also SCORE

Good Luck

1) Check out your local Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade;

and also – consider building a web-based business to supplement.

Try http://work-from-home.first411.com

Good Fortune to You!

First, you should use a router to interface with with the ISP. You cannot use the household grade ones. With 5 static IP addresses and an FTP server, etc you need something more robust. Check out http://www.adtran.com for Adtran units. Feel free to contact their prepurchase support and they will help a lot.

I would use the router to interface with Verizon. I would dedicate one static IP for FTP and probably use a dedicated XP box for FTP (rather than risk hackers on my server). I would put the FTP server in the DMZ so the router should be DMZ capable.

I would have the router control the IPSec VPN at the router level as well.

Let the server address LAN DHCP; assign static IP to the router, the server, and probably to print servers and the FTP server.

The router can direct the public IP addresses appropriately but this is a configuration matter – part of the config you need to do. Adtran will help to a large degree.

Because this is heavyweight, you may wish to get technical support locally.

A wired connection using even 100 Mbit NICs would perform better, typically seeing 80% throughput, or almost 3x the performance of wireless. (TYPICALLY – your milage may vary).

I would suggest, if network performance is a top priority, get a QUALITY server with a SERVER CLASS Network Adapter and a MANAGED Gigabit Network Switch. Plug AT LEAST the server into a Gigabit port on the switch – the workstations can do 100 Mbit, though you can do Gigabit on them too (costs will be higher if you use an all Gigabit switch).

Also, you need to pay attention to the server's disk-subsystem. The hard disk has to be able to feed data to the network fast or your gigabit network could perform like a 10 Mbit network. It really depends on what you are needing to use, but the FASTEST disk subsystem will involve a RAID 10/0+1 and multiple 15K SCSI/SAS hard drives in a hardware RAID.

For 24 computers, I would recommend getting Windows Small Business Server 2003. It's easy to manage and provides many features including Exchange at TREMENDOUS discounts over retail prices of non-SBS versions. There are a few restrictions with SBS, but they are not typically going to affect the small business.

For more information on SBS, you can check out my SBS page here:
http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/sbs.asp

Quick Note: I'm 100% in favor of using Linux and other open source technologies – IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCED in using and managing them. If you're not, then your support costs will RAPIDLY eat up any savings on licensing you may realize when you choose open source.

I generally prefer the big names… Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc… I think MySpace has lost it's luster and would only be worth while if you were an entertainer of some sort. Use Twitter to find new customers and clients, reach out to strangers, become part of the conversation – don't just sit back and listen. Facebook is a good place to connect with existing friends or customers. Create an Ad campaign to bring people to your site or fan page. YouTube is where you can showcase your expertise and use the other sites to promote what you post there.

Make sure to incorporate all of your social media profiles into your website so people that already do business with you can promote you there. Don't forget about blogging… if you haven't already been blogging, that can be a great tool for keeping people coming back to your website.

Also, remember more localized websites like yelp.com, craigslist, and other directories…