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Do most of you have a dedicated server for your home network or just a simple workgroup

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PhaZe

Platinum Member
Do most of you have a dedicated server for your home network? Like your own domain, the backbone of the network, with storage so you and other users can pull and save data from it

Or do you guys just have all the machines on the same workgroup?

I'm considering buying a dell PC from the outrageous dell deals going on. (complete machine with lcd for ~500)

I would most likely put server 03 evaluation to get familiar with it.

thanks
 
I have a DL320 with VMWare running the base OS plus 4 more virtual servers. 2 Dell desktops and 1 dell laptop are connected.

I can do all sorts of things then with the server and if it blows up, the kids might lose Internet access for a few minutes while I restore the server from a snapshot.

Also have a 2514 and 3548 switch on the side on a separate network.
 
The best thing at home about having a small DC instead of just a workgroup, is you can have a share drive, roaming profiles, and always have easy access to items such as drives and printers. Workgroups are fine at home, but when you get 4 kids with 4 computers, and 2 more in the kitchen/family room...having the roaming profiles and access to all printers is great....you can do a DC on one of those $500 dells all day long. I currently have a 2000 DC on a 500mhz box...have another box next to it serving a hard drive for each person's 'my documents' folder...

Having a DC is fun for us geeks...and easier.
 
that's exactly what I was thinking.

Dogma, could you enable pm's , I have a few questions for you
 
Is there any good websites that explains the pro/cons of peer-to-peer compared to server based net working or how to set one up. I currently run 7 computers in my house and use a workgroup/peer-peer theme. I thought about going to a server/DC based network for something new to learn. I've maintained them but never set one up.
 
There's not a whole lot to it....if the machine can run 2000 WS ok, then it can run server....just install server, at the dos prompt type 'dc promo' and it will install all domain services on that box...if its under 10 clients, a normal slow 500-1000 mhz machine can handle it...you'll be totally amazed at how easy it is.
 
Originally posted by: Dogma420
There's not a whole lot to it....if the machine can run 2000 WS ok, then it can run server....just install server, at the dos prompt type 'dc promo' and it will install all domain services on that box...if its under 10 clients, a normal slow 500-1000 mhz machine can handle it...you'll be totally amazed at how easy it is.
Click to expand...


Only part of the whole process is if the server goes down. I have a dual 933mhz P3 FTP server running now flawlessly but when I had internet sharing through it, I always gritted my teeth when it went down or I had to patch. Hows internet connectivity distrubuted with a DS network? I currently have all my computers running behind a WRT54GS and the FTP server is on the dmz port.
 
Server:
XP 1800+ (I think..see sig) running W2K, AD, DNS, DHCP, file sharing.
Key part of this is that it's all running off a SCSI RAID5 array, so the box pretty much never goes down. That along with NOT running ICS on it.
 
Dogma, how is your internet set up? I figure if you have a DS, then that would be the one sharing the internet.
 
Originally posted by: PhaZe
Dogma, how is your internet set up? I figure if you have a DS, then that would be the one sharing the internet.
Click to expand...


Get a hardware router if you don't already have one and forget about ICS you'll be much happier.
 
There's lots of options...ICS I used for over 3 years in a DC so I'm not sure what the problem is on this forum with using it....always ran pretty good.

I just use a 5 port belkin wireless G router (that I got on a killer site, think you google 'on-line deals' and I found this router with a wireless G pc card for $19.99 after rebates...think it was $79.99 total, about 3 months ago...replaced a piece o crap netgear...I used to like netgear...

There are lots of options depending upon how you are playing with your setup. You can have the router at the front, or right behind the DC....

Right now, I have the wireless router right after the cable modem....all systems are plugged into this...dhcp off on router....just one dedicated ip going to DC....then all ips are given out by dhcp off of the dc and credentials to log in are there. This is the most simple setup...
 
Got a couple of spares I have installed 2000 sever on. Setup an AD on one of them and it does DNS, DHCP, IIS. The other one got a demo of exchange 2003 put on it. I am just toying around with this stuff to better understand how it works.

Even put exchange on the AD machine now to see how exchange replicates and routes.

Eventually Ill be building a dedicated machine with plenty of disk space running 2000 server. Ill be mirroring the boot and RAID 5 the shares. Plan is to have it do lots of things.

