PCTech Forums

The charity that I volunteer for has 15 computers on a peer to peer network and we are suffering slow internet traffic and slow printers because we are overloading. I have convinced my boss that we need a client-server network and we have been quoted for a HP Proliant MS150 Tower Server at a reasonable price with Windows 2003 Server software and ATAPI tape drive installed. They also quoted for 5 tapes, UPS,and Veritas Backup Exec v9. The total quote is £2215 excluding vat and we only have £2000 in our budget.

Most of our network has XP pro and we also need to find the funds for 3 more pc's with network cards.

I thought to save cost we could forget about the UPS and the Veritas Backup software until we have more funds. I understand the Veritas software simplifies the back up process but is there a cheaper open source solution?


Thanks for any help.

Suzanne

I imagine thats about $4,000 US. Which is real steep unless you have about 200 employees, then it might be worth it.

First check to see if your network is connected with hubs or switches, if you have daisy chained a bunch of hubs (dumb terminals) it could be real slow. switches don't broadcast to the whole network, just the party it wants.

If your running less than 20 people, I'd recomend a used Pentium 3 and install a copy of Server 2000 on it and you should be aok. I'm guessing, but you should be able to get that for under $800 US.

Conservativley factor in about $500 to $1500 for a tech to come in and set it up right.

With your peer to peer network, you might just want to take the doggiest computer on your network and put Windows NT Server on it, and you should be ok. Make sure everyone has a 10/100 nic and you should be good to go. That might sound crazy, but all that server is going to really do in your situation is direct traffic.

Your biggest problem with 2000 and 2003 server is reconfiguring the peer to peer--so people can log on ---the secuity issues keep us techs employed.

Thanks for your advice - just to clarify we have only 20 employees (actually most are volunteers!) and I have been down to where our network is set up and there is a cisco switch plus a hub with the switch extending the network as far as i remember being told by our regional IT manager. He has offered to come in and build the server and set it all up plus we are doing without the UPS and veritas back up software now so the figure is coming down in price.

We definitely need the security aspect as although i wrote a disaster recovery policy and implemented the CDRW/discs to relevant personnel they don't back up and there is not a lot i can do about that as I am only a volunteer too.

I would have thought our IT regional manager should know about the network equipment aspect but he recommended using a high spec pc as a server until Head Office said no go for the server!! The network was only installed about 2 years ago to take advantage of the VPN that Citizens advice bureau run nationwide.

Windows Server 2003 has now released a SP1 i understand to increase security and plug gaps? I am the only tech person at my CAB apart from the telephone support offered by Head Office. I have no superviser there and limited network knowledge plus I only go in one day a week so how they will manage if there are problems with the server goodness knows!! Our Area Manager told me that "the server will look after itself if properly set up" so................

Maybe its cheaper to buy in America and ship over LOL

Well if you want me to purchase one from Dell, configure it and fly over and install it, I do consulting work. I can also do remote Admin work with a VPN setup.