Need some help from someone who has worked on building a network server?

Question

I am taking classes right now towards a degree in computers but i have yet to really build a server.

My dad's church needs a new network put in place, and the local company who is the best at this sort of thing wants to charge a lot more then is reasonable.
10,000 with parts and labor.

I am waiting to hear back from him on the exact layout of the system as of today, but here is what i think i heard the other nght.

They have a slightly old network which is running slow and they need a faster server. They plan to have this company bring them a server machine, install it, and all


Ok I know that i could use a regular computer as a server .

Here are my questions:

1. My dad has a Windows XP machine he no longer needs (has replaced it). Every computer these days has the capacity to be a server. But i was reading that the abilities to be a full server are not by default active. My question here is, how do you make sure all Server services are active? where in windows is that?

2. Would it be better (this is for a 10 computer network) to just get a server machine?

3. To create a network for the 10 you could just connect all 10 to a router (or routers) and a hub for the two. If you have a server machine, how easy or hard is it to set up the network on there? I have not messed with a server machine yet in class.

I think i can do this for him. Networking is the easy part. Its just rather or not i can use a computer or a server machine and what all is needed with the server machine.

Answer 1

Go get yourself Professional Help

especially when you have no idea on how and asking on a site that most wont answer you in complex questions

Answer 2

$10K is probably not unreasonable.



No, you cannot use a regular PC as the server. While technically possible, you will be setting the system up for failure. Plus, there are some server features (security, printers, number of connections) that a workstation can't do.



You don't mention what the current server configuration is, what operating system it's running, what OS the clients are running, or what software is being used. All of these are factors in how long it will take to install and configure the new server.



How much reconfiguration do the workstations need?



How is security / file permissions configured?



How about transferring the data from the old server to the new?



What about routine back up the data?



Are there any shared printers?

Answer 3

This is a long answer but the most cost effective way of accomplishing this task is to do the following:



1. Research the products you will need to baseline all of your systems and the server. Check out these 2 links for more information on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Server

http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx



2. Research what are the system requirements of a server computer you will need to get for a network your size. Also how to install server 2003 on said system. This link breaks that down.

http://labmice.techtarget.com/windows2003/Install/default.htm



3. Network all devices together and connect to server. You said you have this part down so I won't go into it. But just in case... be sure to post another question with specific issues you are having relating to networking.



All of this will be much less than the price that the company was asking for. Good luck.



For more straight forward computer advice, please visit http://www.armynerd.com



Remember to mark as best answer if I did a good job helping you out.

Answer 4

I have set up a small server at home:



Reason:

I had an external hard-drive connected to my windows machine that backed up each night. Windows crashed and I lost my HD AND the backup at the same time. I was well P#ssed. So I wanted a file-server to store backups safely away from my windows machine. Ubuntu was the way forward because it is one of the easiest linux OS to use, sets up smoothly, is virtually uncrashable with a very stable filesystem.



Setup:

I have three PCs running winXP (my wife's, my daughter's and mine) My PS3 and Wii, An old PC running Ubuntu with Samba server installed and with a fuppes installation. With Samba installed, my PCs can connect to the file-server and access shared resources on that server. I can also run a VNC (currently using UltraVNC Viewer) to remotely access the server. By installing Fuppes, I can stream videos, music and photos from the file-server to my PS3 and watch them in my lounge area. Now the surprising bit. My file-server is a 1ghz 300mb ram machine (I have just put in a 64mb graphics card for when I do connect a monitor to it but this is because I had the graphics card spare, would not have bothered otherwise).



Summary:

If you have an old computer laying around, then stick Ubuntu on it (you can download the server version - All versions are free open-source) Now connect it to your network and have a play with it. The Ubuntu community and forums are very useful/helpful.



Good luck and have fun.