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Upgrading Network

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by mob_dream

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Dear All,
I have got a small project and I need your help if you don't mind please.
the scenario is as the following:

A small network contents of 2 servers (A and B)
Server A: Is an ISA 2000 server and is used to share internet connection for users.
Server B: Is a Windows 2000 server with Active Directory, File Server and Exchange Server.
There are around 25 workstations (Win XP sp2)

- now the company wants to cancel the exchange server coz they are going to use pop e-mail accounts for all users so that they can send and receive globally.
- Also they want to upgrade windows 2000 server to Windows Server 2003 so that it supports win xp better.
- I'm wondering if we cancel the exchange server is the performance of the Server going to be better coz it's very slow right now.

Please guys if any one can help with this small project I would be thankful.

MOB

6 replies

by bincarnato

Can you better explain what you mean by the server is slow. Is it slow openeing mail, files, booting, or etc? Do you understand that any performance that may be gained by removing exchange will probably be lost by going to Win 2k3 server? If the company wants global access to mail you could setup Outlook Web Access and then they would have access to thier mail globally and not loose the increased functionality that Exchange provides? What is it that they would like to gain in increased support for WinXP by moving to Win 2k3 server? Could that money be better spent on hardware (memory, hard drive, or processor) to resolve the slow performance once you determine what the source of the performance issue is? I know this may not be much help as a direct answer to your question but if you haven't answered these questions and do what you described, not only have you not resolved the issues that are prompting this change, you have decrease functionality of thier network.

by mob_dream

Thank you bincarnato so much for your post. Well they were using exchange server for local e-mails only and some users use web based e-mail for internal and external communication. I suggested them to cancel the internal mail server and instead use the pop web based mail (there company domain) because exchange server needs real IPs and they do not have plus the administration efforts.

Also they said the server is very slow especially when they connect a new computer (win XP) to the domain and they want to upgrade the OS to win 2k3 for new advanced features.
My idea is to do theses steps:
1- Let the manager create mailboxes for everyone (web based) and then configure there outlook to use it.
2-After switching users from old e-mail address to the new one, I'm going to cancel the exchange server services.
3- I need your help.!!!

I'm sorry for replaying to late I just got busy.

by bincarnato

First, look at the system requirements of Win2k3 Server and compare with the hardware in the server. Keep in mind that thos requirements are for Win2k3 only and if you run any additional software on the server that it will affect performance. Also, in Outlook when you move to the pop based email, you'll want to make certain to tell Outlook to leave a copy of the message on the server if they want to also use the web client to look at thier email.

Another consideration is to run Windows 2k3 Small Business Server. It has a POP Connector that can download email from a pop server. Then just setup a dynamic dns service like DynDNS and then users can go to www.yourdyndns.org/exchange and use Outlook Web Access to view mail.

by mob_dream

Dear Bincarnato,
Thank you again for your support. I'm thinking of removing old exchange server first and upgrade memroy for the server. Then I will try and check the performance of the server if it got better then that's enough.

What do you think about this idea.

by bincarnato

Is memory usage the cause of the performance issue? Identify what is causing the performance issues before spending money.

by mob_dream

bincarnato I would like to thank you so much for all the efforts. I have learned so many things from you in this discussion.

I am going to do what you have told me and see the results.

All the best
mob

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