Any Windows Home Server Experts?

jcoutts

jcoutts

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Justin
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Don't know if this is the right forum? Mods feel free to move to out of focus or whatever.

Hi :help:

I was looking at this for a small business as a cheap solution to managing sharing of calendars and backup and a central source for data all client PCs use (4 of) use. Would convert an old PC add in a 500gb hard drive to a 2.8 Intel 2gb of Ram and put the necessary add ins.

All client machines would be new dual core 2.7, 3gb Ram and I have trawled the internet for days to look for the cheapest/best solutions for:-

1. Email Server - Free http://computingondemand.com/?p=932&page=2

2. Server Anti Virus - Free http://www.whsplus.com/

3. Online Backup - https://www.idrive.com/

My question is though I am fairly PC literate, I am new to server admin but is this doable and would this work O.K? Would this be really difficult to setup?

Does anyone else have any better solutions (Not Windows Business Server) loads of money!!!!....

Another thing that puzzled me was the server email address would be ***SPAMerver.com? but says it can be relayed - This does mean you can keep your original email domain Pop/SMTP domain when you actually deal with mail I'm hoping? e.g. ****@blueyonder.co.uk..

Hope i am making myself clear.

Views, advice and help all very welcome. :thumbs:

Thanks
 
or linux is free.

We use alwaysync at home as it backs up from one machine to the one sitting next to it, then the other does the same. Consolidated to one machine so need a better solution though.
 
Hi Justin,
what version of Windows will the client machines be running?
Many users have a Unix box of some sort for email server and some sort of unix based distribution acting as a NAS box for file serving.
I think the main reason is that it's cheap (maybe free), is inherently safe OS but firewalls can also be configured.
Network servers are easy to configure (with suggested defaults) but large commercial operations can be very complicated because of different client requirements.
Have a look at a site called Garfnet http://www.garfnet.org.uk/ .He is a very experienced business user who has survived without Micro$oft and seems to have answered all of your concerns.
 
incidentally if you go down the windows xp route i can recommend something like:

http://woppoware.com/index.htm

(more up to date alternatives might be available)

for email serving and proxy if you want to tidy up your internet browsing too. i used it many moons ago in a satelite office and it worked supurbly.

as for OS security, keep it patched and AV'd (avast/ms security essentials) and itll be fine.
 
If you fancy something different I've been messing around with http://www.amahi.org/ for a month or so. It runs on an old laptop with 1.5Tb of external storage plugged into it. Seems to do the job with no hassle and both Windows, Mac and Linux boxes can attach/see and use all the files with no additional effort.

All of the features (DNS server, Mail Server, Webserver) are easy to configure using the webmin module. Because it's bundled with Bind DNS, you can use any domain you own (or anything you make up for internal stuff)

The only thing I would say is that running and maintaining a mailserver is a world of pain and aggravation that to be honest is best bypassed if possible. I tried but soon got more than a little fed up with the hassle, so just use Google now to manage all of the mail for most of my domains (it costs something like £50 pa) but may save your hair.........
 
I use WHS but to be honest, what you are looking to do requires far more from the server than it is intended to deliver. On top of the built in shares and backups (which are great - restores, even bare metal ones are simple) you can set up a mail server etc but my first question would be why? In such a small business environment, I'd be looking more towards outsourcing email, calendaring and the like. Take a look at Google Apps http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html The standard edition is free and the business one starts at $50/user/year. Much better than running your own show.
 
Hmmm, well I did look at ubunta but I didn't feel confident with setting that up. The WHS seems to be a simple more user freindly interface.
 
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