Wow Brian, that's a nice computer system -- I bookmarked the link! It really is amazing how much computing power can be purchased nowadays for a few million pesos.
Everyone:
I've been lurking here a bit and this IT topic caught my eye. I've done a bit of 'network design' as an IT professional and here's my 2 cents:
Do it yourself. And do what you are doing here. bert knows some things ... esp. where/how to get answers and information. Google is your friend. Always. :-) And don't be apprehensive about networks/computers, just read a little and do a little. If you make yourself a simple setup, then if it breaks, you can fairly easily fix it yourself. Yeah, it's very possible you'll end up with a numbskull setup, but that's okay, esp. when you are starting out.
Document your setup so that you can rebuild it if you have to.
Try to make a setup that can be reconstructed fairly quickly.
If your setup can be reconstructed quickly, then you have yourself a very maintainable and survivable solution. That's IT utopia.
Also: leave yourself another option, an 'escape', just in case. If it's important, it's worth having two or more ways to do it, or retrieve it, or store it or access it. Redundancy seems expensive, and it certainly can be (depending on how much of your setup is redundant...), but in some places it just makes very good sense, and I'd bet it's cheaper than med school. Or your entire practice. An example would be your internet connection: if that link is life-and-death important, then you'd better have another one nearby. A hotswap, a spare, a failover, a backup ... something -- don't put all your practice's eggs in one IT basket. Don't bank on manufacturers' or service providers' warranties. I've never seen them matter at all.
Buy used stuff, but replace the moving parts with new -- hard drives, for example.
Protect your setup from as much unexpected as possible: theft, hardware failure, power failure/spike, water, dust, excessive heat, humidity ... that's the sorta stuff that your IT gear won't like and will fuss about. Plan for it -- don't hope that it will never happen to you.
Our bodies are pretty much governed by the laws of nature/physics, but IT is pretty much ruled by Murphy's Law.
A true IT professional is not one who baffles you with acronyms or turns different colors when describing his latest addition to his computer collection. It's someone who understands the world around us and knows enough about IT stuff to sensibly fit IT stuff into the empty/needed spaces. Be your own.
In other words, you're bright enough. Just think (deductively and inductively) a bit about what your needs are, write some things down, ask a few questions, talk to Google and try!
You will know if/when you ever get into something over your head.
There's a ton more I could say, but it's late, and I'm probably going to be accused of trying to market myself (I'm not, I have my hands overfull with my job and my family, and no, I'm not driving anywhere to set up a 5 PC network ...) and it sounds like you'uns have all the help you need right here, already. I just wanted to throw out a framework of thinking for approaching your "IT issues".
But I am curious as to what Brian's setup really is ... two 'routers' sounds a little fishy to me. ;-) I suspect one of those routers is actually a 'switch'.
(Brian is a high school/college buddy/associate/whatever/he still remembers me, anyway ... I found him here a few weeks ago).
Hope this helps someone.
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