Cost of Networking a small Medical Office?

Can any IT pros tell me the average cost to network a small medical office.





I have 4 Dell computers and looking to buy a server. Looking at a wired network, server will require weekly back up, also looking to install some medical billing software. Also how much should IT support cost.
Cost of Networking a small Medical Office?
I worked for my dad (granted I have a lot of computer experience) and network 4 dell vostro's with a networked printer/fax/copier and an hp printer as well. They all work in harmony with each other with the basic sharing employed on vista. As far as communication between machines we use snapmail along with a vnc server for remote access etc. In all honesty, just to get a tech to come out to our area and work on the specialized printer (old irritating one) it was 200 bucks for about an hour of work. If you want to network your office (and you have even a little bit of spare time) read about how easy it is to network the computers. You can find numerous tutorials online. As far as backup just keep an external drive on one of the computers and designate that computer as the server. That way you can also take a backup home just in case of fire etc. Handy programs that you may look into is Retrospect (for backup), dell networking utility (comes with dells to network easily), vnc server (if you would like remote access).. etc. I wish I could give you more information but offhand I don't have it all with me. I would definitely google networking and things similar before you decide to pay a bunch of money for it. The main reason I would avoid a tech is because hiccups in a network are frequent. It's not good to have to stop your business and be unable to fix the problem yourself (not all problems, just the minor ones). As far as techs that I personally know that set up networks, between 70-100 an hour. With a network like yours it is not that it is difficult, it may be a little time consuming depending upon what you want to use and how you want to do it. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. As far as picking a tech though be careful they have a thorough understanding that encryption and protecting the network is important, I've seen many set up computers with remote access enable and not even so much as a password. That may cut it for a home network, but when medical files or billing information is at stake that is a different story all together.
Cost of Networking a small Medical Office?
cost will vary





1. Internet connection (400/month for T1 or 100-200 for DSL)


8 or 16 port switch (80-150)


2. cables, depending on length ( http://www.showmecables.com/showProducts... )


3. Server (Dell entry level 1500, this will vary depending on what you want configued also getting windows server 2003 installed you can create a shared drive for backup and also install the medical billing software)





Support could be anything from 80-200 an hour pr you can sign a contract for something lik 400-800 a month for emengencies and you can also pay for the initial setup for a set fee.





you can network printers and copier and scanner which can be an all in one machine (ricoh have a decent all in one small sized machines)





Its really hard to place a cost with so little info but this should get you going.