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I just inherited/built from a heap-o-junk several old...old computers. The one I have now is win98 12G 450 processor, 128MB ram, and has 2 network cards.
I have a Windows 2000 pro license. Heck, I even got a license for server 2003.
What would you suggest I do with this? I have no real needs, but I want to experiment with different networking solutions. I heard there are things you can do with 2 network cards, but I am not sure what.
Any ideas or suggestions? I want to save my server software for a better computer. I may get a 2 GHz 1 G ram computer soon that I would like to put the server on. But that is another project. I only mention it if someone thinks I should put the server software on the machine.
Anyways...2 network cards + old machine....ideas?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Linux box- you could do all sorts of things with it. Server, firewall, built in webservers, ftp access, printer server, the list goes on.
Linux also does really well on older machines. Since the GUI is optional, you could have it not run most of the time when the server is just sitting there and you're not doing any maintenance.
Plus Linux can keep you plenty busy learning it- it's a lot of fun.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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Any linux suggestions? I looked into it, but I am very unfamilliar with linux. When I looked at Os to download, they all seemed to be for newer systems.
I am also trying to remember what specifically is the advantages of 2 network cards. I remember reading someothing a while back about how you can only do this cool thinkg (I thougth it was cool at the time) if you had two cards. I forgot what it was talking about and I am trying to remember.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Which cool things? There are a lot of things that you can do with two network cards that you can't do as easily with one -- firewalling springs to mind, as does internal routing -- but I don't know how interesting you find networking.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I like Mandrake (now Mandriva) and Red Hat (now Fedora). You should be able to find previous versions by poking around on their websites and FTP sites. The installation programs have gotten really easy. What processor does the computer have? Is it a Pentium3 450 MHz?
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I find everything interesting. I am like a computer sponge right now. I was a Social Worker but I wanted to move to education--it seemed the more productive thing to do is focus on front end problems.
A good friend who is an administrator at our district suggested I get a job at a school as a way to make myself known.
I got a job as a computer lab tech. It paid crap, no benefits, and it was only part time. However, it gave me time to get enough of a Masters to get a teaching certificate in Psychology and Business.
As I was in my GELP program (Graduate Educators Licensure Program), I grew to love computers. It is the only time I have truly loved my job.
I focused on that. I got my A+, Network + certificates and am working on my MCSA (and then my MCSE).
After a year here, I did so well that I got full time with benefits. This year I got a big raise and I am the only one who knows how to run our NT 4.0 network. Next week we are upgrading to 2003 Server! It will match my studies just perfect.
However, with computers you only know what you do. I started so far behind that I am just working and studying. I want to work with computers-not students. I feel I have finally found my calling for my career. It is just too much fun!
Next year, if I have my MCSA, they already guaranteed me a job with a $20,000 raise--putting me well above what teachers makes. I am making as much as first year teachers now.
So, to answer your question, in my spare time I am trying everything that is basic to improve my skills. I like the idea of setting up a firewall with 2 cards.
Do you have a webpage that gives me pointers how to start? I am pretty happy with where I am at, considering I have never worked much with computers and have al liberal arts education. But I have a long way to go!
I do what I need to do well, but there are lots of holes in my knowledge.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Check out this Home Linux Server page. There's lots of good info there, including a whole section about setting up firewalls. It's Fedora distribution oriented, but Linux is so similar it shouldn't be hard to do whatever kind you want. Best thing about Linux is it is free, so playing with it costs you nothing.
Also, Tom would be able to advise you better on this, but from what I understand it can be advantageous in the business you're in to be proficient in Linux as well. Nowhere like home to practice.
Posts: 1412 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I currently run a linux box, which is similar to what people are suggesting here. (It's actually been upgraded recently to another hand-me-down from a P75). It's got 2 NIC's one connects to the cable modem, the other to my network switch. This box does my firewalling through IPTables, as well as Network Address Translation. It's also a web server, and does DNS Cacheing. Essentially, to the rest of the computers on my network, it's the ISP. I'm a big fan of Debian. It's lightweight, and easy to maintain. (Not always easy to install, but, that's where the learning aspect comes in.) Google has linux specialized search http://www.google.com/linux which is good for finding lots of answers. You might also look for a local LUG (Linux Users Group) that you can chat with.
