Windows Server 2003

[arcadia_x27]

Anyone out there ever do an install of Windows server 2003? I'm wondering how easy it is to install and set up. Basically I've got a computer with a shared drive that we use for putting our CAD files on. that machine was previously running Win 98. It wasn't used for anything else so there was little reason to upgrade the OS. Then we upgraded to Office 2003, Once we did that we were no longer able to attach or open any files through the office programs (like attaching a dwf to an email) I upgraded the OS to Win XP Pro, forgetting that XP Pro only supports 10 connections at any one time. (there are typically double that using that machine) I moved some files to another machine so that they could be accessed and that helped some but I'm still running into the problem that i have to go an boot users off the machine so that others can access the Files.

My question is: If I upgrade the machine to Windows 2003 server will it be a big hassle to just configure the computer to work as it is operating now, basically just a computer with a shared hard drive. I DONT want to have to configure accounts and user rights and all the fun stuff that you normally have to do when setting up a server, I just want to overcome the 10 user limit that Microsoft has so thoughtfully crippled Win XP with.

[Glenn Pope]

Check out this site. It talks about the limitation in XP and how to remove it.

Remove the limit on TCP connection attempts

[arcadia_x27]

I tried it, but that only affects the Outgoing requests. I'm still limited to 10 computer connections. . Thanks for the help though.

[stilesj]

I installed Windows Server 2003 for our print server and it wasn't that bad...pretty much steps you through the process. I wasn't doing an upgrade from XP or anything else, so I can't speak for that, but they seem to be getting better about prompting you as you go. Also it has set up wizards to step you through what kind of server you're setting up and what components you would need to install to perform those functions: file server, print server, web server, etc.

HTH and Good luck!

[Glenn Pope]

Another suggestion since I like the idea of getting away from Microsoft products as much as I can

Have you looked into using Linux?

[arcadia_x27]

If I had a choice It would be Linux. Wouldn't have to worry about things like "User connection limitations" and "Computers crashing" but IT wouldn't go along with that suggestion. We'll see how Windows Server works out.