Max Users for Network Drive Access

yarm

Junior Member
Oct 20, 2006
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I work for a small business (40-50 people) that uses rented computers from a computer consulting company almost everyone. We recently had some trouble accessing one of our network drives. People can only access this drive if other people log off their computers. The computer consulting company told us that we have 72 users, but only 50 licenses. Therefore, we have hit our limit for the number of people that can simultanteously have access to each drive. I'm not a computer expert, but this does not make sense to me at all. Why would we need more windows licenses to access a network drive? Maybe one of you can figure this out for me and save out business some money. Thank you for any help you can provide.
 

yarm

Junior Member
Oct 20, 2006
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one more thing: if this is all true, then could we just delete some of our user account to gain access again? Several of the 72 user accounts are from employees that no longer work here.
 

nweaver

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2001
6,813
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what OS is the server that hosts the network drive running?

License =! user in AD

tbh, I would look for another consulting company, who has less to gain then the ones who profit from the licenses.
 

tyanni

Senior member
Sep 11, 2001
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What Operating System is the machine hosting the network share running? If its XP, there is a 10 simultaneous user limit (each person connected to the share counts as 1 connection). If a server OS, then their is no hard set connection limit but you can set it to only allow a certain number of connections based on the number of licenses. And no, deleting users doesn't change the connection limit, its determined by (1) the number of people connected at a given time and (2) the number of licenses set in Windows Server 2000\2003.

EDIT: Nweaver, always beating me to the punch. Guess I write too much.
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: yarm
I work for a small business (40-50 people) that uses rented computers from a computer consulting company almost everyone. We recently had some trouble accessing one of our network drives. People can only access this drive if other people log off their computers. The computer consulting company told us that we have 72 users, but only 50 licenses. Therefore, we have hit our limit for the number of people that can simultanteously have access to each drive. I'm not a computer expert, but this does not make sense to me at all. Why would we need more windows licenses to access a network drive? Maybe one of you can figure this out for me and save out business some money. Thank you for any help you can provide.

This sounds correct if it's a windows server your connecting to.
 

Smilin

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
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There are three licenses involved here:

1. Server License. You got this when you bought the server or OS that's installed on it.
2. Client licenses. The company you are renting from bought these when they bought the PCs or OSs installed on them.
3. Client Access licenses (CALs). One of these is required for every users that simultaneously connects to the server. You typically get a batch of these (like 25) when you buy the server license plus you can buy them singly or in batches after that. CALs come in two flavors: Per Server or Per User. Per server is 1 CAL = 1 guy can connect to a server. If he connects to more than one server then you need one CAL on each server he connects to. Per User is 1 CAL = 1 guy can connect to any number of servers.

It sounds like you are out of CALs. Here is what you can do:

First, remember CALs are per simultaneous connected user. You can have 1000 people use only 5 CALs provided only 5 connect at a time. Leverage this fact. If someone isn't tapping the server much, have them just log on locally or something.

The number of accounts (you said 72) doesn't matter. It's the number in use and actually on the server. You can disconnect folks via the sessions in computer management on the server, or through a "net use * /d" on the client.

If you need to buy more CALs keep in mind these are relatively cheap. A new OS is $99-$299 depending on upgrade/version etc. CALs are typically $25-$30 at full retail If I remember right. Check like CDW.com or something for pricing.

Combine a few more CALs with some careful use and you can get that deficit of 22 CALs under control for little cost.



 

yarm

Junior Member
Oct 20, 2006
8
0
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Thanks for the help guys. I know a fair amount about computers, but I had never dealt with a network of this size.