Small Office. Win 7 or Win Server

peeko

Hey all,

I'm about to move office and I have about 8-10 comps on the network.

I have 1 PC that I everybody to be able to connect to to save files, print, remote login etc...

I have no idea what OS to install. Is there a need for Windows Server? Or will Win 7 do the job?

Thanks all

tech

If you go over 10 pc's you would need a server OS, Also do you need e-mail, file security ?
VPN access,
email access from outside the office , IE OWA ?
central APPS that may use SQL databases?

peeko

Hey thanks for your reply tech

There is not going to be over 10 pcs

RE VPN access, I was going to use a new tool as some of the peeps in my office aren't exactly that techy, and as much as I could help them with these things, I don't have the time with my other duties.

So was going to use feelhome for the time being from http://www.nuxinov.com/, it's new and seems extremely user friendly for what my company needs. (HMMM this seems to be down, if problems persist will likely use logmein)

Email access is all set up remotely, so no worries there, all though in time would like to upgrade to a exchange server.

My main uses for the server machine (whether I run win7 or win server) will be to access files on a network in one central place. And too print.

For now...

So I'm taking it I would be ok to go with Win7 for now? Or is Win server the best bet?

thanks man

peeko

Can you please elabarate on file security?

tech

Will all users be allowed access to all files, ie payroll, accounts and so on. If your going to lock down folders in a workgroup its abit of a pain and if users change their password on the pc you will need to make the same changes on the win7 (Server)

IamMetaldave

Small Business Server sounds like it will cover you. Also will give you the Exchange option when you decide you want to change over. I've installed SBS on networks as only 4 PCs. 2008 premium is shipping with SQL 2008 too for any potential database requirements.

peeko

The price of small business server is over $1k, but win7 is so much cheaper...

Users will be aloud to access all files, so security from that point isn't a worry for us.

After looking at the major price difference between the 2, I want to justify Win7!

Can you forsee any possible problems with going down the Win7 road?

thanks for all the input

Tomtata

If all you want is file and print sharing, Install XP Pro and setup your printers and folder shares.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp/

http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-xp/remove-windows-xp-sp3-tcpip-connections-limit/

corkcomp

I would look at a NAS device tbh .. it means users can still access their files / stuff if the main machine goes down. the lack of redundancy with a desktop PC would be more of a worry than running a non server OS i.e. you should have raid1 or raid5 as an absolute minimum and redundant PSU's etc

Matt O Connor

Tomtata wrote: »

If all you want is file and print sharing, Install XP Pro and setup your printers and folder shares.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp/

http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-xp/remove-windows-xp-sp3-tcpip-connections-limit/

Windows 7 Pro will increase his maximum SMB connections from 10 (xp) to 20. Go with Windows 7 Pro *if* file security etc is not an issue.