What kind of OS and network do I need?

[Mudbone]

I have three computers in my house. Each running XP pro. I want to be able to go to any of them and "log on" and get the same "desk top." Right now, we are doing different things with each computer. IE the email is on one computer. If we downloaded email on all three then there would be three sets of email. So two people can't read their mail at once. I tend to browse the web on all three and its a PITA to remember were I saved a particular Favorite. We have Word and Excel installed on one computer, there is almost never a case when more than one person wants to use the programs at the same time, but invariably someone is on that computer doing something else when you need it. I know large businesses do this type of thing. Can I do this on a small scale without spending a truck load on networking software that would be overkill for just 3-4 machines? How does the sharing of apps like Word and Excel fit into this? Also, we have two laptops that we would like to have on and off the network at differnt times.

TIA

 

[phisrow]

This sounds like a textbook application for roaming profiles, although I must admit that I'm not sure how cheaply a proper roaming profiles setup can be implimented(give the MS knowledge base a look. You might get lucky, or you might need a domain controller and a copy of Server 2003).

The email problem could also be solved by using an IMAP setup rather than POP3 (assuming this is an option). If you do so, any changes made to an inbox on one computer will also be made on the server side, and thus on all the other terminals.

While this wouldn't be terribly convenient(as the computer would still have to be free for you to use it thus) you could set up remote desktop on all the boxes and then, for lightweight stuff like web browsing, always RDP into one box, so your changes stay coherent. In the same vein, you could employ a set of network drives and folder redirection(on Desktop, My Documents, etc.) to keep things coherent. See http://windowsxp.mvps.org/folderredirector.htm and http://www.windowsdevcenter.co...4/folder_redirect.html among others.

As for Word and Excel, it is hardly a perfect solution; but just installing OpenOffice on the other boxes will at least give you some functionality on all the systems.

In general, though, I think you are in the rather uncomfortable position between home users that don't need real features and enterprise users that can afford real features(Yeah, yeah, anything in his question could be done for free, with extra security, etc. with FOSS; but that wasn't really the question). If you had access to some extra servers and wads of cash, you could do some cute stuff with Active Directories and Terminal servers; but you probably don't. I'm sorry I don't know of a more elegant solution, if one even exists; but some of this might ameliorate the pain a bit.

 

[timswim78]

I have a situation like this, and I use VNC. If I want to use the Outlook, Word, or whatever, on my main PC. I can login to it from my laptop or any other PC that is connected to the internet.

http://www.ultravnc.com

Oh, and it is free.

 

[Nothinman]

Good luck. Generally what you want is a domain with roaming profiles, but with Win2K and up that means AD which requires proper DNS and is a lot of work if you don't know what you're doing already.

You _might_ be able to just set the profile path on the user accounts to point to a UNC, do that on all of the machines and the profiles would be pseudo-roaming. But I have no idea how well that would work. And with the laptops it would probably not work too well.

 

[Woodie]

email... you don't HAVE to use IMAP.

As long as you have a decent email client!

1. Create a "HomeDir" for each user on you server.
2. Have every user store their email files in their "HomeDir"
3. Now they have an email executable on each machine, but the data is always stored on the same mapped drive.

I've had that working for years now...keeps the Mrs and me both happy!