I'll try to make this short: We have 3 office locations in the same city, all with DSL service. One office has 3 computers and a server already networked, but each computer has the individuals Outlook files etc etc. I want to be able to login at any office and access my Outlook files etc etc from the main server just as if I was at my own computer (minus the user display settings and what not). I've seen this done before but I just don't know where to start. The three computers and server at the main office are already networked, I just need to set it up differently. In the end, everyone's files/email/access/etc will be on the main server and not each computer. Does Windows NT/XP/98SE already come with what I need? We also would like to be able to print a file from Word from one office location to another office location's printer. Any tips/comments/etc would help. Thanks!

from the sounds of it you need to setup roaming profiles on the main server so you can log in from any computer. Go to Microsoft's website and search for roaming profiles. Basically (and I do mean basically) a roaming profile saves user settings and each users my documents to the server so you can log onto the network from any computer and have your stuff.

If your only just talking about emails, you can set Outlook to leave the messages on the email server, instead of downloading them locally, so that no matter which machine your logging into your email server from, your messages will be there, then that's not too bad. But if you want to be able to view your appointments, contacts, calendar and other such, that's more difficult. Outlook requires a dedicated Microsoft Exchange server such things, with your account profile configured in each computer that has Outlook installed that you want to access your Outlook information in. And with all due respects to Totally Technical, I'm not assuming your offices are connected together, even if you do have DSL at each location, so I'm assuming you'd have to first get your offices connected. I think I heard somewhere about Microsoft offering an Internet accesible service to host your Outlook information so that you can access it from multiple locations- for a fee, of course. Implementing an Exchange box is an expensive solution, so can be connecting your offices. I'd suggest contracting technical consultants for the least expensive solution for you; possibly a cheap VPN connection using Linksys VPN routers, and an inexpensive networkable calendar and contacts program.