Win XP server blah help plz

**nitricacid4k** · 8th March 2005

Hey guys was wondering if you lot can help me, my boss has had a bright idea of having XP pro as file server but i know that only 10 computers can connect to it at only 1 time and seen as we have about 30 computers which are all going want to connect i was wondering if anyone knows of a patch or anything to remove the 10 user limit or any third party software i can use. i keep trying to tell we need server software but he wont listen or be willing to pay the money. we used to use 98 but its too unstable and is pure rubbish. i sugested the 180 day trial but he wouldnt have any of that either. anyone had any idea? i tried convert XP to a server using tweakNT but that was crap as it was unstable about as bad as 98 lol

**penguino** · 8th March 2005

Perhaps you could buy a second hand copy of NT4 or Windows 2000 server CD from ebay. Once they are installed and patched up, they are secured and very stable. You can even do more than the XP pro - say, running mirrored backup raid, user security, email, etc.

If you are tight on budget then how about linux based solutions? First came into mind will be Knoppix - you can use it to set up a full fledge server for you business. The good thing about Knoppix is that you boot it off its CD, try it, and you can still keep all your files, configurations and everything else untouched. It is so powerful you can run it on old PCs and it still flies.

**shadowdancer** · 9th March 2005

woudl suggest the same, forget XP and go for a proper windows server solution (NT4, 2000, 2003) .
or use linux and samba to implement file sharing

you;'d probably get a old NT4 server disc with license fairly cheap.

**Little John** · 10th March 2005

From experiance dont use a workstation copy of windows as a server. The company I worked for sold a 2000 PC to a customer with the intention of it being a server just storing documents on it for 10 PC's. It worked just about but was slow. they then added an extra pc and wonder why they cant save to it properly overwriting files will not work. which doesnt sound like a big problem untill you edit a word document and try to save it. you then discover they save as and dont delete the old files 23 copies of the same file in different states of editing. now wondre why there is no disk space.

As for buying 2000 server and not 2003 as sugested I remember thaat 2003 is cheaper new than 2003 for the 5 CAL pack and you will need a CAL for each PC which sucks no matter which version you buy.

Unfortunatly server software isnt cheap best thing to keep costs down is Linux and it should work on almost anything.

**MaxP** · 10th March 2005

Originally Posted by nitricacid4k

Hey guys was wondering if you lot can help me, my boss has had a bright idea of having XP pro as file server but i know that only 10 computers can connect to it at only 1 time and seen as we have about 30 computers which are all going want to connect i was wondering if anyone knows of a patch or anything to remove the 10 user limit or any third party software i can use. i keep trying to tell we need server software but he wont listen or be willing to pay the money. we used to use 98 but its too unstable and is pure rubbish. i sugested the 180 day trial but he wouldnt have any of that either. anyone had any idea? i tried convert XP to a server using tweakNT but that was crap as it was unstable about as bad as 98 lol

your boss...been in the IT trade long ? or if at all ?
you really do not want to get into the habit of treating IT at work in the same method you would had home.

whislt you might be happy to tweak/crack/patch at home to see how summit works or to have a play (dont we all)..it really isnt advisable to act the same way at work.
whislt you might think your doing everyone a favour, when it goes titsup.com it will be you who gets it in the neck.

the long and short of it is that if you want a half decent file sharing box.
get a copy of NT/2000/2003/XP server.
proper legit and licenced.
(--Nux/Samba is a nice thing to play with...but isnt as easy as a decent NT box)

it amazes me the way some companys act...
i recall one firm i worked for....the last IT bloke just wlaked out (should have been all the warning i ndeed)..after a good month or so digging thru all the crap, i finaly got a good grasp of what the current state of play was.

one boxed copy of office and one boxed copy of autoroute...
no other paper work, licences, agreements nothing.
generic desktops with NO licences sticker ala dell etc...
spoke to the MD explained the situation....requested an odd 80k to clean it all up...
no effing chance....i then suggested we get into the habit of buying 2 licences each time we installed a new desktop..that way would spread out the cost and get up back upto speed.
no way again....

the last straw was when i started to quote the cost of a new pc INC all the licences...
boss wanted to know why a desktop that was �400 last month was double this month....
big blazing row...
call to the BSA
laters....

the moral of this story is..do not get dragged into these situation.
do it properly from the start...and if the company dosnt want to play ball, then start looking for a new job.

