Five computer network limit(Windows XP Home)

[Cspurrier]

Hello,
One of the schools I am helping at just got three new computers one of them was intened to be a file and print net work for ~30 computers it runs Windows XP Home. Windows XP Home has a five incoming connection limit. I am looking for any way to get around this. Difficulty of setup is not very important. There is no budget left for the networking, so I am looking for free or very cheap ways of getting around this limit.

Linux will not work for this as this system is also used by the computer teacher.

Thank You,
Craig Spurrier

 

[LostHiWay]

I think the only way is to get XP pro

 

[Cspurrier]

Thanks for the help.
However Microsoft says that WinXP Pro has a 10 computer limit.

 

[KB]

There is no way around this limit. If there was, then you would be breaking your MS EULA. MS wants you to buy MS Server for this.

 

[foofoo]

hi,
for what you want, i think that the cheapest way is to get an old (read donated or solicited donation) computer like a 350 p2 and put linux on it. this is cheaper than getting any kind of printserver/nas box(s). i helped wrangle this type system out in the oakland schools a while ago when i was worknig on netday.
good luck

 

[3141592653]

what about if you had used 5 of the 30 computers to as servers too?
So the main file server (the big S) has 5 miniservers (the little s's)
as clients which in turn serve 5 other client machines (the little c's) (the hypens should be spaces but it wouldn't let me use spaces)
--------S
-----//|\\
---/-/-|-\-\
-/--/--|--\--\
s--s--s--s--s
|--|---|---|--|
c-c---c---c--c
|--|---|---|--|
c-c---c---c--c
|--|---|---|--|
c-c---c---c--c
|--|---|---|--|
c-c---c---c--c
|--|---|---|--|
c-c---c---c--c

 

[sechs]

There is no way around it. You'll need Win2k Server to do the job, if Linux is not a choice.

To be honest, I would have suggested a Mac running OS X server as a good choice... BSD with a happy Mac icon on it.

 

[Cspurrier]

Thank You for all of your help.

foofoo: That is the best way to do it however we are almost never given any thing above Pentium 1s.

3141592653: I was think something like this may work but I am unsure how to set it up. Could I set up an five Linux boxs(486s) and get the requests to go though one of them and then send it to the server if so how whould I do it.