network deployment

[grucho626]

I would like some advice on how to wire a network of this type:
- 3 floors
- 2 racks on each floor, where cables arrive (cabinet A cable side
north - south side cabinet B cable)
- A star point (sorry i'm not English and i'm not sure that it's the right term)
Total 6 switch + switch in the center of a star + a router + firewall .
The building will be home to several companies so I thought to switch
Hp layer 3 to segment the network.
My question is what kind of switch is the best for this configuration ?
Hp has a huge range of these.
I do not think that the network is heavily used ( there are fileserver and voip )
I was oriented on the 1910 series of Hp as it is the most
economic, but I remain some doubts:
I found the switch configurator here:
http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/products/switches/selector/index.aspx
and the doubts begin:
- What I lose in terms of configuration switches between a full managed
and a smart managed?
- Advanced layer 3 - layer 3 rip - Layer 3 lite, what are the
substantial differences? with all three I can confidently create me
vlan?
in short, what do you recommend for my network, for star center
I would put a 2620 series switches
The building will be then covered by two lines (I think ADSL) for shared
all companies,

What kind of  router  and firewall suitable for this implementation do you think is more suitable, if possible i prefer Cisco,
no wireless support , vpn , and having characteristics suitable for
support VoIP traffic 
thanks

[paulgear]

I personally prefer fully-managed switches because i've found them more flexible and reliable.  For just segmenting using VLANs, almost any managed switch in the HP range would work, provided you did your routing between VLANs elsewhere (e.g. in your firewall).

The difference between L2 managed, L3 lite, L3 RIP, and L3 advanced is the level of routing they provide (amongst other things):

• L2 - no routing
• L3 lite - L2 features + static routing, usually limited ACL functionality
• L3 RIP - L3 lite + RIP dynamic routing; OK for small environments, but OSPF is a much more flexible and high-performing routing protocol
• L3 advanced - L3 RIP + OSPF & other dynamic routing protocols and many advanced features

Obviously, the further down the list you go, the more features the switch has, and the higher the cost.  If you're expecting to grow, buy the best one you can afford.  My personal favourite is the 5500-EI, which offers a lot of bang for buck.

With respect to routing & firewalling, i personally think that a Linux box offers a lot more flexibility and features for a better price than a Cisco ASA or similar.  For Linux firewall software, i prefer Shorewall (http://shorewall.net/).  Another good choice might be pfSense (BSD-based).  But if you're not familar with Linux or BSD then these might not be good choices.

[grucho626]

thanks a lot