Posts: 26 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:This year I got a big raise and I am the only one who knows how to run our NT 4.0 network. Next week we are upgrading to 2003 Server! It will match my studies just perfect.
Oh, wow. This is a HUGE migration. How did you choose to architect your Active Directory?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Well, that is just it. I am wrapping my head around that dilemma right now. I know active directory is very different from Domains as NT4.0 knows it.
Right now we have one domain. Our server has multiple Hard drives (and partitions in a few cases) for our student folders, teacher folders, administration folders, et cetera.
We have groups that match these HDs. I create a student from a template depending on their grade, and a batch program creates the network folder.
With active directory it is different. I am waiting to hear back from the district to see if they have an architecture they want me plugged into or use. If not, I am tempted to see if I can import and export the data and keep it as a single domain.
I don’t want to have to reconfigure our 350 computers on a new network!
I am still reading. If worse comes to worse, I can have a district person come down and help me. I will do it over a weekend. I have found, however, that the district employees are not as proficient as I would like in the areas I need to keep our school chugging along.
Often times I have called them down for help only to have them fail. I then do independent research to solve the issue.
Don’t get me wrong, they are MUCH more experienced from me, but their skills are more specific to stuff like email, web pages, and exchange servers. I am the only person in the district that is assigned to one school. I am in the trenches working pure network administration duties with an occasional Hardware troubleshooting task. Teachers and students have been able to use the resources effectively with me here.
Many schools have defunct computer labs and broken computers. They are testing if having someone like me is worth it, and as a full time person, I can tell you it is. Our school is the most advanced, operates the smoothest, and has the least Hardware/software problems.
I am sure it will be very messy, but I won't start till I have a more firm plan. This conversion will be one more opportunity where I get my hands dirty, get to work, makes some mistakes, and figure out how stuff works so I can do a very good job.
I am halfway through an exam 70-290 (managing 2003 server) study book. I have all four 2003 books I am using as references.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote: I don’t want to have to reconfigure our 350 computers on a new network!
Yes, you do, believe me. AD will transform the way you control accounts, and it will make management of those 350 machines much easier. AD-based Group Policy in particular is a godsend.
If I understood you rightly, you guys are using Exchange for email, right? If so, are you still on 5.5?
I've done about fifteen AD migrations; if you have any deployment or configuration concerns (including suggestions for configuring all 350 of your PCs without having to touch them), feel free to drop me a line. I can't promise that I'll be able to answer any question you might have, but ten years ago I was in almost the exact same position and sympathize enormously -- both with the sense of discovery and the horrible nagging fear that you're missing something. And congrats.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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*grin* To that end, talk to someone about Volume Shadow Copy in Server 2003. If you've got the drive space, it saves multiple snapshot versions of all files AND makes it possible for users to recover any preserved version without calling IT to retrieve files from backup. And it's free.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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The idea is that you run VSS on the file server, not the backup server; it basically takes differential snapshots of file versions, so it uses significantly less space than multiple copies of a file (but still takes some major storage overhead). Your normal backup would still run, but users wouldn't need to resort to IT support calls to retrieve items from backup.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote: I've done about fifteen AD migrations; if you have any deployment or configuration concerns (including suggestions for configuring all 350 of your PCs without having to touch them)
I am not sure if I can, as 4 of our labs have DeepFreeze on them. Don't I have to unthaw them 1 at a time? I have different versions of DeepFreeze because we have 98 and xp machines.
However, I have a simple question. I am doing a studyb ook and am trying the labs at the end of each chapter, but they don't tell me how to add a computer to the network/server.
In NT4.0, I can just change the domain. In 2003, what do I change?
