file server question

[kermalou]

just got my dell server for the office. we have 10 computers and i want to make this comp. a file server. i have windows .net server 2003 installed already. what else do i need to do so that my other computers have access to it?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Just enable file and printer sharing, and make sure all the machines have "client for microsoft networks" installed in the networking configuration. Then share whatever folders you want shared. I assume that Win2k3 server has the ability to simply enable sharing.

Being a "file server" is nothing special these days on a Windows network.

 

[TheCorm]

Being a "file server" is nothing special these days on a Windows network.

Yeah...even a windows 98 PC can be a fileserver

Corm

 

[kermalou]

now, accessing the files is real slow for some reason. it takes forever, with sharing on.

is there some other thing that could make this faster? should i add more ram?

thanks

 

[Willoughbyva]

How do you have the computers networked? Eathernet, hpna, tokenring, wireless? Do you have a hub, router, some kind of switch? What OS are you running on your clients? XP, ME, 98 etc? Are you sure you are using privite ip addresses (assuming you are using tcp/ip) for your network? Give more details.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Also, define "slow".

Windows networking file sharing is inherently a crappy system. At random, we lose the ability to see computers on the LAN, and never know whether a machine needs to be rebooted so it can see the LAN again, or if the other machine needs a reboot to make it start broadcasting properly and accepting connections. It's also sometimes slow.

One thing I've noticed is that transferring more than one file at a time causes the overall total speed of each transer to drop to less than the fraction of the network speed I'd expect (manually selecting and transferring them one at a time, not highlighting a lot of files at once and dragging them).

 

[kermalou]

SOME HISTORY:
This is an accounting office and we have 15 computer on a LAN with a SWITCH and a ROUTER. We use to have only a W2K server that is for tax prep software that is not that big. We use to have our individual employees keep the files that they used for income tax prep on their own computers. Someone left the company and we had an extra Dell Optiplex running Win 98, so i put all myfiles on that computer and it was fine. We put a couple of other files on that computer and everybody was happy, until yesterday. Got in on that Dell 600SC server for $300 and thought everything would go faster. I was wrong.

I installed Windows .NET Server 2003 and now everyone is complaining how much slower it actually is. I dont get it. The Optiplex was a P3 800 with not that much RAM and only a 20 GB hard drive and it was working great. This Dell Server(?) is slow as hell. I also found out that the machines in the office running 98 and a hell of a lot slower accessing their files that the machines running XP or W2K. What have I done wrong here? Do I need more RAM (it is on the way)?

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[kermalou]

anybody?

 

[redbeard1]

I don't have a fix, but I have an observation. Win98 doesn't have much overhead to think about. Now you've gone to server 2003, that probably has every service and it's cousin running, and it is also worried about it's .net bull. (sorry for the rant). Check your cpu usage in the task manager to see how hard it is being used and how many processes are running. Check it when people are hitting it hard and also when nobody is around. Go into services and turn off everything you don't need. Are they actually logging into that server or is it just running with open shared folders? Did microsoft build in a bias against 98, so you have to update?

 

[kermalou]

the server wont take 98.

 

[redbeard1]

I didn't mean making the server use 98. I meant if people where using 98 to get to the server, instead of win2k or xp, did ms make it purposely slower.