file server for windows PCs

[WhiteStuph]

i'm looking to build a basic file server that would be accessed by windows PCs only...
computer's a celeron 633 w/ 256mb ram, lots of HD space, crappy video card, etc....
the question is, i'm not sure which OS to run w/ this...
the choices are pretty much win XP, or some flavor of linux w/ SAMBA
as i see it, XPs benefits = easier to setup
linux benefits = more stable, can pretty much set it up and forget it

any input here?

 

[Woodie]

Don't forget, the Windows Workstation products only allow 10 concurrent connections. The Server products will allow more.

 

[Nothinman]

If you have some Linux experience Samba would be the obvious choice if all you need is a file server. If you don't have any experience but still want to use Samba be prepared to do a lot of learning before it works the way you want. If you have the time to spend it's probably worth it in the long run to not run Windows.

 

[Skywanderer]

I did this a while back. W/ Windows If you have more then 10 users, you'll need to go to 2000 server, and get more licenses. Something else to keep in mind is if you have a lot of users accessing the computer at the same time a 633 celeron may be to slow.

 

[Nothinman]

Something else to keep in mind is if you have a lot of users accessing the computer at the same time a 633 celeron may be to slow.

Celerons in general suck because of the lack of cache, but the clock speed is fine. More likely the network or disk speed will be a bottleneck way before the CPU. Memory for disk cache and fast disks (SCSI160 in RAID ideally) are the things to spend extra cash on, not CPU clock speed.

 

[WhiteStuph]

heh
i guess i really should have given y'all an idea of what it was going to be used for
which is pretty much just a home network file server
i have far too much data that other people like to use on the home network (myself, friends, and my roommates), so i was just going to set up a dedicated file server so that when i was doing something useful (working) or not so useful (playing games) they could be getting stuff off the server w/out slowing down whatever i was doing at the time...
at this point, it looks like the ease of windows is going to win out
which is sad.. i miss running a version of linux.. and this would be perfect, but the extra work involved w/ samba frightens me
not so much for me, but making people log into their computers rather than just mapping a shared folder to drive letters sucks for others
so i'll probably go windows
but who knows
it'll be a couple of months, maybe i'll try both and see which works better
any other input is appreciated, though

 

[Nothinman]

but making people log into their computers rather than just mapping a shared folder to drive letters sucks for others

You can have anonymous guest shares with Samba.

 

[Mucman]

If this for your home, then samba will take 2 seconds to configure...

 

[Schnieds]

Go with Linux. Download the latest Redhat version and search for Samba How To's.... I think that you will find it pretty easy to set up.

 

[WhiteStuph]

glad to hear that... i looked around for samba info, looked briefly into a couple of books @ the bookstore, but don't have the time right now to delve deeply into it.. but anonymous guest shares being okay.. that's lovely
this whole system will be behind a firewall/router, so having it open to access is fine with me
thanks all
i get to run linux again
oh happy day!