Small Business Server 2003

[Guest]

I installed SBS 2003 on a laptop to test its flexibilty and loved the way it
worked. Now I changed my ISP to wireless FIOS and although the latptop is
sitting next to the router, it does not recognize the wireless network.

I want to a) uninstall the SBS 2003 and install XP Pro (not allowed when I
put the CS into the drive (grayed out)) or b) get the wireless network
recognized so it can be up and running.

HELP!

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I don't have a lot of depth of knowledge of SBS 2003, but I know of no
reason why you shouldn't be able to keep right on using it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...71-80f2-49e8-b67c-dc259cb6b3bb&DisplayLang=en

The reference above is in far greater depth and breadth than you are really
interested in, I believe--but it should cover the basics as well.

If this is the first time you have dealt with wireless networking with this
laptop, there could be some basic things involved: Have you found the
switch that turns the wireless antenna off and on? Most newer laptops have
such a switch--sometimes a physical switch, on the side of the case, other
times it will be a function key--on Dell's I believe it is blue FN key
F5--look for a little blue antenna tower symbol on the function key. This
comes to mind because you say that the wireless network is not
recognized--and I wonder if that means it just isn't seen at all?

If you aren't seeing any wireless, look for basics like that mentioned
above. If you are seeing wireless, but cannot connect to the one you know
is yours, look for the latest drivers for the wireless nic involved, and
patch the OS up to date.

Can you say more about what happens? OK--you got FIOS installed, and they
put in a wireless router and told you how to access the admin pages on it?
Does the laptop still work fine if wired to that router? Have you used
wireless on this laptop before?

Is the wireless built into the laptop--or is it an add-in?

 

[Guest]

I have used this computer as wireless in airports soI know that works. I
thank you for taking the time to respond and printed out the link and will
look at this tonight and see if it works.

What about being able to regress to XP? Any idea how to get around the
security protocols in SBS? When the CD is in the drive, the install XP is
grayed out. I can't boot from the CD either which would have circumvented
this anyway.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I'm not sure what is going on there---I suspect that the install is
essentially telling you that you can't "upgrade" to XP because that would be
a downgrade--i.e. there is no upgrade path from SBS 2003 to XP.

You should, however, be able to format the drive and install XP. I would
expect that you'd be able to use the files and settings transfer wizard to
transfer the information that tool is able to capture, as well, but I'm not
certain of that--I've never tried it on a server-class OS version.

You probably need to be able to boot from the CD in order to do the
install---you may need to investigate why that is not possible--I don't
think that SBS is blocking that.

--

 

[Guest]

Good advice but the SBS will not let me get into the BIOS in order to change
the boot order to CD. If I could do that then I could do a clean install on
XP. Any tips on this? F3 or ESC will not work.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

SBS can't keep you out of the bios. What machine is this?

--

 

[Guest]

Toshiba satellite laptop- special edition

SBS can't keep you out of the bios. What machine is this?

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Take a look at this reference:

http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=102215&seqNum=4&rl=1

search on "toshiba"--then look for your precise model.

For some Toshiba models, you must run an executable to get to the bios
setup.

--

 

[Guest]

will try it tonight. thank you for all of your help.

 

[Guest]

i wanted to thank you for your help, although none of the below was the
answer. As it turns out, when the screen boots up, for a split second there
is a message at the bottom of the sign on screen that tells you Press F2
....or F12 to get into BIOS. If you pressed anything but F12 instantly on the
boot up, you got into the OS screen. But, when I finally was able to read
this message and pressed F12 on the boot up, I was able to boot from the CD
and viola, the downgrade to XP Pro initiated. Thank you again for your
timely responses

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Excellent! One of the difficulties of online help like this is that we
can't "see" the problem directly--so sometimes the net is cast rather
widely. At any rate--I'm glad you got there in the end.

--

 

[Guest]

But you hoep that the persons using this venue have some sort of computer
knowledge otherwise they wouldn't be in this site anyway, I guess. Normal
people do not go into BIOS routines so again I thank you.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

True indeed--you're welcome!

--

But you hoep that the persons using this venue have some sort of computer
knowledge otherwise they wouldn't be in this site anyway, I guess. Normal
people do not go into BIOS routines so again I thank you.