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Inexpensive Network Servers?
Linuxthess asks: "I work in a small company with only 20 or so employees. Being the most tech-savvy of them I find myself doing less work as a salesman, and more as their non-paid tech support. I was asked for a solution to create a domain for login authentication, a DHCP server, a webserver, file & printer services, and e-mail. I found three such companies with an inexpensive, yet solid products aimed at what we need: one is Celestix with their Aries and Taurus products; there is a company in Chicago called Dartek which sell a custom-built box called iMass which comes in three flavors; and lastly a company in Canada named Net Integration Technologies Inc who has a box named Net Integrator that is available in various flavors. Does anyone have experience in regard to these solutions? I think we will go along with the Taurus, but I want to hear a little more regarding the quality of doing this job inexpensively (these things start from $800 and go until $3000). I spoke with a tech-support guy, and he told me customers buy a couple of these since they're so cheap for redundancy, and clustering."
just how computer savy are you?
do you have linux experience?, BSD?
i would suggest that if you are, that you go with comodity hardware, only the best equipment, and dont confuse highest quality with top of the line.
AMD chips have proven themself very reliable and very fast for the price.
Get a good ASUS,Soltek,Soyo,Abit, or Tyan motherboard and an AthlonXP 1500+, this is all you should need for a small office like you have, in fact prob. a little more.
get crucial, corsair, or mushkin DDR memory. Some others are fine to but GET GOOD RAM!
you can build a modest server for $600-$800 and run a Linux or BSD. You choise of distro but some are easier than others. For a super easy distro, mandrake8 has everything you need including samba, DHCP, and email servers on the disk, and it can be downloaded for free OR a version with some tech support can be had on the cheap from mandrakesoft.
Also, Redhat offers setup and tech support for a good price on servers. They would come and set your system up for you and get you started, make your life easy for not too much $$. And RedHat is a very solid distro.
Debian is GREAT, but hard to set up if your not a "guru"
you can make a VERY good performing comodity PC function just fine for you until your company grows to need a higher end system.
If you don't decide to buy a premade solution, we're very happy with our Sun Netra X1s and at $995, they're quite affordable.