Connecting more comps to network than CALs

[latrosicarius]

Hello, I have a question about CALs... The version of Win2003 server I bought came with 5 CALs. When I installed windows i chose per device (which was default).

The server is the DNS and DHCP controller and computers can only connect to the internet if it assigns them an IP.

Does that mean that if I were to have a LAN party and there were say 6 computers on the LAN that one of them would not get assigned an IP?

Thanks

[Metier9]

well your buggered either way at my guess, even if you chose per server, its still 6 people wanting constant access to the server.

Why not just cut the server out and connect everyone up with a switch?

[badass]

MS are nice people. If you go over the licensing limit, one of 2 things will happen:
1. You will see lots of warnings in the event log but everything will work fine.
2. Everything will just work fine.
Be glad you're not using anything made by Novell

[latrosicarius]

Metier, everyone is connected to a switch, and the switch is connected to the router... however, I turned off DHCP on the router and enabled it on the server b/c the router was unreliable and was getting drop-offs every now and then

badass, thanks that sounds great :-D

Just one more question, do you think I should reformat with a "per user" CAL mode instead of "per device"? That way everyone could log in with the guest account? Is there any benefit of that? What about other devices like TiVo and NintendoDS that rely on the server for an IP? Since they dont have a User account, will it still serve them?

Thanks for the info!!