Which OS should I use for my network?

[Tyrol]

I am setting up a 7 computer network for my business and I am getting conflicting advice on what OS to use. Because of the software I am using I must either use Win 98Se or Win XP for the six client computers, but what should I use for the server? One guy is telling me run XP Professional for all the computers and another is saying run 2000 Professional for the server and either 98SE or XP for the rest. I don't have much experience with either XP, 2000 or networking in general so any advice and the reasoning behind it would be appreciated?

 

[Rainsford]

XP Professional for the server, me thinks not. Please correct me if I'm wrong someone, but I don't think there is an actual server version of Windows XP out yet. I'd recommend a Windows 2000 server just because it's the latest MS server OS. As for your clients, in a business environment I would suggest anything besides Windows 98. In fact, I'd suggest 2000. Why can't you use Windows 2000 for your client systems? But if you must use 98 or XP, go for XP, you'll get a lot more stability.

Now, there are some different Windows 2000 server packages. What exactly is your server going to be doing? That kind of makes a difference. If it's basic stuff, just get the basic Windows 2000 server with enough client licenses to cover all your machines.

 

[Tiger]

You don't need to pony up for 2K server, 2K Pro will handle up to 10 concurrent connections.
I'd run 2K Pro on the clients as well. Security in 98 resembles a 00 buck pattern on a toilet paper target. Holes big enough to drive a truck through.

 

[capybara]

win 2k pro , yes.
win xp = haXors paradise.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: capybara
win 2k pro , yes.
win xp = haXors paradise.

win xp = haXors paradise? Not sure where ya heard that one. As long as you keep your OS (either 2k or XP) up to date and use reasonable security measures, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Tiger
You don't need to pony up for 2K server, 2K Pro will handle up to 10 concurrent connections.
I'd run 2K Pro on the clients as well. Security in 98 resembles a 00 buck pattern on a toilet paper target. Holes big enough to drive a truck through.

You're right, but if you want to grow a network out beyond the initial setup, you're going to want a server version of 2k. Pro might be ok to start out with, but you'll need server if you're going to grow. And server does some things (actually quite a few things) that pro can't. It all depends on what your server will be doing.

 

[jcmkk]

I also suggest Win2k Server for your server and Win2k Pro for your clients. Windows 2000 is everything good about XP without all the unneeded bloat. Rainsford, XP is secure if you keep it up to date, but it seems like they release a new patch every day. Windows 2000 is in its mature level now, so it is much easier to keep it up to date.

 

[owensdj]

Tyrol, stay away from using Windows 98SE(or 95 or ME) for any of your computers. It's just too unstable for business use.

You could use Windows 2000 Professional or XP Professional for your server. They can act as a server for up to 10 other computers. They would both do a good job as a simple file/print server for your small network. If you choose Professional for your server, I'd pick XP for all of your computers so you'd have the same look and feel on all of your computers. Going with XP also puts you on the top of the Microsoft technology curve. You can expect XP to be support by Microsoft and hardware manufacturers a bit longer than 2000 since it's newer.

If you don't mind spending the extra money, Windows 2000 Server 10 User would be a better choice. When you have a Server, your network can be a Domain. Without a Server, your nework is a Workgroup. In a Workgroup, each Win2000/XP machine has its own user account list. In a Domain, the Server(s) maintain the user account list for the whole network. Having a Domain makes user account maintainance easier.

A Windows 2000 Server can also provide a DHCP service to the other computers. That means it can automatically configure the TCP/IP protocol for each client machine when they start up. If there is no DHCP server on the network, you have to manually assign IP addresses to each machine when you set them up, making sure you don't use the same IP address on two computers.

A Server can also do let your setup fault-tolerant RAID with your hard drives. For example, if your Server computer has 2 hard drives, you can setup RAID 1. That means one hard drive is always an exact copy of the other. If the primary drive fails, 2000 Server switches to the other drive without loss of data or interruption. You can't do fault-tolerant RAID with 2000 or XP Professonal.

 

[cbqwinner]

I would suggest that you hire a small company or someone to come in and do it for you. You said that you don't have experience w/ xp, 2000, or networking. Do you really want to learn at the expense of your business? The network should be transparent to the users, you don't want them sitting idle while you learn how to troubleshoot some problem. They may be able to asses the situation and give you a better solution to your problem.

 

[dartblazer]

OS/2 for the server

seriously though do as cbqwinner suggested, hire a company or person to do it. i've seen many businesses where someone in the office thinks they know what they're doing so they get stuck setting up the network and there's always problems. in the long run you WILL save money.

 

[Gepost]

I just ordered a copy of Windows 2K Server. It was over $800, plus $16 per computer for connection. W2K pro should work fine for a small network, and it is not as complicated as Server.

 

[CplHicks]

If you don't have a lot of experience you might be best off buying from a company like Dell through their small business services. They have good prices and great service. Take a look here: Dell Small Business Servers for some entry level servers, very reasonable prices and they can help you set it up.

On the other hand, if you've already got the hardware you'll probably want to just hire a networking/sys admin consultant to set things up for you (or just hire somebody from AT )

And for completeness: Win2k or XP Pro for clients, Win2k Server for server (duh). If you can't afford server for the server machine you'll want win2k Pro.

 

[Tyrol]

Thanks for everyone's response. I very well may contract this job out, but right now I am just in a research stage. I will more then likely build the computers myself as I have built several, it is something I enjoy doing, and the money savings is a plus. As far as setting up the network I have done peer to peer networks, but never setup a server or used Win 2K.
The only reason in considering 98SE was that the specialty medical software I will be using is fully operational in only that OS, but it is for the most part operational in XP and will be fully in the near future. I am not sure on W2K, but will look into it. I doubt I will need to expand the network beyond this setup so right now I am leaning toward W2K Pro for the server and XP for the clients. I don't mind learning and doing some troubleshooting but I do not want to deal with something overly time consuming. With all this in mind, would I be getting in over my head by trying to do this myself?

 

[CplHicks]

If you're already experienced in doing Win98 networking making the jump to Win2k isn't that drastic. In fact, you'll most likely learn why you should've been using 2k all along. Since you won't be using Win2k Server you won't have to worry about learning about Active Directory and all that. I'm curious as to what the "server" in your network would be doing. Is it just a file server, i.e. shared folders for everybody? I think it might help if you gave us a description of how you envision your network to be laid out.

 

[Flatline]

Licensing fees should also be considered (especially if you're going to eventually have a lot more users). Microsoft licensing fees are outrageous and they're going to get a lot worse; it's not that big a deal if you only have a few users, but it gets expensive real quick-like when you hire more people.
If you have a bit of experience with Linux and Samba, you can set up a fast, efficient file server relatively quickly; you can also configure the newer versions of Samba to work as a domain controller for Windows 2000 clients. Linux is also a bit more stable as a DNS and DHCP backbone than Windows. If you want a Windows-based server, Win2000 Server is actually a pretty good product (and I LOVE Active Directory).
I would advise you to stay as far away from Win98 as possible, and see if the software will run on Win2000 Professional; I personally think that it is the best workstation OS that M$ has come out with.