Simplest/most reliable setup for 2 mini's+ext HD+backup+printer?

Hello and a happy 2009 to everyone,
I'm a recent switcher (replaced one PC with a mini). Using it for internet/email and getting to grips with OpenOffice 3.0; transferred photos and music onto an ext HD and using them with iTunes and iPhoto (and trying out Acorn for editing the photos). Very happy so far !
Next step is replacing our other PC with another mini (though I may wait to see if they'll be updated soon) and getting the two mini's linked up and sharing a (non-network) printer, the internet connection (through the ADSL modem provided by the internet provider; it has WiFi and 2 ethernet sockets), the ext HD (with the photos and music files), and a second ext HD (to be purchased, RAID?) for backing up the two mini's and the first ext HD. As my wife and I would have/use each our 'own' mini and hence keep our own mail and bookmarks, there won't be a need to synchronize anything. However, there would be the need to share documents; in fact, we'd prefer to only have one home folder, but I guess that'll difficult/impossible with two machines and thus two OS running.
As I have no experience whatsoever with even the simplest of networks, I have a few (rather basic) questions:
* What's the best/simplest/most reliable way to achieve the above?
E.g.: linking the two mini's thru an ethernet (gigabit) connection and fully sharing everything, attaching the printer and one ext HD to one mini and the other ext HD to the other mini, and both mini's wirelessly to the ADSL modem (which we'd really rather prefer to do thru ethernet, but the mini's only have one ethernet socket each…)? Advantage(?) would/could be that both ext HD's could be FW rather than USB. Would backing up on one ext HD (thru Time Machine), of both internal HD's and the other ext HD work that way?
Or should we get an AEBS (or another router) and connect both mini's (which will be in the same room, not far from each other and not far from the ADSL modem and the printer either) as well as the ADSL modem to it thru ethernet and, thru an USB-hub, the ext HD's (thru AirDisk) and the printer as well?
Or a combination of the above?
Or in a different way altogether?
Are there any other things that I have to take into account?
Any response highly appreciated!

Steve, thanks for your input!
In the meantime I've found out that my ADSL modem is also a NAT router, but 'only' 10/100 Mb/s, so I was wondering whether I get/do/make what I want to achieve a bit cheaper/simpler?
E.g. thru a Gigabit switch (rather than an AEBS) to which I connect the 2 Mini's as well as the modem/router, and the printer and external HD's directly to the mini's?
Some Qs:
* Would a Mini-to-Mini connection thru a (Gigabit) switch work better/faster than plugging both mini's into the (10/100) modem/router?
* Would in either scenario both mini's have to be on (and not 'just' in sleep mode) to be able to share the printer and the external HD's?

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Hi folks
Hope someone can help with some insight / advice here.
First, some background :
For a while I’ve been using a conventional ADSL modem-router device to connect to my primary ISP, and thereby provide internet connectivity to a number of desktop PCs, laptops and other mobile devices in a small office environment. I plug the “output” (LAN port) of the ADSL modem-router into a switch, and I also plug a dual-band wireless access point (WAP) into the switch to provide wireless access for the mobile devices. Generally this all works fine.
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So far, the only way I’ve been able to get this all to work together is as follows :
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7) This only works with the LRT224 in "Gateway" mode, even though "Router" mode seems more fitting.
The setup given above (1 through 5) does work, and gives a situation like the following :
Failover works OK, and I can see any of the three edvices from the office LAN by connecting to any of the assigned IPs.
However, the problem is that the throughput really sucks.
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What might I be doing wrong ?
Any input or advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions, guys; although I've pretty much covered all of those things.
For info :
1) The router came with firmware v1.0.0.9 (Nov 25, 2013 - the initial release), but I have updated it to the latest v1.0.2.06 (Mar 28, 2014). (This is the third release in 4 months, so it seems Linksys is working fairly actively on LRT2x4 firmware).
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Hi All,
I setup 2 Mac Minis, 'setup in a no-apple id. Now with Mini1 I installed a shared printer from Windows7 Pc it ask for credentials then I input Adminstrator account and the password ticking the remember in "keychain"
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This stuff never happened to Mini1.

