrent because ISP's in the United States were horrified folks were using the bandwidth sold to them. So the ISP's started using "Traffic Shaping" to punish/slow down their customers who used Bittorrent. This slowed the ENTIRE internet connection for the affected customer and enough of a stink was raised about it that the ISP's had to back off and figure out a better way. That better way was being able to identify individual packets and place them in to the lowest-tier processing category using QoS. QoS is the superior traffic shaping method to whatever the heck the ISP's were first using back then. Computers DO in fact have the ability to set QoS, but it can be very complicated and it's best left to professionals working in professional environments. Setting up QoS for Skype on your home computer will bring you basically 0 benefit even when it is working properly. You'd also need to set up your router and switch to pay attention to the QoS flag on the packets - and then it's completely ignored once it hits the Internet. Need to guarantee a good Skype call while transferring files over a VPN connection to your house? Yea, QoS may help in that regard because you're in control over the 2 endpoints of the VPN - it won't help once the packet exits your network and hits the open internet to reach the Skype servers though. But it's the VPN that's the bottleneck here.

If you need reliability, I'd buy new. There are 2 main classes of switches. "Managed" and "Unmanaged". It sounds like unmanaged will suit you best, in which case the above links to TP-Link will suit you VERY well. I've bought a few of them over the years and they've had 100% reliability until I swapped them out for managed switches and donated them. Managed gets expensive quickly, but add a whole host of options to be able to manage your network. If you don't need these abilities, you're overspending on a managed switch. I recommend NOT buying a datacenter switch. They will all be "managed" switches and the complexity for setting up is going to take a bit of time and likely end in a lot of frustration for a first-time switch buyer. These are really designed for network professionals - not for home use with 10 devices and you'll be paying a lot more over time for the power it uses. Not to mention needing adequate cooling and general noise it is likely to generate.Additionally, they aren't going to be within budget unless they are used, which is a whole other list of potential problems not in line with "reliable".

Is your dad a numbers guy? Get some hard data: - The advertised speed you are paying for. (Let's assume "100mb") - The actual speed you are getting. (10mb) This means you are getting 1/10th the speed you're paying for. If you're paying $50/month for this connection, you're getting $5 worth. Needless to say, I encourage you working *with* your dad on this. Or even ask him why he doesn't want you messing with it and see if he's fine with you doing certain things, but not others. For example, Plugging in a cable? Fine. Modifying the configuration? Not fine. ...that sort of thing.

Welcome to the forum! - DNS won't have any impact except on the very beginning of your testing where your computer needs to look up the IP address to a domain name. I think we can safely rule this out for now. - IP address won't have any impact on ping unless there is something else going on (like a Denial-of-service attack). - I suspect you are using a Cable Modem. Cable Modems modulate your internet signals over a cable TV channel on the wire. It also demodulates cable TV channels to receive internet signals from your ISP. These channels are sometimes shared with your neighbors, which is why you might see your Internet speed go down when everyone gets back from work/school. This may have an affect as cable modems tend to lock on to channels and if a particular channel is crowded, ping time can be affected. The steps your ISP took to resolve this so far likely necessitated a reboot of your cable modem - and your cable modem called out to the ISP and asked for an IP address. The ISP handed you a random available one. You would only get the same if you had some extraordinary luck or your paying for a static IP address (Or your ISP is super cool and assigns you a static IP for free). How much bandwidth are you paying for? What bandwidth are you getting from a speed test site? (Both upload and download measurements would be great). Are you on wifi to your router? Or are you on a wired network line? Are other devices in your house seeing the same issue?

For business. If I have a PC without integrated graphics and just need to display spreadsheets or something, it makes business sense to spring for a dependable graphics card that, if it turns out to not be dependable, is under warranty. A used $5 GPU with a questionable background isn't worth the gamble. I'm paying someone to support the GPU, whether that's myself, or staff. The less time it takes to get the computer up and running, the more money I have to spend for niceties - like staff bonus's or coffee.

As a business, I'd rather spend $40 for an new-in-the-box-with-warranty-no-questionable-background GPU over a $5 GPU anyday.

OP makes an excellent point. Sometimes, you just need a graphics card to display something and using integrated graphics isn't an option. This happens a fair amount in businesses as well as enthusiasts building home servers/computers *cough*. Sometimes, I don't want an integrated GPU for a headless server and I just need a cheap card to throw in temporarily to install the OS to get things started.

For starters, your CPU looks suspect. Is it still in packaging? You're also missing RAM.

Would it be possible to bring the side panel out more, either by mounting it differently or adding spacers? Not sure what to do about the sides for dust/airflow. I'm sure you could run by a hardware store and buy a strip or two of airgap filler (That's my term for it, I'm not sure exactly what it's called) for a door that might be paintable and add that along the sides to fill in the gap. The airgap fillers I've seen have a non-permanent sticky side so it'll stick to a doorway easily. It's non-permanent case-modding. :)

This my friend, is a RAM stick. It's the "Memory" of a computer. If you're wondering why it might be so small (256MB or 128MB) it is because it is *very* old RAM. I don't think you'd find any use for it in a computer today. If you're looking to get rid of it, I'd recommend selling it so others who maintain old hardware might be able to make use of it. :)

When installing Windows 10, you'll have the option to wipe the drive to install Windows.