XP ' file-server ' possible ?

daveza

daveza

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I can't find a simple answer to this one....

Client has 5 workstations on XP Pro accessing files on each others pcs across the network.

Instead of purchasing 5 copies of Acronis or whatever and maintaining 5 different sets of files it would make sense to put all the files on one box which would simplify backups.

Is it feasible to do this just using an XP box with say 4 Gigs Ram and a Dual Core CPU - the shared files are all xls pdf or docs.

I know the ideal solution is to use a proper server but the cost is prohibitive and just seems overkill for their needs.
 
A very bad idea, your data will take longer and longer over time to copy no matter how much you defrag it. I just dealt with a "Windows XP" server last week where the file system had basically given up.

http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html
Its free and easy to setup.

Use the money you were ganna spend on Acronis on an extra drive for raid. Or get one copy of Acronis for linux.

If you want to use that XP machine as a desktop still, then my suggestion is mute.
 
File sharing on XP is limited but you can create local users and grant each local user access to a share, then you can map a drive to the share on the other workstations using these user names but if access is not an issue you can grant "everyone" access.

To speed things up add the name of the "server" the host file with the correct IP... not the ideal solution but hey for small environment like that it will work fine.
 
w1z4rd said:
A very bad idea, your data will take longer and longer over time to copy no matter how much you defrag it. I just dealt with a "Windows XP" server last week where the file system had basically given up.

http://www.clearfoundation.com/Software/overview.html
Its free and easy to setup.

Use the money you were ganna spend on Acronis on an extra drive for raid. Or get one copy of Acronis for linux.

If you want to use that XP machine as a desktop still, then my suggestion is mute.
Click to expand...

Assuming Acronis is a syncing app (SVN ?) there are alot of free ones tortoise being a good one will keep a set of folders in sync... and will also keep a change log as to who changed what etc ... download a free SVN (for the "server") app and use tortoise on the desktops
 
The best solution would be to use a dedicated machine for a file server - throw linux on it and you're done. I specialise in these "small" server setups for small offices and have setup two similar servers for offices in Cape Town. PM me if you would like some more info.
 
Just note *digging deep into memory* that with service pack 2 of XP they limited the concurrent tcp connections to a XP Pro pc to 10 connections. The problem is that it is not 1 connection per pc, when you map the drive you use 1 connection have one file open that is another and so on. I would recommend http://www.freenas.org/ or something like that, its free easy and a breeze to manage.
 
Lucky you, I've got a "XP file server" (celeron 512mb ram) that has 7 people connecting to it and has the IP Camera and Printers/Fax on it. It is slow.
 
czc said:
Lucky you, I've got a "XP file server" (celeron 512mb ram) that has 7 people connecting to it and has the IP Camera and Printers/Fax on it. It is slow.
Click to expand...

Mine's a 3Ghz P4/512MB running with 8 people accessing (every few secounds) different tiff image files over the network, it also serves as the internet proxy/mail server, and also running a high speed Firewire document scanner with barcode recognition writing about 30 images / minute to the HD. I shudder to think about the work required of the read-write head on the HD.

XP ' file-server ' possible ? Yeah, you would be able to get away with it easily if you have to - xls, pdf , doc don't require 4GB RAM for a file server, not that WinXP will be able to use all of that.
 
Thanks all.

Mixed messages as expected - some say yes, some say can't be done or it's not a good move.

Linux - the client battles enough with Windows and I have no experience with Linux.

The surprising thing is there must be a need for a small ( very small ), simple business file server that will suffice for sharing files and running some kind of back-up app without having to break the bank or require rocket science to configure....
 
Hu?

Are you looking for a NAS?
NAS = "Network Attached Storage", is a file-level data storage connected to a computer network.

You buy the NAS machine and a hard drive, configure it using a USB cable and then plug it into the network and tell the users to use it.

A good 4 bay NAS costs about R4500 ( e.g. http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?products_id=862 for R4000 )
A good 2 bay NAS costs about R3000 ( e.g. http://www.techdigital.co.za/pWDN-2...2-BAY-NAS-SERVER-No-Hard-Drive--WDN-2000.aspx )

Your client can then buy more hard drives as needed.

But, you need to take backups into account, and I have no idea what kind of backup solution would suit your client.
 
daveza said:
Thanks all.

Mixed messages as expected - some say yes, some say can't be done or it's not a good move.

Linux - the client battles enough with Windows and I have no experience with Linux.

The surprising thing is there must be a need for a small ( very small ), simple business file server that will suffice for sharing files and running some kind of back-up app without having to break the bank or require rocket science to configure....
Click to expand...

The end user should never need to use the linux box, once it's set up, it just works - no extra config needed. This will most likely be the cheapest option and the most reliable. What I did with my last client was setup a file/backup server and remote access through ssh, so I could login and configure anything that needed changing. But give me a PM and I can explain more, I don't want to infringe on advertising rules on the forum :P
 
daveza said:
Thanks all.

Mixed messages as expected - some say yes, some say can't be done or it's not a good move.

Linux - the client battles enough with Windows and I have no experience with Linux.

The surprising thing is there must be a need for a small ( very small ), simple business file server that will suffice for sharing files and running some kind of back-up app without having to break the bank or require rocket science to configure....
Click to expand...

You dont need to know Linux for clearos. Its a simple web managed system thats easy as pie to setup.
 
w1z4rd said:
You dont need to know Linux for clearos. Its a simple web managed system thats easy as pie to setup.
Click to expand...

Some people are hard or impossible to ween off the MS tit and for others it's a religion.
 
Vis1/0N said:
XP ' file-server ' possible ? Yeah, you would be able to get away with it easily if you have to - xls, pdf , doc don't require 4GB RAM for a file server, not that WinXP will be able to use all of that.
Click to expand...

Agree. I woudl rather spend extra cash and get food drives, SATA obviously with 32MB cache. Also RAID the suckers, mirror is the easier to recover from a crash and you only need two drives. With the performance of modern drives you will hardly notice the speed penality.

(All our production servers run on mirror RAID and we do continous transactions on our servers 24/7 - OK, we run LINUX without the overhead of bloatware)
 
timvdwest said:
The end user should never need to use the linux box, once it's set up, it just works - no extra config needed. This will most likely be the cheapest option and the most reliable. What I did with my last client was setup a file/backup server and remote access through ssh, so I could login and configure anything that needed changing. But give me a PM and I can explain more, I don't want to infringe on advertising rules on the forum :P
Click to expand...

Agree. Regardless of OS the PC should be out of bounds. Secure password!!!! It should be an install and forget.

Before my LINUX days I used FreeNAS, a BSD OS, and was amazed at how well it worked. Had 3 PCs connected to it (Win2K, XP, Server2003).

At least with LINUX / BSD you do not have to worry with Viruses. I forgot about these nastied till Saturday when I was at a LAN and they hit my drive.

Also with uncapped, online backups are now a reality.
 
You're doing this wrong.

Q1 = How much data is being backed up, and how often, and will the stuff that is being backed up still be opened and locked by the user?
Q2 = Will an incremental backup solution work?
Q3 = Will a synchronise style backup work better?
Q4 = Is there a requirement for history in the backups? (i.e. Able to get a document from 7 weeks ago)
Q5 = Is there a requirement for handing the backups to a courier once a week for off-site storage?

Now you can begin to look for backup solutions that match the requirement.
 
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