One stop router solution for the studio
Today’s clients demand speed. And not Priority Overnight FedEx speed, I mean they wanted it yesterday speed. The only way to stay competitve in today’s photo world is to cater to that need for speed and run a server in your office. At Image Mechanics we operate a web server, which hosts download links to client imagery, web galleries from each shoot, and an FTP server to help coordinate file deliveries in both directions. None of this would be possible though without the most important part of a studio network.
The router.
Why the router? Because it enables us photographers to share a single in/out internet connection with multiple computers. Thus you can have multiple workstations and several clients on laptops, all communicating at once via your single DSL or cable line. Ahh the miracle of the router.
As an aside, because routers have multiple connections, they also act as a hub for your internal network. Allowing your computers to communicate between each other as well. My own home setup consists of three laptops and a mac mini all for different functions, from file serving to download things via bittorrent. (yes I am a geek) Our office setup involves 4 workstations, one server, and roughly 4 laptops all sharing our business cable line.
Ok, so you know you need a router, which one do you get? Well, we ended up buying the DLink DGL-4300 GamerLounge. Not because we care about the built in gaming functions, but because it had two very cool things.
1. Built in gigabit ethernet. Allowing us to network our whole office with just the GamerLounge, and have it go stupidly fast. Not to mention the 802.11g for wireless networking. Combining a router, wireless access point, and hub into one easy to use device.
2. Tons of routing options, allowing us to host a server behind it and still access the rest of the internet via the same connection. By tons, I mean as many port forwarding and port triggering rules as you want to add. Most routers max at about 20, which seems like a lot, but quickly runs out if you need more than one computer to have serving abilities. Granted, port forwarding and triggering is quite an advanced bit of networking, but it is necessary if you want to start several files for clients from your computers.
The other great thing… The cost.
Ours was about $130 right when it came out. Which seems like a lot, but a decent router on its own is about $80, plus another $80 for a gigabit switch. Thus quite a bit of savings in space, heat, power, and cost by having it all in one place.
Not to mention it looks cool and fits perfectly when ziptied to our desks. Oh and it has blue blinky lights too. Which is sometimes distracting, but a good techie conversation piece.
EDIT: I realized after I wrote this that I didn’t include too many technical details. The reality is, there is not too much to talk about here. Most routers do the same job, and do them well. We went with this DLink because it combined routing and a fast hub into one device, not because it routed things 5k faster than the next router. This router solved our network problem and continues to do its job wonderfully. Add to:
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