Dear Friends. I have an old computer that i wanted to use it as a server but i dont have an extra monitor and keyboard and mous, what i usally do is i connect all these from my other computer and after i start the server i desconnect all of them and the server contiue working well, but the problem is when ever i want to restart my server i need to reconnect all that once again. is there any other way to start my server without the need to connect the monitor and the keybord and the mouse. Regards Garth

Buy another K/B and mouse....they're cheap and unplugging them while the machine is on isn't a good idea. The monitor isn't a problem, I've hotswapped monitors many times without trouble and you can boot without the monitor, you won't be able to without a mouse and K/B. Once you have another K/B and mouse plugged into your server just connect to it remotely with remote desktop or terminal services client (install TS on the server) from a client PC and tell it to shutdown or reboot remotely.

In the computer's BIOS, there should be a setting for "halt on error". One of the options should be "no errors" or something similar. Set this, then reboot. This will allow the computer to boot without stopping if it doesn't detect a keyboard and/or mouse. This configuration is called a "headless server"; I have several windows 2000 and 2003 servers running like this, and have had no problems booting or restarting them. Like CurtR says, the monitor isn't a problem. It can be hot-swapped as needed.