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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."
Save you 1/2 the money, and you generally know if the models gonna be a lemon or not. Youre not gonna need the top of the line server for office stuff anyway, just something reliable.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
you pretty much just described every flavor of linux and *bsd running samba, sendmail and a dhcp server.
just grab an old workstation, install Slackware(or whatever flavor you like) and you're golden.
plus as time goes on, you can upgrade to your heart's content with off the shelf components.
I'd go for the Mitel SME server, a _very_ easy to install Linux distribution made for these kind of situations.
Installation and maintenance is a no brainer.
I think Mandrake and Suse also makes similar products.
Wouldn't the most sense be to theme a KDE/Gnome install to look just like Win2k/WinXP/WinNT, and run Linux/*BSD under it?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I've been trolled, so I'll flame.
My company uses Linux extensively, and was just given $25million in 2nd round VC. So take that, troll. Just because you can't explain how Linux fits into the overall picture, doesn't mean that everyone else can't either.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Solaris 8 ships free with their hardware, and the PC NetLink package can be downloaded for free. $999 for a 1U rackable Netra server gets you native NT4-style PDC and BDC support (NOT Samba, licensed from AT&T way back), DHCP, DNS, HTTP, etc.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
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.
So a salesman-turned-techie is going to be able to setup a Win2K box, easier then a Linux box? Samba is fairly simple, even from a newbie point of view. DHCP? A cheap 486 with a Freesco disk stuck in it can handle his office.
I used to work with people like you every day. We had a Compaq Prolient that served as a RAS server in our office. When it came time to replace it, I convinced the management to let me install a cheap box, running Freesco. I replaced a Pentium III - 800 box with 2 - 9 gig SCSI drives and 512M ram, with a P75 with 16meg RAM, no HD, and it did the job just fine. The NT Admin wanted to go out and by a brand-new Win2K server with all the trimmings, and refused to believe I could accomplish the same feat on a machine, I bought for $20.
If he is going to get support, why does it matter if he runs, Windows or Linux? Is the Linux support worse than that provided by MS?
Vertical
72 CD D7 52 D0 7E D8 47 44 91 D5 84 D1 59 F1 A9-This is my 128bit integer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
That at the bottom of the Dartek page for the iMass they have a banner which says "Attention Slashdot readers: Receive an instant rebate off the iMass of your choice"?
The exact link to the pic is here. Odd eh? Talk about targeted advertsing
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I can vouch for that. A Windows machine to handle the really windows-ish stuff, and a slackware box for the heavy lifting is a good, balanced solution., and has worked very well for me in the past.
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.
Just another note - Get ECC memory. It costs a few bucks more, but if your chipset supports it (and almost all do since the BX) it is well worth it in the long run. A cheap, effective increase to data integrity is always a Good Thing.
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
The Cobalt Qube and Celestix servers are both excellent. The Qube 3 is actually exactly what you are looking for. Play with the demo here; get product information here.
I would recommend against going with a barebones, non-appliance box. The reason I recommend Cobalt/Celestix is that they are a cinch to set up. They both have web-based UIs that let you set up email lists, file shares, etc. easily. I've used the Qube3 extensively and it simply rocks. I haven't used the Celestix stuff personally, but I've heard that it is just as good as Cobalt.
Both are supported by a company that is used to supporting non-technical users, and neither require you to have a full-time Linux guru on staff.
Your other choice is to run a Windows 2000 server, which is also pretty easy to set up and maintain. The Windows server will be more flexible for the future. Still, for as small a company as you have, an appliance would be a better solution for now.
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