Re: SBS 2003 Setup - 1st Timer Questions

Hi Po,

From your posts, I haven't been able to determine if you're an IT
consultant, an employee of the business, or simply an interested 3rd party.

I'm not finding any info on X-Setup Pro where it talks about "joining" an XP
Home Edition machine to a "domain". Rather, X-Setup appears to provide you
with a plug-in that will "automatically log you into the domain". I think
this is extremely misleading. There can be a world of difference between
"joining" a domain and "logging into" a domain. I believe the only
advantage X-Setup may provide is that a user may not be constantly prompted
for credentials when trying to navigate or access the various shares on the
server. Then again, I'm not even sure that it would work properly with SBS
2003 and it would certainly leave you in an unsupported position as far as
troubleshooting issues are concerned.

SBS 2003 installs as a domain controller. As such, in order to utilize the
features (almost all of them), the workstations need to be joined to the
domain. I don't believe anyone is going to be able to tell what features of
SBS may or may not work with an X-Setup login. If you're unable to setup
your network with the most basic of the SBS installation guidelines, I'm
afraid you're going to be on your own when it comes to setup, support and
troubleshooting. (I don't mean that our forum couldn't provide some minimal
amount of support; I just mean that you're so far off the targeted network
design that no one here may have any experience to draw from). And the
X-Setup forums will probably be of little value.

XP Home Edition on domain network
http://www.x-setup.net/forum//showthread.php?t=44

If the business owner cannot provide the financial support to upgrade the 5
workstations to XP Home Edition, I would walk away from trying to force-fit
SBS 2003 into their network. At best, you'll be using it as a glorified
workstation operating system only for file sharing. At worst, the users may
experience so many problems and issues that your reputation will suffer.

Again, a better suited product would be Windows Home Edition (which can
provide file sharing, workstation backup, etc.) for XP Home Edition
networks.

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================

"Powlaz" <Powlaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46B70FE6-6ED9-45C0-B467-2D4FD53958B6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Merv, thanks for keeping up with me. It's not that I don't want to use
(well
in some cases it is) the features of SBS it's that I thought what you all
were telling me is that I can't. Also my (apparent) confusion about
joining
XP Home to a domain has everything to do with Xteq who says their software
X-Setup CAN join XP Home to a domain. What they don't mention is what
features of Windows server will and won't be available to the XP Home
computer.

Po

"Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" wrote:

In your current mode, SBS will be alone in its own domain and all the
workstations will be need to be in a workgroup.

Windows XP Home Edition will NOT join a domain. If none of the included
features of SBS 2003 will be used (except file sharing), I believe SBS is
the wrong product for your needs. You would be better off with Windows
Home
Server (assuming less than 10 workstations in your LAN) or simply
upgrading
a workstation to Windows XP Pro and using it as a file sharing device
(again, with a limit of 10 workstations acessing those shares).

Windows Home Server
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================

"Powlaz" <Powlaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E82484E5-623C-4A85-BABD-570FE3C8A047@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone, thank you so much for the information you provided. It
appears
my
problem with the Administrator account was that I forgot the password.
You
all probably new that. Nonetheless I started the install over to
include
every component of SBS2003 as suggested.

The Windows XP Home computers can not be upgraded. There simply is no
money
in the budget to do it. I am doing this for a company that isn't
willing
to
spend a dime on adding this server to their network. In exchange I get
the
time and freedom to learn as I go which I think will be a big help to
me
when
it comes time to try for my MCSE certification.

If I understand correctly I will be asking for trouble by trying to get
the
XP Home computers to do anything more than share files with this
server,
right? Essentially I'll be setting up a workstation then with a server
OS?

Disregarding Microsoft's intentions for a moment everyone will concede
that
XP Home can be joined to a domain, correct?

Am I better off demoting the domain controller so as to include this
server
(it is the only server that will be on the network, not replacing
another)
in
the existing workgroup OR should I join the XP Home pcs to the domain?

What features/services, relative to being in a domain, can the server
provide the XP Home pcs?

I know now that I can't/won't use Exchange, Outlook, Sharepoint, Remote
Web
Workplace, web hosting.

Can I share folders from the server? Install a print server? Run
login
scripts? Will group policy work?

This company is a very small company that might as well be run out of
someone's house. They are very informal, not at all secure, and not at
all
concerned about being set up as a business should. In other words,
even
if I
had a fully configured server (with mega-RAM and SCSI drives, dual
NICS,
super processing power) to handle all of the features of SBS they
wouldn't
use them. For instance, there is no benefit to opening Outlook for
email
when they can IM on the same page that they pick up their POP3 email
now.

So I guess what I'm trying to learn is what attributes of a server CAN
I
give them . . . please don't ask why they even want this thing. I
don't
know.

Thanks,

Po

"James Hurrell" wrote:

Powlaz wrote:


3. I am not installing Exchange, Sharepoint, or web hosting. I'm not
ready
to take it all on yet. However I would like to install Remote Web
Workplace.
After selecting this option I'm prompted for a FQDN to use for my
web
service certificate. My network domain is a .local address, though I
do
have
a website hosted by someone else. I can't make sense of what to do.


Just my thoughts: do install everything - just don't use it if you
don't
need it. On my very first install, I chose not to install Exchange as
my
mail is hosted elsewhere (but will be coming back to SBS in due
course)
and I had a right nightmare. Lot's of things don't work (you don't get
mailed the Performance and Usage Reports for one thing). In the end I
scrapped the first install and redid it all from scratch, installing
everything.

Also SBS seems to function better when you do it how it likes it done
(as Russ says, use the Wizards!).

James







.

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