Hi Everyone My company is soon going to move from a Workgroup to a domain environment. Just wanted some advice on a few of my concerns. Some of this issues I've found some info on this site, but sometimes not enough. That's why I'm putting everything in one post. 1. Is it possible to mix XP Pro and Vista in the same domain (either Server 2k3 or SBS 2003)? 2. Even if it is possible, does anyone know of any known issues that I can expect or look out for? 3. I read on the Technet site that Microsoft is looking to release SP3 for XP and that companies can still sell machines with XP till mid 2008. Will there still be support or 'use' for XP after this seeing that Vista would then be mainstream? 4. Is it better to rather upgrade to Vista once and for all? (The reason is that some of the PCs at the moment is XP Home and will thus need to be upgraded to either XP Pro or Vista depending on guidance given in this post) The reason why I'm asking these questions is that I'm supposed to buy new PCs for the company within the next week and I need to decide to buy XP or Vista. Thus mixing the two, or go purely for Vista or XP. Thanks in advance

1. Sure it's possible 2. Can't say for sure, haven't touched Vista yet myself, but I can tell you this much. Where I work, they've been testing Vista and it has a lot of incompatibilities with the software we run. It will be a year or two before we begin switching over to Vista as a desktop. At present, new PC's that come with Vista are imaged over with XP Pro. 3. I can't say about support, I suppose MS will continue to support it for some time as a lot of places and people are still running it and will continue to do so for some time yet. 4. If you're running XP Home version you won't be able to incorporate it into an Active Directory domain environment. In that particular case, you will probably have to upgrade either to XP Pro, or Vista. I would test Vista on any/all platforms running XP Home, there may be problems running Vista on them. Just my personal opinion but at this point in time, I'd stick with XP Pro. In another year or so Vista will be more stable, more hardware drivers in it's driver database and better compatibility with software. As usual, MS released this OS as soon as they could start making $$$ off it without giving it a good database of drivers or fully testing it for software compatibility. At this time you're likely to find it a whole lot easier to create a domain with XP.

Hi Curt R Thanks very much for your advice. It's truly helpful. The reason why I'm asking is (like I said in my post) we want to buy a few XP Pro machines and upgrade the XP Home ones to Pro. Also, I don't want us to buy Pro if in say a year's time it will be 'almost' obsolete and then we'll have to upgrade to Vista again and spend more money. You'll understand - when it comes to IT, the boss always wants to be as cheap as possible. Even if that means using old outdated software and hardware. From my point of view I don't need to have the very very best, but at least a good standard of everything. Also another reason why I need this advice is that my boss seems to like the VOIP (IP Telephony) idea and maybe wants to implement this in the future. Thus I want to start of the new Domain on a good standard. Now then: Will XP still be OK for the future (for implementing VOIP etc.)? Will it be better to go with Vista? Another thing that's important, say I start out with XP Pro, do you know of a cheap way to then upgrade to Vista seeing that some of the machines would probably need better hardware etc.? Please bear in mind that all our office PCs is laptops. Thanks and may I add - I'm not exactly the biggest know-how in IT (I'm just starting off and this is my first real IT job), but forums like this one really teaches me a lot. So Thanks and keep up the good work. I especially read a lot of your post Curt R. Also thanks to all the other regular posters - wanderer, jefro, heropsycho - just off the top of my head. I DON'T WANT TO PICK OUT ONLY CERTAIN PEOPLE. Sorry for everyone else I can't get to now, but thanks to you too.

You'll understand - when it comes to IT, the boss always wants to be as cheap as possible. Even if that means using old outdated software and hardware LOL, oh yes, I do know what you mean....all too well! Luckily I now work someplace with a good budget and a boss who would rather spend a few extra dollars to see things are done properly. But I haven't forgotten what it's like, not by a long shot. Also another reason why I need this advice is that my boss seems to like the VOIP (IP Telephony) idea and maybe wants to implement this in the future. Thus I want to start of the new Domain on a good standard. VoIP has little, if anything, to do with a Windows itself or a Windows based domain. What operating system you run on your PC's does not matter to your VoIP phones as the two never interact. The VoIP phones themselves are separate, discrete entities. VoIP is more of a "physical network" concern. Which is to say, can your present infrastructure support it. We've recently begun deploying VoIP throughout our network and I can give you a few insights. I don't know a whole lot about your setup so I'll tell you about ours and what we did. First off, we have our own PBX switch (telephone switch). All our in-house telephony is done by our Telecom technician. When we get a new user, she does the switch programming that provides them with a phone number. She ensures the physical wires connect to the right outlet etc etc etc. My coworker and I, although we're "network technicians" also help her out since we're all in the same department (ie: Infrastructure). When we went to VoIP we had to buy a VoIP controller that interfaces with our PBX switch. This allows us to assign internal phone numbers to the VoIP phones and provide them with the same services as the digital phones. Now, if you don't have an in-house PBX switch, you'll likely have to go external for a provider who will provide you with all of what's needed and basically all you'll have to do at your end is plug the phones in. This is a lot less expensive and also a lot easier for you. There are considerations however. - Do you have Enterprise level managed switches in your environment? - Is your switch(es) PoE capable? If not, you'll need power adapters or injectors. - Do you use VLAN tagging? - Are your switch(es) QoS capable or do you have a separate QoS device? You will want to QoS with VoIP in order to ensure they get the bandwidth needed.

Hi Curt R All of your questions I'll like to answer unfortunately I cannot. The thing we are still in a Workgroup environment with a Netgear router, a normal switch (patch panel)and that's it really. As I said we're looking into moving into a Domain environment. The VOIP issue: Why I asked about the Windows side of it is that my boss seem to like the new software solution Microsoft has or is going to release - Office Communications server 2007. I personnaly have not had a good loo at it or read up on it a great deal yet so I don't really know how it works or will work. So as far as I can tell, I suppose its better to use a Consultant of some sorts then to rather implement something like that (VOIP)? At the moment we have a normal PBX switch for the internal telephone network as well. The thing is that I don't know a lot about VOIP myself. Well, none really. #### And the thing that frustrates me the most is the fact that my boss wants and talks about all these things he'll like to have implementing, but he finds it so hard to even start at he baseline by buying a good quality server.### Again, thanks for your advice!!!

I'll my 2 cents in... My company is a large engineering firm...I do desktop support...so I have everyday contact with frustrated users... 1. We are NOT going to move to Vista for at least 2 years...too many driver issues...learning curve is too long for many of our "I'm not a geek" users...some of our engineering programs do not work with Vists...and we don;t expect M$oft will stop support of XP for at least 2 years... 2. Sales of Vista are about 30% below M$oft projections...we have talked to a few large businesses who have moved, one who has about 10,000 users moved back to XP after about 6-7 months...way too many problems... 3. I would stick with XP Pro...when it does come time to update you will probably need to update the hardware...Vista runs better on C2D and 1 Gb RAM...and most of the current equipment, while it will run Vista ok...for the most part will be a bit "outdated" for Vista in another year or two... Good luck

Hi stevem5000 Thanks for your guidance. I've pretty much decided now to stick with XP Pro. The reason being that everywhere I look I read about the many issues with Vista. And like I said before, I'm a new starter in IT so obviously I don't want too many problems while I'm still learning, although resolving issues IS the way to learn. Thanks