Ok so I am taking over a network and I'm trying to figure out the best topology for it and looking for some advice on what you experts think.
Right now, the ISP demarc goes to an unmanaged switch (Switch 1). Switch 1 then has a link to the WAN port on Router 1 (Sonicwall 220), and 2 ports to the same Windows server (handling AD and DNS). DHCP is handled by the router currently.
Router 1 then has a link from it's WAN port to port 49 of Switch 2 (Netgear FS750T2). Then the rest of the managed devices are as follows:
Port 50 Switch 2 -> Port 49 Switch 3 Port 50 Switch 3 -> Port 49 Switch 4 Port 50 Switch 4 -> Port 49 Switch 5 Port 50 Switch 5 -> Port 49 Switch 6
One if not two of those switches will be taken out, as only a few ports on each are really being used.
I have a couple questions:
Is going from the ISP -> unmanaged switch -> router OK? Or should the ISP go directly to the router and leave the unmanaged switch out? The Router will be changed to a Sonicwall 2600, giving me more ports on the router.
Should the switches be trunked on those ports at all? Is just a direct link OK? Or should each switch go to a port on the router? These are not VLAN'd at all.
I'm thinking the server should have 1 nic to different devices for redundancy. Right now both NICs are just set to .10 and .11 on the same network. However, where does that fit in if I skip the unmanaged switch (Switch 1) and going directly to the router?
Any help is appreciated. It's for a call center and I have a few weeks before things start getting crazy. So if I'm going to start taking things down and rearranging devices now is the time. Thank you for all your help ahead of time.