R
Randy MacKenna
Hi,
I'm on the school board for a small private school, grades K through
8th. We have a small computer lab consisting of 25 workstations,
connected to a simple Linksys switch. We've been talking about whether
or not we need a server for this lab. The consultant we talked to says
we need the following:
Dell server, with RAID drives and Windows 2003 25 user licenses (around
$5000)
Client backup software (around $400).
Client software called "DeepFreeze" (around $400)
$1600 worth of consulting fees to set up and educate.
So, around $7500 total. That's a lot of money for our tiny school.
The main purposes for this are to run Virtual CD so the kid's don't
have to physically handle CDs at their workstations. DeepFreeze
assures a time-zero image of the client after each reboot - so as
things get mucked up during class time a simple reboot puts the client
back to the way it was.
The other use is to keep a folder on the server for each client, so
they can store documents on the server rather than on the client. And,
printer sharing.
I believe that I can do all of this with a decent desktop machine --
but I think I'm limited to 10 connections into this machine from
clients using Windows XP Professional.
If I have a lab of 25 kids, is there any way around this -- or do we
really have to go the "real server" route?
Thanks,
Randy
I'm on the school board for a small private school, grades K through
8th. We have a small computer lab consisting of 25 workstations,
connected to a simple Linksys switch. We've been talking about whether
or not we need a server for this lab. The consultant we talked to says
we need the following:
Dell server, with RAID drives and Windows 2003 25 user licenses (around
$5000)
Client backup software (around $400).
Client software called "DeepFreeze" (around $400)
$1600 worth of consulting fees to set up and educate.
So, around $7500 total. That's a lot of money for our tiny school.
The main purposes for this are to run Virtual CD so the kid's don't
have to physically handle CDs at their workstations. DeepFreeze
assures a time-zero image of the client after each reboot - so as
things get mucked up during class time a simple reboot puts the client
back to the way it was.
The other use is to keep a folder on the server for each client, so
they can store documents on the server rather than on the client. And,
printer sharing.
I believe that I can do all of this with a decent desktop machine --
but I think I'm limited to 10 connections into this machine from
clients using Windows XP Professional.
If I have a lab of 25 kids, is there any way around this -- or do we
really have to go the "real server" route?
Thanks,
Randy