Need Small Office Setup Advice!

[michael_fett]

Need some advice. I currently have 10 Windows XP Home machines linked
together in a workgroup. One of the machines is setup as a “Server,†even
though it’s just XP Home with a simple file share. The rest of the computers
have a mapped drive to the “server†share. Currently there is no backup of
any kind. My main goal is to just achieve some sort of backup plan, but I
also would like to plan ahead for a WSBS server.
Option 1 – Purchase a WSBS Server, upgrade all machines to XP Pro.
Option 2 – Purchase a Windows Home Server?
Option 3 – Purchase an External hard drive with syncing software. Attach to
“Server.â€
Keep in mind that money is very tight right now. Option 1, would probably
be the best but It cannot be afforded at this time. So I’m left with Option
2 & 3. I don’t know anything about a Windows Home Server other than its
supposed to work with XP Home. I was also told that XP Home will not work
with a WSBS Server (Client machines need to be XP Pro)? Does anyone else
have a better option?

michael_fett

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 5/29/2008 7:45 AM, and on a whim,
(e-mail address removed) pounded out on the keyboard:

Need some advice. I currently have 10 Windows XP Home machines linked
together in a workgroup. One of the machines is setup as a “Server,†even
though it’s just XP Home with a simple file share. The rest of the computers
have a mapped drive to the “server†share. Currently there is no backup of
any kind. My main goal is to just achieve some sort of backup plan, but I
also would like to plan ahead for a WSBS server.
Option 1 – Purchase a WSBS Server, upgrade all machines to XP Pro.
Option 2 – Purchase a Windows Home Server?
Option 3 – Purchase an External hard drive with syncing software. Attach to
“Server.â€
Keep in mind that money is very tight right now. Option 1, would probably
be the best but It cannot be afforded at this time. So I’m left with Option
2 & 3. I don’t know anything about a Windows Home Server other than its
supposed to work with XP Home. I was also told that XP Home will not work
with a WSBS Server (Client machines need to be XP Pro)? Does anyone else
have a better option?

michael_fett

Hi Michael,

If funds are tight and you're just sharing files, you might want to look
into a network drive:
http://www.epinions.com/Network_Storage--reviews--21069_external

They connect directly to the network rather than being an external drive
attached to a computer.


--
Terry R.

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[michael_fett]

HUM!!! Very interesting. I Like that idea, nice work.

Any others want to chime in?

michael_fett