Hi All,
I setup 2 Mac Minis, 'setup in a no-apple id. Now with Mini1 I installed a shared printer from Windows7 Pc it ask for credentials then I input Adminstrator account and the password ticking the remember in "keychain"
I run a test print and its seamless. I reboot the Mini1 and run test print again and its good.
Now in Mini2 I did the same installation on shared printer but it is asking for user credential again and again, there is a check mark in "remember in keychain but still gives a notice that "requires authentication" I put the admin creadentials same with Mini1 then it prints.
every time I print on Mini2 its always asking for a user & password before Printing. How can we fix it.
I tried
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- reset printer settings ang re-install printer = "authentication required"
- replace sharename in windows7, reinstall printer in Mini2 = "authentication required"
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3) iMac workstations (maximum=10).
I'm not an IT professional, but I have been tasked to handle the IT setup for the new law firm and I have been using Macs for the past five years. I love the product and think it can work at our small, boutique law firm.
We will be hosting our website and email through a third-party company, so the Server will not be used for anything but calendaring with iCal, storing our clients' addresses and phone numbers in Address Book Server, and probably some iChat and Wiki pages. Most of our "law firm" software will be web based and I have already done research regarding compatibility. If there is anything else that you guys could think of, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for your help and suggestions.

I run my 6-person firm off an Xserve and a bunch of iMacs. We also have an old Cube that functions as a fax server and employee timeclock.
On the Xserve, we have the OS on one drive, and the data on a mirrored RAID. Everything gets backed up onto an external firewire drive a couple times a day. There are 3 backup drives, and they get rotated once a week so that the most recent one is off-site. We also keep an off-site clone of the boot drive. It's all protected by a Zywall firewall (which also provides VPN service for the network) and a large APC UPS.
We also have a Dell server that runs some software that is only available on the PC side. We access it from the iMacs via Microsoft Remote Desktop and terminal services. We're considering the possibility of replacing this machine with Parallels Server when we upgrade to one of the new Intel Xserves.
The hardware was a tremendous investment for a small firm like ours, but except for one failed ADM (which we were able to replace under warranty with zero downtime and zero lost data) it has been rock solid in 4+ years of continuous operation.
The Server OS is a very different animal. Having been a true Mac fanatic for 15 years and having read Apple's own OS X Server Essentials from cover to cover, I thought I was ready to do everything myself. I was wrong. I picked my way through it, but it took the entirety of a long weekend to do it, and I ended up going back a few months later and starting over to correct some things I still hadn't gotten right. If you don't have server experience it might be worth hiring a consultant, at least for the purpose of getting you up and running. Whatever he charges will probably be less than the amount of billable time you'll probably lose trying to do it yourself.
I'd have a real hard time trusting my livelihood to a Mini. An Xserve may be overkill, but I'd seriously consider at least getting a Mac Pro--even a used or refurbished one if cost is an issue.
I don't have any personal experience with QuickBooks, although from the discussion on MacInTouch this week it sounds horrible. You may also want to read some of the posts about Address Book Server; I don't think it does what you think it will do. (I was certainly dismayed.)
I would encourage you to take a good look at FileMaker. It's fairly easy to learn, and we keep finding new ways to use it in our practice. (So far we have databases to: check conflicts; manage open and closed files; track incoming phone calls; index and store CLE materials; automate document assembly for probates, mechanic's liens, and collections; and index and store a library of contract clauses.)
Apple Remote Desktop is an essential tool for keeping everything running smoothly.
With so much happening electronically, Adobe Acrobat Pro is quickly becoming as indispensable as MS Word. If you hope to be "paperless," you'll probably also want Fujitsu ScanSnaps on every desk.
I've been watching the "cloud" services with some interest, but at this point I just can't bring myself to trust them. At this point, very few of them work by mirroring what you have stored locally, so I can't help but wonder how you get your data back when they fail.
Starting your own firm is certainly exciting. We all do things differently, of course, but I hope some of this is helpful to you. Good luck.

Simplest/most reliable setup for 2 mini's+ext HD+backup+printer?

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