**The Toker** · 11th March 2005

You'd die laughing if you saw the IT setup at the place I part own (just 5% shareholder). Its a call centre with proprietary software we first had developed in 1996 in MS Access, then in 1998 or so we had a Visual Basic front end added to it. 1999 saw the advent of seperate outgoing email and fax servers (1 email, 2 seperate fax/modem machines and 1 fax server). Its still all based on that framework now in 2005. Neither myself nor our IT bod knows how it still manages to work on 20 machines on a daily basis. But then thats the software itself, the entire backend has always been the current flavoured Server OS (from NT thru to date) and the oldest PC's we have are half decent.

Should soon see the spanking new Linux/PHP/mySQL based system we have had written introduced, then hopefully the days of "4am Server Crash" phone calls will be a thing of the past for me.

**nitricacid4k** · 11th March 2005

I told my boss about all your sugestions and all i got was no. no. no .no he wants the server to be a useable box and as linux aint there is no chance, i think the thing that is holding him back is he only knows windows 98

and wont try anything new, only reason he wants try XP is because we come accross a few 100 oem licenses on the machines i brought cheap. anyone got an IT job going in stoke lol

**Little John** · 13th March 2005

Holy shit he wants to use the "server" as a workstation also.

The guy cant see that spending a few extra ��'s now will make the company far more productive with less down time. everythime the "server" user does an update what ever he will take the whole office down.

"Right can everyone come out of what they are doing I need to reboot the server"

What he is wanting to do wont work, there are no patches to make the 10 user limit go away, if he still wants to go ahead get somthing in writing that if (when) it goes tits up there can be no comeback on you.

**penguino** · 13th March 2005

Originally Posted by nitricacid4k

I told my boss about all your sugestions and all i got was no. no. no .no he wants the server to be a useable box and as linux aint there is no chance, i think the thing that is holding him back is he only knows windows 98

and wont try anything new, only reason he wants try XP is because we come accross a few 100 oem licenses on the machines i brought cheap. anyone got an IT job going in stoke lol

Technically neither Win98 nor XP pro is suitable for the job that you have been describing. I can guess that your current "server" has no fault tolorence of any kind. Just like Little John and MaxP had said - if you go to work tomorrow morning and the server has a disk crash, your company loses all the data. You might have a few backup floppy discs / cds copy here and there, but to get everything running again (getting all the shared folders set up, files in the right places, etc), it is the company's time that is wasted. (ask your boss to do a fire-drill - stop the server tomorrow and see how the company has to cope for the few minutes of down time)

OK, stop the scaremonger talks, how about growth? what if your company is growing and will be doubled in size / number of files / bandwidth of the network? Do you think your Win98 Server can handle it in 5 years time?

The last time I looked, NT4 + SP4 costs �20 on ebay. (We wont talk about CAL for the purpose of discussion

) And NT4's interface is very similar to Win98 so its easier to learn.

Though you will need a new PC to set it up, you can add it to the network, have it running side by side with your Win98Server, copy the files across and do some testing, and manage the transition as and when ready.

<Management_Analysis>

As you suggested, your boss does not want to change is because he/she has only learnt and only knows Win98 and XP. He/she wants to be in charge of the situation so that the system is under his/her control and management. "Reluctant to change" is a typical management issue because:-

a) its cheaper.
b) some bosses dont accept they are not as bright in I.T. and dont want to learn new and efficient ways to work which would make they look stupid of what they currently do.
c) if the company is making money, the "system" as a whole is functioning - why bother disturbing it?
d) political reason - bosses do not want a system which is not within their control and is powerful.

If your boss is making critical and techical I.T. decisions for the company based on one or more of the above reasons, and you happened to be the so called I.T. manager - then it seems that you are not in charge of your job or your services is not required, and its time for a exit plan.

</Management_Analysis>

Sorry for the long rant.

**nitricacid4k** · 14th March 2005

im tempted just buy a nt4 disk of ebay myself n just say oh look what i found he cant compain then

the company is quiet big got several locations which im in charge of all but unfortunatly im just the dogs body he is the IT Manager i fix everythin re sett up everything when it goes wrong n just report back to base once a week to him. i think i need a new job because i am on a loosing battle