thinking of building a Windows 2000 server system, suggestions...

[Snow-Munki]

Hi,

been looking for a few jobs and the ones i want always say Windows 2000 experience needed.... now i know a bit about this but not that confident and be nice to know it much better...

i was thinking of building a 'server' putting windows 2000 on it and messing around with it, then maybe acting as a file server / mail client etc etc

now i don't really know this side of it... so umm what do i need, spec wise and software ?

umm yeah so a few pointers would be great, then maybe even purchasing my own webspace is it ? to host email and webspace ???

thanks !

[nichomach]

Win2K server will run quite happily on some rather old kit; myself, I used a PII 350 with 128MB on it for this purpose for a while, but I could have got away with less. Get yourself some evaluation software fromTechnet - you'll probably be rebuilding often anyway, so it doesn't matter that it's time limited. I know that the stuff they're currently shipping is 2K3, but Active Directory is Active Directory...
If you want to run your own mailserver, you'll need a domain registered; and then you either need a static IP address from your ISP, or you can use a dynamic IP address with a dynamic DNS service like DynDNS. You then need a mailserver - and one of the evals MS ship is Exchange Server; lucky, that . By the way, if you're on broadband, check if your router supports a service like dyndns; some do, and it can be quite handy since you don't have to put your shiny new windows box on the bad old Internet for it to receive mail. You just configure your router to provide a virtual server for SMTP...

[directhex]

server 2003 is lovely, there are 180 day evaluations available of that

i.e. it's orders of magnitude faster than 2k.

i ran it on a p2-350 with 768mb ram.

[Snow-Munki]

thankgs guys... will start reading up on this now.. any decent sites with a few beginners guide ?

also what's the main differences between:

2000 server / 2003 server / SBS / exchange / active directory ?

what other bits of kit does it need ? as will all the other pc's in the house log into this server, therefore needs more 'power' ?

and i assume it can be plugged into any network point and not to the broadband... and yeah on broadband blueyonder here with a router, not sure if it does the DNS thing though...

probably take it a step at a time...

[nichomach]

2000 server / 2003 server / SBS / exchange / active directory ?

2000 and 2003 Server are the basic server OS platforms. SBS is a kind of server suite which includes the OS plus Exchange, SQL Server, ISA Server etc on a single box. Basically not recommended for anything but small networks. Exchange is MS's messaging server; email plus add-ons for IM, faxing etc available. Active directory is basically the user and computer accounts database for a 2K or later domain (logical grouping of windows computers). Usernames, passwords, email addresses etc, and Exchange is very tightly integrated with it. You can also use it to deploy software and define machine settings if you get into Group Policies (and you'll HAVE to to administer a domain effectively).

what other bits of kit does it need ? as will all the other pc's in the house log into this server, therefore needs more 'power' ?

Actually, if all you're initially doing is file and print services, it doesn't need much processing power at all; a fast disk subsystem is more important. If you get into Exchange and other server-side applications, then yes, a bit more poke is required, since they're quite intensive (or can be).

and i assume it can be plugged into any network point and not to the broadband...

Absolutely, especially if you're using a virtual server defined at the router for mail from the outside world - that can point to any internal address. I would say that if you were doing that you'd need to give the server a static address on your internal network. Also beware that if you use DHCP from your server (as you may well wish to do) that the server's DHCP service doesn't clash with the router's. Use one or the other.

and yeah on broadband blueyonder here with a router, not sure if it does the DNS thing though...

probably take it a step at a time...

The only way...and look forward to...interesting times...

[Snow-Munki]

hey,

thanks very very much for that.. helped clear up a few things, so technically SBS would be the best option but obviously cost a LOT i take it ... might start with windows 2000/2003 server and mess around with that a while...

got a couple hundred qiud coming in this month hopefully, so will buy a cheap rig to mess around with me thinks

[Jiff Lemon]

I'd recommend picking up either a 2k or 2k3 server MCSE study book and working through it. Most a pretty good and give you practical stuff to try, so you avoid the "it runs, now what?" scenario.

[nichomach]

I'd recommend picking up either a 2k or 2k3 server MCSE study book and working through it. Most a pretty good and give you practical stuff to try, so you avoid the "it runs, now what?" scenario.

Quite so; and Snow-Munki? I'd get the separate OS and apps in preference to SBS. It'll be easier to deal with book examples like that and you'll probably find that any network big enough to require someone to look after it won't be using SBS anyway. SBS is actually quite cheap by comparison with buying the OS and apps separately, but like I say, I'd get the evals and play with those.