Information Systems question?

Question

I have a coffee shop in Missouri and need a little help. In order to stay in competion with my competitors I want to install about 5 computers. My shop is about 450 square feet. Here are the questions I have;

1) Do I want a terminal-to host, file server, or client/server system?
2) Which protocol and network switching device(s) would I use on the LAN and for wireless access?
3) With cabling, what kind of media would I need?
4) What telecommunication devices should I purchase?
5) What type of internet service would best suit my customers?

If someone could shed some light on this it would be great!!

Thanks so much

Answer 1

Well all depends on what you are attempting to accomplish.

1) with 5 machines all you need is peer to peer no server involved. If you want to run "local gaming" Pick one machine set it as the "file server".
If all you want to provide is internet do nothing, don't network them locally, they can still all have internet!
2) A router will do all this for you over tcp/ip including wireless provisioning if you get a wireless router (get one with 8 ports so you can run 5 wired machines)
3) Ethernet, use cat 5 or 6
4) see 2
5) Fiber/Cable/DSL whatever is available.