Hi, can anyone help point me to the right direction. Currently I have a peer-to-peer network for my small office and would like to switch it to a client/server network. Though, my current set up (peer-2-peer) is working well after researching "networking" online, I’ve decided a client/server network is what I need for future add-ons. I’ve spent a few hours online looking for information on what I need but didn’t find the answer I’m looking for. There was a whole lot of information, more than enough but it’s very broad. I thought about calling a consultant but that would be my last option, since I prefer doing things on my own (best way to learn) and don’t have the money. My plan is to have a centralize server that will offer file/print, email, and perhaps someday a website. How many servers do I need? Reading on Microsoft- if I’m not mistaken I’ll need a 2003 server; a file/print server; active directory, an email server; and a web server. That would be a total of 5, correct or am I mistaken… I am choosing Microsoft servers since I’m most familiar with Microsoft products already such as XP and office. Can anyone please explain or better yet, can someone just tell me what I need. Here is what I have now. Router: Linksys Wireless Router (will upgrade to a Watchguard Firebox when needed) Switch: 16 port switch (will upgrade to managed 24 port if needed) Computers: 4XP Pro SP2 desktop (all connected via Ethernet) Notebooks: 2XP Pro with wireless Please help… Thank you,

Ok, realisitically you should call a consultant first. I'm not trying to be rude, but with such a low level of knowledge, you're likely to cause yourself more trouble than good. Learning on your own is not the best way when we're talking about a business, production environment. It's far too easy to make a simple mistake and screw things up royally. Learning on your own is what you do at home in a lab environment where you can screw things up and it doesn't matter. Downtime costs money and if you mess things up bad enough that the computer system at work stops working, it costs the company money. If you don't own the company and you're not the boss, it would likely cost you your job. Even if you are the owner/boss, can you afford what it would cost in downtime when you mess things up so bad nothing works right? You'll notice I said "when" not "if". Again, I'm not being rude, just realistic and honest. What you could do, and what I would recommend, is make some calls to different consultants/consulting companies, discuss what they offer and how much it would cost. While you're at it, discuss some training. I would include some training on your system once it's up and running properly. I'm sure any company/consultant would be more than willing (for a fee of course) to give you some day-to-day maintenance training on your system. I know I would. Yes, I know it costs money, but it would cost a LOT more to have to pay a consultant later to come in and fix all your mistakes. Chances are, they'd end up completely redoing everything from scratch anyhow all things considered. If you can't afford to take training from a microsoft training center, there are ton's of courses you can do on your own. For that matter, you can do a lot of reading online for free and there are a lot of books related to the topics you'd need to cover to have a solid understanding of everything involved. Now, having said that..... If you used 2003 SBS you could have all the services you're talking about running on a single server. In prior positions I've done a lot of consulting for small companies like this and in almost every case, they ran a single SBS server.

First, I wholeheartedly agree with Curt_R about hiring a competent consultant. Setting up Active Directory, a web server, etc. properly, securely, and following industry best practices is not something you're just gonna be able to learn on your own first time around without making crucial mistakes. If anything, get a consultant in to design it and shadow your implementation. All I can say is if you want it done right, it is only foolish not to get someone experienced to help you. This is harder than you think! SBS is a good solution in that it is cost effective. It nevertheless is still a compromise. It is specially designed to overcome some of the limitations of having so many services running on one server, but some things can't be overcome. For example, you can't overcome the fact that the server that hosts all network accounts would be receiving email and web requests should you enable Exchange and IIS. That risk might be acceptable due to cost considerations, but it should not be overlooked there is an inherent weakness in that. Therefore, for security and scaling reasons, separate servers is always better, just as SBS is always better in terms of costs associated with hardware. Choose what is right for your business. If you do go with SBS, I would highly recommend the premium version since it includes ISA, which is the best protection for Exchange and IIS. Also, since this server will be providing so many services to clients and is the ultimate single point of failure, make the SBS server as redundant as possible with more horsepower than you'd normally give a server. You should have full disk redundancy, and the server should be built with optimal disk i/o in mind. You should also have redundant power supplies as well. Remember, should this server go down, you can't even log into the network, not to mention no email, no web services, etc. "Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion! Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution! The ripple effect is too good not to mention. If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"

Thank you both for you recommendations. I would hired a consultation but because I'm not ready for the full complete conversion I thought maybe I can tackle on this challenge. So far, it worked for me on the peer-2-peer network. But I'm guessing based on your recommendations, this client/server isn't that easy as the one I set up. Hmmm... Well, the good thing is I owned the small company so right now at the moment I've got some time. At this stage, I'm not too concern about getting emails and a webserver. Right now, the most important thing I need is to give access to file/print to the workers. Email will be added on sometime in the Fall. As for the webserver, I hoping sometime next spring, depending on how business goes. Is all I need is 1 server, a SBS 2003 Server? Don't I need 1 server for each area as I understood when reading up on it. Is there no other way I can do this without a consultation?

Is there a way? Sure. Is it likely it will be implemented correctly without one? Absolutely not. Remember, even if it works, it doesn't mean it's right. For example, when things are insecure, they're often that way because that way "worked"...until exploited. "Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion! Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution! The ripple effect is too good not to mention. If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"

Listen to the comments above...I install small business networks...and have fixed a lot of them the were put in incorrectly... Hire a consultant...