Jaley Martin wrote:
We have a small lab that we recently expanded to seven computers and we need
to design and layout our network across a two-room facility. In the main
room, their are five computers, and one printer is shared them. Our printer
is connected directly to a network hub. We have another room with two
computers that are specialized systems that control lab tools. We often each
work from our own computers and use a remote desktop session on the
specialized lab computers to manipulate experiments in the lab.

What would be the best network layout for our situation? Would you use a
star topology or a ring? Can you please explain to me the best way to do this?

There seems to be very little to recommend a ring network topology.
Among other disadvantages, consider that one malfunctioning workstation
can cause problems for the entire network.

What you probably should do is to replace your hub with a switch and
connect all of the devices to the switch (i.e., a star configuration).
A switch is a more intelligent network device than a hub, and the
network is less likely to suffer data packet collisions, and thus will
be faster. See, e.g., http://www.duxcw.com/faq/network/hubsw.htm or any
of the myriad of other hits from http://tinyurl.com/yzgf7nn

Switches are not very expensive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...845522&name=No

You need one with 8 or more ports, e.g.,:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122006

--
Lem

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html