Want to migrate to a new OS or P2P & Server: recs please.

[BullHalseyUSN]

Good Afternoon.

I hope this is not off-topic. It seems to be ok based on other posts!

I have a small office where there are:

- 6 XP Pro workstations and several printers.
- 2GB of crucial files on one of the clients. We back this up with an online service every night. These files must be taken off this machine as it often crashes.
- An NT 4 Server machine that is dying. It currently manages the network but serves no other purpose and must go.
- Our email is handled by an offsite machine and is not an issue.

We would like to know whether we need:

- Windows Server 2003 or
- Just go with P2P.

We have had a lot of trouble with this old beast and do not have an IT staff to manage a network, so we are looking for the most reliability with the least flash. We are an isolated office and are on our own! Budget is a consideration, but we'll pay upfront for reliability.

If you have a moment, could you also make a rec. for any server that might fit our needs? The current machine is a Dell and I wouldn't wish another one on anyone - certainly not me.

Thanks, experts!

BH

 

[jrbarnett]

Does the server run anything other than file and printer sharing? (eg database engine, network proxy server etc)

John

 

[CostaRica]

If the answer to the previous post is no (in other words, you're not running an SQL server, or anything of the like) then go for Linux. Red Hat (

http://www.redhat.com)

or SUSE (

http://www.suse.com)

will do the trick.

If you're looking for a brand new machine, Dell has some very decently priced servers that come with Red Hat Advanced server installed. Linux takes a little bit of initial work to get working, but once you configure it to your liking, it's rock solid and cost effective.

For example: Dell PowerEdge 600SC, P4-2400, 512MB, 2x40GB IDE drives in RAID 1 (hardware mirror), with Red Hat 9 pre-installed, $1100 plus tax.

You *can* go even cheaper with less memory, no raid, etc etc. But... this is my recommendation. And no, I don't work for Dell IBM and HP will also sell you Linux servers, but they are generally focussed on bigger businesses.

Oh, and on a quick side-note, Windows XP does not connect to Linux by default. You have to turn off some "feature" for it to connect to SAMBA, the Linux SMB engine.

At the present, I don't recommend Windows 2003. Not until it's tested out more. But if you go P2P, which computer is going to hold your critical files? Another workstation?

 

[jrbarnett]

Have you looked at Win2000 server, proven reliability and lots of people out there who know it well?

John