Advice on moving from P2P small office network to ms server

[alex s]

Hi, our buisness is expanding at the moment, so am in the process of buying more pc's.
Have always used Dell, as they work and seem well built and priced.
At the moment we use a simple 4 port(plus wireless) rounter. The main PC is being used as the "server" at the moment(using xp pro) and for a bit of "back up" are using raid 1.
It is running quite slow.
The problem is that we now need to link 5 other pc's to together.
Dell has suggested buying a server and MS server (with 5 CL) running a single quad core and raid 1.

So finally my questions..
1) How easy is it to set up the network using ms server for a complete novice(server wise).
2) What router would people suggest (at least 6 ports and the option for wireless for a laptop)
3) Back up...although it will be running in Raid 1, what other options/software is available that will allow a backup, say weekly. ideally onto dvd.
4) Will going the server route speed things up ?

Thanks
Alex

[CoopR]

1) A simple server on a workgroup to share files should not be a problem. Windows server 2003 R2 has plenty of wizards to help get setup quickly. Or a crate of beer to a friendly IT guy

2) A £20 netgear 8 port 10/100 switch should plug into your existing router fine.

3) Depending on your amount of data raid 1 can get expensive, but I guess we're not talking about 100's of GB. The builtin backup application can make a backup file then you can manually write to DVD. Or alot of DVDRW software comes with some type of backup options.

4) I imagine your "server" disk simply needs defragging but XP only support up to 10 connections to shared folders so upgrading to a proper server OS is a good idea anyway.

Sounds like the server Dell have quoted is a bit of overkill with quadcore, but they are pretty cheap now so no biggy. 1x Dual Core 1.66Ghz, 1GB ram, 2x 10k rpm SATA disks will be more than enough. I guess it sort of depends how much and what type of data you are working with.

[sjg]

If you just need shared disk space (and backup of the PCs), take a look at Windows Home Server.

Small Business Server costs a load more but does get you a proper Windows server, Exchange, etc. Unfortunately it's a crap time to buy as newer Exchange is already out, new Windows Server is out this month and the new SBS built on these new versions is about 6 months off.

[m12_nathan]

Alex - it is easy, happy to help you out. Feel free to drop me a mail.

Look at Mozy.com for online backup, much easier than worrying about tapes and will mean you can recover data in the event of a fire, burglary etc.

[alex s]

sjg said:

If you just need shared disk space (and backup of the PCs), take a look at Windows Home Server.

Small Business Server costs a load more but does get you a proper Windows server, Exchange, etc. Unfortunately it's a crap time to buy as newer Exchange is already out, new Windows Server is out this month and the new SBS built on these new versions is about 6 months off.

All we need is shared disk space/internet/email.
the spec dell have given me is

Quad core Xeon 1.86 Ghz
2GB ram
2 x 160gb sata drives
C6 sata/sas Raid 1
SBS R2 2003 with 5 CAL's

it seems a lot of the cost is the SBS, how does the home network compare with 5 CAL's (if you indeed need the 5)
Also what are the major difference between SBS and Home network.
Sorry for all the questions.

Alex

[CoopR]

Home server still has the 10 concurrent user limit same as XP, something to watch for if your planning a few more PC's any time soon.

SBS has all the features you could ever need, it's a good value package if your going to use them. Otherwise just a basic Windows server 2003 will work fine.

EDIT: Just noticed your other thread. SBS does include MS SQL server 2003 which may be of use to you.

Edited by CoopR on Wednesday 13th February 17:08

[sjg]

I had someone in a similar position recently - in their case getting hosted Exchange accounts elsewhere worked out better for them and a simple networked storage box (not Windows Home Server in their case, but it's equally if not more suitable) did the job for their shared files. As they have plans to expand, I suggested they look to go for the next version of SBS in 9-12 months once it's out and stable. They're expanding so may be in a position to justify having in-house email, IMO having an Exchange server in-house is massive overkill for the typical 5-10 user small business when there's so many good hosted Exchange providers.

Spending money on SBS now means a lot of cash for an already out-of-date version of Exchange and in a few days time, the same for the server OS too.

[TonyToniTone]

alex s said:

All we need is shared disk space/internet/email.
the spec dell have given me is

Quad core Xeon 1.86 Ghz
2GB ram
2 x 160gb sata drives
C6 sata/sas Raid 1
SBS R2 2003 with 5 CAL's

it seems a lot of the cost is the SBS, how does the home network compare with 5 CAL's (if you indeed need the 5)
Also what are the major difference between SBS and Home network.
Sorry for all the questions.

Alex

You can SBS Standard (No SQL) bios locked to HP servers for £250, would buy a HP server over Dell..

If you need it now no point waiting for 2008.

[griffgrog]

TonyToniTone said:

alex s said:

All we need is shared disk space/internet/email.
the spec dell have given me is

Quad core Xeon 1.86 Ghz
2GB ram
2 x 160gb sata drives
C6 sata/sas Raid 1
SBS R2 2003 with 5 CAL's

it seems a lot of the cost is the SBS, how does the home network compare with 5 CAL's (if you indeed need the 5)
Also what are the major difference between SBS and Home network.
Sorry for all the questions.

Alex

You can SBS Standard (No SQL) bios locked to HP servers for £250, would buy a HP server over Dell..

If you need it now no point waiting for 2008.

And don't forget to buy Software Assurance.