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w2k server or upgrade to w2k3?

W

wallsfd949

Golden Member
Several things we would like to accomplish on our Windows 2000 / Windows XP network.

Printer sharing:
In the 'computer lab' we have 3 printers for 12 machines. All machines run w2k pro. Each printer is attached to 1 machine and 'shared' among 4 computers. Is there a way (with w2k server on a domain / active directory or w2k3) to setup these machines to print on the first available printer (not networkable) but not on the two printers in the school office? Basically group printers and separate the 'segments' without having the printers standalone on the network.

System wide settings on certain machines:
For example, the lab computers would be set to power off disks and monitors after 1hr and never standby (all users) but the office computers would not have that restriction (or is this on a user to user basis)?

Roaming profiles:
I belive we would like to have all users on roaming profiles. This way it would not matter what lab computer they were logged into, and the administration could access their info / mail from any workstation securly.


Are we better suited for windows 2000 server or should we make the jump to windows 2003? Suggestions and comments appreciated.
 
I always get the newest version of any operating system I can.

W2k and w2k3 (and WinXP and win2k pro and their predecessor NT 4) are all the same operating system. They have a different interface, their subsystems are setup slightly differently for different their different tasks and have undoubtably evolved somewhat between 2000 and 2003.

So if your thinking about buying w2k server vs w2k3 server, it's not realy much of a choice they are the same thing. Get w2k3 it'll be supported longer and probably has other improvements.

If you have a liscence for w2k server laying around, then use that. Pretty much everything you want will be possible thru active directory and group policies.
 
As drag said get Win2k3. It doesn't make sense to get Win2k Server now unless your application is not compatible with Win2k3. This of course assumes you are purchasing new licenses.

As for the the printing issue. What you want to do is setup printer pooling. I would get JetDirect boxes for each printer and set them up with an IP address for each printer. Then you setup one printer on the server (and share it) but you pool it to multiple IP addresses. Then the users only see one printer but the server will send the job to whichever printer is free at the time. It works pretty well as long as they are all the same printer.
 
just to add in a bit more...

A great "extra" w/ win 2k3 server would be volume shadow copies for the drive you have roaming profiles stored on. User calls up "I accidentally deleted a file in my documents what do I do?" you respond "just log off and give me 5 min." and than you proceed to use VSC to restore the file they deleted. 😉
 
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