firewall/router for small business

Hi everyone. I have a simple home wifi network set up at home. My brother wants me to help him set up a network for his office of 4 ppl. They are just going to have 1 DSL line, 3 computers, 1 laptop, and 2 printers.

He wants good security. I was going to hook up a 8 port switch for his computers and printers. I was going to hook up an access point for the laptop since it will be on wifi. Should I get a hardware firewall or router to go in between the modem and the switch? Any recommendations?

All I know is that I wanted to get a 8 port trendnet switch.

 

What kind of budget is he on? What level of security is he trying to achieve or in other words how sensitive is the data he needs to keep secure? Also what speed is his DSL connection?

 

Hmm, I am not sure how fast his DSL connection is. He would like it to be pretty secure of course. He is mainly using a software package that is online for him and his employees. Forgot what it was called but basically everything is done server side. All his computers will be glorified web browsers, and like I said, it's only a 4 person office, him included. A friend of mine just suggested a good router, a 8 port switch, and maybe an access point to provide wifi for 1 laptop/ipad.

 

Grab some old machine and stick m0n0wall or whatever similar router/FW BSD/Linux distro on it. More than enough. Heck, the firewall/router provided by your ISP should be enough as well. There are no ADSL "modems" these days (last ones I have seen have been the junky USB ones) - all these boxes with LAN ports are routers with their own firewall.

 

A few months ago I upgraded to this "wired" Router for my home network. I could not justify the price, but I purchased it hoping for better hardware quality/reliability. So far it is working fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181144

Wireless version of the above Router:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181136

 

Yes, you should get a router, and because this is a business, preferably a better router. One with SPI. Some come with firewall software support and that is fine, but each computer should still have a client based firewall, and of course, a good anti-malware solution. Note that most "free" security programs are not free when used in commercial settings. However, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) can be used by small businesses (up to 10 computers).

Understand that almost all routers have a 4 or 8-port Ethernet switch integrated on the same circuit board and shoved in the same box. And a "wireless router" - though technically not a "wireless" router, includes a WAP - wireless access point - also integrated, though still discrete network "appliances", into the same box.