Users The physical extent of the LAN is in one building. The number of users is eleven.

Nodes and workstation types

The total number of nodes you need for your LAN network is 9 wherein four computers are for the Receptionist, Scheduler, Billing Clerk and Senior Accounting Staff. Since the building has a four dental office and each one has its own set up of dental equipment we need to have 4 computers, one for each room and since you have a network, any one can have an access especially those people who are involved in Dental and lastly you need to place one computer in the X-ray room.

The most highly recommended workstation is PENTIUM 4 with NIC Card (3COM Giga Ethernet) this is the most useful nowadays because of its speed and efficiency.

Server

The number of server you need is only one. You may place a variety of server on a network; (1) Print server, which hosts the connection to a printer so that clients can send print jobs to the printer; (2) File server that maintains storage space for data that is shared with clients; (3) Database server which hosts a database...

Applications
For your email you may use MS Outlook or the highest version of Internet Explorer, for Office you may use the 2003 version and for your Windows you may use XP. This list is tested because this is the most widely use nowadays.

V. Architecture

We have two types of Network Setup one is the Peer-to-Peer network, which is also known as "workgroups" because all computers are on the same level and can share resources with other computers. This is also a type of network in which the clients can also function as server. The other type is the Client / Server network, which is a type of networking in which a few dedicated computers, called servers can share files, printers, disk drives and other resources with a group of client computers.

Between these two, the best network setup you can use is the Client/Server network because in this network you have…