win xp home networking

[Guest]

I am on the verge of purchasing five pc's that will be set up in a workgroup.
I found a great deal, the pc's come with xp home. The salesman informed me
that I can not accomplish this workgroup setup using xp home and that I would
have to upgrade to xp pro. Is he trying to make a quick $80 per pc. Does
anyone know where I can find networking information reguarding xp home, or,
does anyone know the maximum number of xp home pc's that can be set up in a
workgroup
type network. Thank you.

 

[Jack]

Hi
WinXP Home up to Five concurrent connections.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[Chuck]

I am on the verge of purchasing five pc's that will be set up in a workgroup.
I found a great deal, the pc's come with xp home. The salesman informed me
that I can not accomplish this workgroup setup using xp home and that I would
have to upgrade to xp pro. Is he trying to make a quick $80 per pc. Does
anyone know where I can find networking information reguarding xp home, or,
does anyone know the maximum number of xp home pc's that can be set up in a
workgroup
type network. Thank you.

Jef,

With the amount of detail that you've provided, I can only say that the salesman
is possibly misinformed, if not trying to make an extra $400. A workgroup of 5
XP Home systems will work perfectly well. If you add a 6th one, it still should
work OK. The limitation is that you can only have 5 simultaneous connections
("other computers that are permitted to simultaneously connect") to a server
(any computer sharing files) running XP Home. XP Pro ups that limit to 10. But
neither places a limit on the number of computers that you can have in a
workgroup.

On the other hand, it's possible that he is trying to sell you a product that
will serve you in the future (or some future), without requiring inconvenience
and pain. There are reasons why you don't want to use XP Home for more than a
couple computers, or in any office of this size. The salesman and I wouldn't be
too far in disagreement anyway.
<http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314882>
<http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpdifs.html>
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html>

 

[Guest]

Thank you both. Sorry for the lack of information. This network will be used
for a very small amount of file sharing and maybe sharing a printer or two.
Also, there will not be a server involved. I don't see the chance for much
growth in the future, so it looks like xp home will do the trick. Thanks
again, Jef.