Need help speeding up my office network

[LSDCare]

I have a small dental office with a small network of Windows 7 (32-bit) computers. In total there are 4 workstations. One of the workstations is a wireless laptop and the other three are directly wired into a router (each about 25 feet apart in different rooms). In addition to the workstations, I have 3 wireless printers and a wired in Western Digital MyBookWorld external drive connected to the router.
My router is a Belkin Wireless Play Router (F7D4302). Also worth mentioning is that my internet service provider is Comcast/Xfinity cable.
Each of the workstations has dental office management software that accesses data which is stored on the MyBookWorld external hard drive. This is the life force of the practice – the data going back and forth between the hard drive and the workstations.
My problem is that the connection speed seems quite slow when reading and writing data to and from the workstations. I do not want to make any changes to the actual workstations. How can I boost the read/write and data transfer speed to my workstations? If I need to reconfigure my setup or upgrade my router or external drive, or internet provider - I am up for that.
Please help.

 

[carnageX]

I'm assuming that router only has 10/100 ports, and not 10/100/1000 (gigabit) ports.

Ideally, you should have a gigabit switch where all your computers are hooked up to via ethernet.

Do your workstations that are hooked up via ethernet have 10/100/1000 (gigabit) LAN ports on them?

 

[LSDCare]

Do your workstations that are hooked up via ethernet have 10/100/1000 (gigabit) LAN ports on them?

I am not sure about this. How would I find out quickly?

 

[carnageX]

I'm guessing all your workstations are pre-built systems... what are the brand/model numbers?

 

[LSDCare]

I just checked under Device Manager on the wired workstations and found that the cards are NVIDIA 10/100/1000 on the workstations. Great.

The wireless workstation is a Dell laptop and the Network Adapter is this: DW1501 Wireless-N WLAN Half-Mini Card. Not sure if that meets the speed requirements and I don't see a wired adapter listed (although there is a port on my laptop)

So then I did a little search on the Belkin Router that I have listed and did not see any info if it is gigabit or not.

Is is possible I just need a 10/100/1000 router and to plug the WD MBW drive into the usb connector on the router?

 

[carnageX]

You won't get the same speed on the laptop over wifi as the hardwired workstations. It's a limitation of the bandwidth capability of wireless. If you want the same speed (if you do see a speed increase, that is), then you will have to hardwire the laptop as well.

I couldn't find any info whether the Belkin had 10/100/1000 or not, so I'd assume it's only 10/100.

Ideally you should have a switch (in case you ever want to expand and get more workstations in there), but yes all you would need right now is a router with 10/100/1000 LAN ports, with a USB connector that supports an HDD to be accessed over the network (I believe a NAS would also be the ideal solution here; or even a dedicated computer to act as a server that contains the files).

You say you have all your data on an external HDD connected to the router, so I might as well ask this too. Do you have a backup system in place for that drive? What happens if/when that drive dies?

 

[LSDCare]

I actually have a backup sync that loads the DATA folder onto the laptop (to keep it semi-portable) on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. That's my backup.

As far as a good 10/100/1000 router for the job, does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[DistraughtSysop]

The workstations have gigabit ports, and so does the My Book World - the remaining pieces to check would be the router LAN ports and the cabling.

I'd suggest replacing the Belkin even if it does have gigabit ports. Businesses shouldn't be using consumer grade routers for business data - an SMB router would be ideal - but if you have to go with one then it should at least be something a little more reliable than a Belkin. If you're not willing to pay more than a couple hundred bucks for a router than any of the current Asus RT or Netgear WNDR series routers would be good. If you need wireless speed then you may want to go with an AC router - keep in mind that your wireless devices will need AC wifi adapters to take advantage of AC speed.

As mentioned, you should get a gigabit switch so that everything can be connected through ethernet.

I would also check the cables. Magnetic/electrical interference will affect speed, and they should be at least cat 5e. Cat 5 cables will be limited to 100 Mb/s.

 

[Kharn]

Yea Cisco have a nice range of SMB kit that would be perfect for your need's, and it can be as as simple as plug an go and if you need to do any config on them they are web based so no learning Terminal commands.

Not much more expensive than good domestic stuff, but seriously reliable in the long term.

 

[LSDCare]

I looked up this Cisco product (under $200)
Cisco SR2016T 16-Port Rackmount 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch

I was wondering why there is a need for a switch when my router has 4 ethernet ports and my networking needs require only 3 computers and one NAS device to be connected.