I’m consulting for a company who has lost their original IT admin/tech guy but they have purchased 2 server towers & have slated the following to be installed on each:
1. Windows 2003 server w/ Active Directory for 1 domain
– 512 Mb RAM > 2.40 GHz > Intel Pentium (R) IV (x2)
2. Windows XP pro sp2
– 1024 Mb RAM > 2.40 GHz > Intel Pentium (R) IV (x2)
– has a 4 port 10/100 ethernet card + 1 onboard 10/100 ethernet port
I’m assuming that the XPpro 5port computer is to act as a file server since they’ve got the extra NIC card in there. The files that they serve are really not so big in comparison to many companies. Here’s who & what they would be sharing:
– AD totalling abuout 30-80 users max
– 50-100 non editable PDF files (ranging from 1Mb to 100Mb in size)
– a networked inventory/purchasing/tracking database system running on SQL
– an Excel based network program linking to 5-10 excel files
All shared files & db is accessed by almost all network users & almost simultaneously. Most users generate very few files, since the network is in a manufacturing site as opposed to a high file output company like a multimedia company.
My questions:
…what are the security issues with file sharing in this manner? Esp. with file sharing from XPpro?
…is it worthwhile them to upgrade the XPpro OS to another OS like Win2003 for the added cost?
…General Pros & Cons with this setup
…Reasons to pay more & upgrade to a second Windows2003 server
– eg. can have an alternate Domain controller for logins