cantthinkofanickname
October 7th, 2008, 01:56 PM
I volunteer for a charity and our network (if you can call it that) is a mess! In fact everything is effectively stand-alone the windows workgroups unused. 18Pcs/Laptops, 5 charity functions (say 3 PCs each), an eth. switch all wired direct then to a DG834 for Broadband access. Printers all local to each machine.
What I'm aiming to do is to introduce a server (Ubuntu is currently favourite with Windows 2003 a close 2nd) to get 1st the files and printers shared. Questions for starters are
1. What hardware platform do I need? My guess min is P4, 2 250GB HDs, I want a portable HD so can have an off-site backup.
2. Can I keep the star arrangement and adapt the printers to connect direct to the eth. switch and just plug the server into the switch and configure a sensible network?
3. will the Ubuntu server do this without additional software installed?
4. what additional software do we need to bring the office into a fully communicating modern office.
PS our website and email is currently off-site with Eclipse servers. Staff use a mix of OE, Outlook and webmail.
Advice much appreciated. I'm not an expert but consider myself reasonably knowledgeable and have some time to commit. Willing to consider paying for support if I get stuck.
What I'm aiming to do is to introduce a server (Ubuntu is currently favourite with Windows 2003 a close 2nd) to get 1st the files and printers shared. Questions for starters are
1. What hardware platform do I need? My guess min is P4, 2 250GB HDs, I want a portable HD so can have an off-site backup.
2. Can I keep the star arrangement and adapt the printers to connect direct to the eth. switch and just plug the server into the switch and configure a sensible network?
3. will the Ubuntu server do this without additional software installed?
4. what additional software do we need to bring the office into a fully communicating modern office.
PS our website and email is currently off-site with Eclipse servers. Staff use a mix of OE, Outlook and webmail.
Advice much appreciated. I'm not an expert but consider myself reasonably knowledgeable and have some time to commit. Willing to consider paying for support if I get stuck.