Networks

Where to start? You should probably think about Windows Server 2003 SBE (Small Business Edition) as your file server with Active directory installed (That's another issue). The hardware requirements are : Raid Array (Raid 5 min 3 disks), Backup (Tape/DVD/External USB HDD ?), Dual Processor (min 2Ghz)with lots of RAM (It's cheap - 4Gb) HDDs should be a calculated size - i.e how much data have you got now and how much will you produce over the life of the server plus a little extra for saftey. You don't need a flash grapics card or sound card. The specs I have given you are so that AD can work comfortably and you may need to use the server as an email server or some other app server. With all your user accounts in one place administration and security is more managable. You will have to still do a lot of reading on Windows 2K3 SBE etc. Good luck.