help with retail setup

[mxood]

hi i am totaly new to this, i dont even know where to begin, but for someone close to me who is planning on moving a retail shop, has asked me to see i will be able to setup up somekind of network for him.

so he will have to till/counters/pos systems which need a LAN, and a backoffice computer where there will be the database for the pos.
and he has an additional two computers in the back office.

previously he had each connected to a network given router and was working with that, and someone from the pos software installer company has told him to setup a proper network so they may begin installing the necessary software.
is there any tutorial of any starting point and/or a basic fundemantal points someone can guide me to.
i will greatly appriciate anyone taking time to help me out, Thank You.

[JorgeM]

Building a proper network is beyond the scope of a forum thread or even basic tutorials.

Sure, you can go out and buy a network switch, router, run a bunch of cables, but there are various components you need to configure properly to get a network up and running, stable, and secure.

You have to consider proper IP management, name resolution, security services such as firewalls, secured configurations, passwords, applications, data, backups, maintenance support.

[mxood]

ok sorry if its exactly what you are telling me not to. but lets say i have a main pc which gets internet from ISP WAN Port and i install an antivirus and firewall on it and (i dont know if the following is possible) run a switch that comes through the main pc (which i expect will filter out bad files and viruses) and run all the other machines from that switch, which then will end up being connected all togther.

would this be possible or still not in my comprehension level?

thanks again for your reply.

[JorgeM]

Yes that is possible. However rather than having a consumer type PC act as an Internet router, it would be better to have a dedicated Internet router doing that work.

[mxood]

if i understand correctly, you are suggesting that the router will be able to act as an firewall/antivrus? if so, which router do you suggest?
i think this will suffice,
Thank you for taking out your time to answer my questions, much appriciated.

[JorgeM]

Sure, there are routers on the market that perform various functions. In reality, there primary role is that if of a firewall. For example, Check Point and Palo Alto firewalls are prime examples. They not only firewall, they can do URL filtering, antivirus, remote access, intrusion detection/prevention, just to name a few. On consumer grade gear, you are probably not going to find appliances with this many features though. There are other brands not so expensive like SonicWall that may have a solution to meet your needs.