Right I am just screwing around.
 
Have a WRT54G router along with a standalone NAS/Print Server (Buffalo Linkstation) with 2 desktops (one running Windows 2003 server for experimenting) and 2 laptops. This way if something does go down I don't lose my entire network
 
what is this device you call a server?

Is it kinda like a router?

😉

As long as I can talk to any host on my net I don't need anything else.
 
I have a DC with roaming profiles. It makes it nice and easy to push out service packs/updates, programs, etc. Its also nice to log into any computer and get your own profile. The DC is also a web/ftp/email server with MS exchange, so those are also nice.

The only problem is that I have made so many small tweaks over the past 2 years with this server that it would be tough to replicate when a new server version or hardware comes. I should have made little procedures. Oh well, still sweet to have it though.
 
I don't think a DC makes a lan party any easier then 6 workgroups....in fact, a DC is more chatty then workgroups. turn off your browser service and workgroups are pretty quiet. If you are worried abou name lookups/resolution, setup DNS/DHCP, DC doesn't help with that anyway.
 
Originally posted by: bluestrobe
Originally posted by: Dogma420
There's not a whole lot to it....if the machine can run 2000 WS ok, then it can run server....just install server, at the dos prompt type 'dc promo' and it will install all domain services on that box...if its under 10 clients, a normal slow 500-1000 mhz machine can handle it...you'll be totally amazed at how easy it is.
Click to expand...


Only part of the whole process is if the server goes down. I have a dual 933mhz P3 FTP server running now flawlessly but when I had internet sharing through it, I always gritted my teeth when it went down or I had to patch. Hows internet connectivity distrubuted with a DS network? I currently have all my computers running behind a WRT54GS and the FTP server is on the dmz port.
Click to expand...

Internet connectivity is seperate from the domain. I use an OpenBSD machine for the gateway/firewall functionality. The Windows and Linux systems are behind the firewall.
 
not to sound like a moron, but i'm pretty new to server software and applications. other than roaming profiles and shared network drives, whats the main advantages of running server 2003?
 
you don't need server2k3 for shared network drives.

for a home network, roaming profiles and centralized adminstration just about covers it. That's a spendy license for roaming profiles...imho
 
Originally posted by: nweaver
you don't need server2k3 for shared network drives.

for a home network, roaming profiles and centralized adminstration just about covers it. That's a spendy license for roaming profiles...imho
Click to expand...

While I'm sure some have a legit license, equally as many have acquired theirs through... other 'means'.

You can do 98% of the home DC, roaming profiles, etc. with a Linux/Samba solution.

If we didn't have to tie into corporate AD, we'd have a Solaris/Samba box for our groups AD-DC and 8 WinXP boxes.
 
My internet connection is via TDS DSL and I use a Linksys router to distribute the bandwidth internally. Most of my PCs are setup in a Workgroup configuration, but I do have a pair of Compaq DL360s in a local Domain configuration(Win2k Server) for learning purposes. Lots of things you can test and play with at home that the boss won't let you do at work on production boxes(with good reason.) 😉
 
The DC has nothing to do with internet connection other than handing out an IP addy....like I said, the 'modem' is hooked into a wireless router...with a piggyback switch....and just every computer is plugged into the switches....if the DC is down, the only difference is I can't see my share drive and printers being served by it...well, I also have to change a setting on the router to get dhcp through it...but I have dhcp disabled normally....I just 'enable' it if I wasn't using the DC...but the DC i have is just a P3 500 with a scsi 2940 card with 2 hard drives attached....nothing fancy...do a backup like once a month of the system state to cdr. The data drive I backup to a workstation in the other room...real simple setup.

My computers never goes down...its just another computer....why do you guys keep saying stuff about it going down? I work on a lot of 50-100 employee networks that are just trashing exchange all day long and have giant files they work with over the network...you may see 'some' problems in this setup...but 2/2k3 server can laugh all day at a home network....it doesn't go down. It is being used for authentication, roaming profile, dns, dhcp, share drive access, and printers...not really anything else.

Do your XP boxes go down all the time? I haven't had a system die on me for a long long time....but I'm also into 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' you have to have this motto if you work as an administrator--within reason, of course.

We are talking a simple DC not anything complicated....
 
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