Do I have to buy one for each machine

[Guest]

So we decided to put in a real server.....2003
All 8 of my machines have XP home on them.
Do I have to buy an upgrade for each machine or can I just buy licenses?
If just licenses how much are those going to be?

Thanks,
Dustin
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Larry Samuels]

If you are setting up a domain and wish to have the workstations join the
domain you will need to upgrade the systems to XP pro. XP home systems can
use domain resources but they cannot join a domain.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Larry Samuels]

Forgot to mention--contact your vendor about VL licenses for the
workstations. They are slightly cheaper, use the same key so you aren't
having to keep track of what copy goes with which machine, and the VL key
bypasses activation so you don't have to worry about hardware changes taking
the machine out of compliance and forcing you to re-activate.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Guest]

Thanks Larry...

Forgot to mention--contact your vendor about VL licenses for the
workstations. They are slightly cheaper, use the same key so you aren't
having to keep track of what copy goes with which machine, and the VL key
bypasses activation so you don't have to worry about hardware changes taking
the machine out of compliance and forcing you to re-activate.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Larry Samuels]

You're welcome!

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Leythos]

So we decided to put in a real server.....2003
All 8 of my machines have XP home on them.
Do I have to buy an upgrade for each machine or can I just buy licenses?
If just licenses how much are those going to be?

You have two options for using the server:

1) Upgrade all machines, not just the license, you have to actually
upgrade the OS to Professional.

2) Continue to use the HOME version in a Workgroup with the same name as
the domain you createded, then make sure that all HOME users have the
same user name and password as they do on the server.

In method to, you won't benefit from the AD/Group Policy structure, but
you can create a batch file to map shares to local users, share printers
attached to the server, and generally make use of all server resources
that can be shared.

As an example:

On the server you create a folder C:\DATA\ACCOUNTING then you share
ACCOUNTING and give FULL permissions the GRP_ACCOUNTING_RWED

Now, you put some domain users into the GRP_ACCOUNTING_RWED group.

Now, on the server you create a login.bat file with the following:

: Unmap the T drive and map T to accounting share
net use T: /delete /Y
net use T: \\servername.domain.local\accounting

Now, you run the bat file as the admin and see that it creates a T
Network drive that you can see in MyComputer.

Now, copy the bat file to each home computer and then run it - this will
map the ACCOUNTING share on the server to their local T drive, only
memebers of the GRP_ACCOUNTING_RWED can get access to it

The RWED stands for ReadWriteEditDelete as in NTFS permissions - we also
do a GRP_ACCOUNTING_RONLY for those users that have ReadOnly permission.

Now, to map a shared printer on the server to the workstations, you open
My Computer, type \\servername.domain.local\ and press enter in the
address bar, you will see all the shared resources, right click on the
printer and select "Connect" - it will install the shared printer on
your local HOME computer.

This means you can access domain resources without having to purchase
Professional, but you don't get the benefit of having a AD controller.