The Full Computer Name is "Server01.contoso.com" and the domain is "contoso.com". So do I change the xp domain to "contoso," "contoso.com," or "Server01," or "Server01.contoso.com"? Or is there something else I need to change?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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No, depending on your purchase of the administrative software for that product.
I'm surprised you aren't ghosting your labs to a single image if you have DeepFreeze. Why aren't you? (Note: what I mean is that DeepFreeze can restore a machine to a previous state that's been saved to a network resource. The advantage here is that if you have numerous identical machines, you only need to create ONE image, place it on a network share, and "restore" all the machines to that image every night.)
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It depends to some extent how you've architected the domain. Usually you want to use the full domain name in AD, so you'd enter "contoso.com" in the Domain field in the computer's Properties. (That would make the computer's full name Server01.contoso.com.)
For this to work, you need to make sure that DNS is already working correctly and is aware of your Active Directory, and you need to have the login information for an account that's authorized to add machines to the domain.
I might be misunderstanding you, though. Are you attempting to add an XP box to an NT4.0 domain, or to a new AD domain? Have you set up your 2003 DC yet?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:I'm surprised you aren't ghosting your labs to a single image if you have DeepFreeze. Why aren't you? (Note: what I mean is that DeepFreeze can restore a machine to a previous state that's been saved to a network resource. The advantage here is that if you have numerous identical machines, you only need to create ONE image, place it on a network share, and "restore" all the machines to that image every night.)
That quote is a little confusing to me. Ghost and DeepFreeze are two different products. I do have ghost images made from our 4 labs I keep as an emergency back up if I have to reformat a drive-like for a hard drive crash.
Each lab uses different computer models because they were bought at different times.
We have an really old version of DeepFreeze, and I don't think we can use it over the network. We use a really old version for 98 machines and a different version for Xp.
Part of the problem is I created multiple minilabs from old computer parts. Several teachers have 5+ Frankenstein computers. I also set up a mini lab in a portable with 15 rebuilt computers.
There is no single image I can use with those..but we will phase them out. The district just bought the most recent DeepFreeze product. When my server gets here, I will see if I can set up all the homogenous labs on a networked DeepFreeze--so I can push out updates more effectively.
Oooo my new server will be here soon!! Weehee...
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Architecture question: Right now every school has its’ own server. We (the district) has Linuxes, NT 4.0s, Microsoft 2000 and 2003s throught the district, and some schools have no servers. We do have a district 2003 server.
Here is my thinking. I connect our directory right under the school directory. So our server is like this: “server.mymiddleschool.schooldistrict.” Because of active directory students can keep their log on name throughout their school career in our district.
A problem is their student folders. I want them located at this school to preserve bandwidth. When a student transfers or graduates, how easy is it to send their folder to the server at the other school? I think the district is trying to set it up so everyone has 2003 in the next year, so I will use my school as a test.
Will the tech person over the other school have to create a new student folder? Will the student folder have to stay at the district server? Or is there a simple way as an administrator I can shoot off their folders from my server to the new school server? If I can, then students can keep the same folder their entire stay at our district.
I don’t need instructions. I self study well. I just need to know if you think it is worth it to set up our network that way. Is it a headache or relatively simple? What are some structures you have seen in school districts that impressed you?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote: I would like to suggest maybe investigating in ubuntu or one of its related projects.
Don't know if anyone at Hatrack has looked at it, but it looks to be a worthy endeavor.
That is a very good idea. I actually do have an ubuntu machine here (fugu13 recommendation). I was going to set up a ubuntu lab to use for a computer club, but our school is running out of electricity! I tinker with it from time to time. Someone else gave me a link for sever machine, and I will look at that once I pass my next cert test.
I have lots of old machines I built. I am getting a 2003 Server (machine plus software for the school). The district also bought me a personal 2003 server software I can use at home. I will keep it here to practice on it for a while. I think I will put it on an old 700Mgz machine. It will be my tinker toy---as soon as it arrives.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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