installing a server (I think)

**izonoky** · 21st January 2008, 17:58

Never done this before but told the missus I'll have a crack at building a server. Managed to dig up an old pc with a PIII 933mhz proc, 512 ram, just installed a 10 gb drive for the OS, and a 250gb for the file and printer stuff.

Thinking of installing Win 2003 Server, Standard edition. Any suggestions and pointers appreciated.

**JuzzyD** · 21st January 2008, 18:18

Just go for it, but before that just have a look and see if you can download the 2003 drivers for the storage and graphics etc. If you can't find any 2003 drivers listed sometimes 2000 or XP drivers can work.

Have fun!

**izonoky** · 21st January 2008, 19:06

yeah, I preinstalled xp pro on the 10GB drive for that very reason, gonna partition the drive and stick win2k3 on the smaller partition.

**lofty** · 21st January 2008, 19:07

any particular reason for building a server? Most client o/s can act as a server if you want file and print sharing etc..

**izonoky** · 21st January 2008, 19:16

It's for business me missus runs, things have picked up and she's now got four pc's that need print and file access. We have networked, but it's messy and doesn't give proper security. A small business server seems like the way forward (from what I've read) .

**JuzzyD** · 21st January 2008, 19:19

Have you got Server 2003 or Small Business Server 2003?

If you've got Small Business Server 2003 then the machine is under spec'd

**izonoky** · 21st January 2008, 19:26

not really, there are about 4 versions of win 2003 server and the version I downloaded last night (standard, for small businesses) will work fine on the specs I quoted.

**lofty** · 21st January 2008, 19:26

Originally Posted by izonoky

It's for business me missus runs, things have picked up and she's now got four pc's that need print and file access. We have networked, but it's messy and doesn't give proper security. A small business server seems like the way forward (from what I've read) .

If you only have four PC's and only need file and print you can do this with your existing machines. You can set-up password protected shares if need be and configure one machine as a print server. Going a server route seems overkill to me unless you are planning on learning about servers. Plus, if you are a business and doing this legit then server licenses are expensive.

Just my $0.02.

**izonoky** · 21st January 2008, 19:30

OEM costs for standard server edition (4 pcs's) is less than £300

**JuzzyD** · 21st January 2008, 19:31

Its far easier to have everything on one place (especially for backup purposes) so a server is the way to go.

For legit it needn't cost anything, just download something open source like Ubunto Server and away you go for free!

I'd be concerned about software that wasn't legit in a business I'm afraid, they're getting hot on it now (he says being a fully signed up professional...)