how much would it cost to set up a 16-user LAN?

Question

if i visit a local computer store, how much would you think they'll charge me?

Answer 1

It should actually be fairly inexpensive depending on how you plan to set up your network. The most you would be spending is the price of 1 or 2 routers and/or hubs, and the cables to connect the network devices together.

You could just buy a router with enough ports to connect 16 computers to then buy a cable for each computer your connecting (there are different specification of cables depending on how far away certain computers are from the router and the desired speed you want for the information to travel. A basic cable would be Ethernet.

You could purchase two routers to create two seperate networks that are connected together. Dividing your 16 computer network in half will make it a lot easier to manage and decrease the amount of data collisions over the network which could slow things down.

There are a lot of other topologies you could use which that have their advantages and disadvantages, especially when it comes to price

Answer 2

To setup a 16 user LAN really wont cost that much if you minus the cost of the computers.

You need 1 router(Ill recommend a wireless one to add that capability to your LAN) a 16 port switch and some ethernet cable.

$170 Router:The D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router (DIR-655)

$220 Switch: D-Link - DGS-1016D - 16-Port 10/100/1000 Unmanaged Layer 2 Gigabit Switch

@$100 worth of CAT6 ethernet cable

Answer 3

A 16 port switch doesn't cost to much around 120 USD i would guess and for sharing internet you can use a cheap router for some thing like 30 USD, a total of 150 USD aprox...

Answer 4

Your going to need a server. Microsoft allows up to 5 connections on a home based computer and 10 on windows pro.

Answer 5

Router and a switch is all you need. You could use multiple routers also.