Why have a server?

[billmckinstry]

Hi Forum, This may be a stupid question but when I review our small business server I am asking why have it??
We have a linux server with 3 to 5 winxp terminals.
It has cost us up to 20,000 some years but often 8 to 12,000 to keep all this running well.
Here in PNG Linux support is hard to find and our techie has been employed by a big firm and no longer needs to support his small clients for income.
With the great help from this forum I have managed to keep it all running but we have the some reality to face:
We share our windows data from one of the pc's as to use the server is very slow.
We have two internet connections. One is via an adsl which plugs direct to the switch and not via the server. The other is through the server (proxy) but generaly only handles mail. We have our own domain name and use imap mail.
We login to the server but this really only provides mail.
We did use Hylafax with cypheus front end but this became an overkill as it was far too complicated and feature packed for our small number of users. Nw we just use our internal modems and windows xp faxing and no hang ups.
Hylafax and cypheus are great but better for a bigger network where the expertise can be justified.
I hope this question is either not taken seriously or treated as an unbeliver.
Is there truely such a thing as a simple small business/home server ?
A server can provide security but as I mentioned one of our connections doesn't go throgh the server anyway.
The pc's all have antivirus.

What about bringing back the old fashioned mainframe and dumb terminals so that all we have to do is manage the mainframe whereas we now spend time on the server and terminals.

We do not play games (except farmtown!!)
Just looking for a KISS solution or is this like the meaning of life??

[retired1af]

As to your last question (like the meaning of life), the answer is 42.

How many users total in your company? Do you need to use a proxy? If not, I would set your server up for mail and file storage (SAMBA). Train your users to back up their files to the server and you should be golden.

[elija]

Go for the mainframe.

No really...

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April fool!

[billmckinstry]

Users are between 3 and 5 max.
We use Synctoy to backup data onto a pc's internal hdd (spare) and an ext hdd (we have two and swap them) Tape drives over the top in value.
Asked a local IT store to advise/qoute on a simple system for us and they came back with a 22,000 price plus a service contract for 6 hrs a month.
For 3 to 5 users? price was for the server only.
Long weekend now and I am thinking of re installing our server software with say Mandriva and see if it is more friendly and has some speed.
Current Horde email is slowwww and Clarkconnect 4.1 has limited GUI support.

[elija]

I can't speak for Clarkconnect as I have never used it. It might be worth considering Centos which is a straight recompile of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It has a full GUI and I know a lot of the members here swear by it. As it is Red Hat, it won't be cutting edge but it will be stable.

I prefer Debian for my servers. Like RHEL, it isn't cutting edge but again it's stable which is what a server needs.

No April Fools this time

[billmckinstry]

Tks. Stable is what we need.
I am sure if a pc manufacturer produced a simple pc for "office" use that didn't handle the latest games but was stable and had hard wearing parts it would be a seller.
The only thing out of ordinary we use is dual screen which allows us to process docs without the need to print same. The saving in printer toner in one month paid for 1 extra screen.
Will check my Linux Magazine discs for Centos and Debian.

[retired1af]

I can't speak for Clarkconnect as I have never used it. It might be worth considering Centos which is a straight recompile of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It has a full GUI and I know a lot of the members here swear by it.

I'll chime in and second the recommendation for Centos. Running it on our production server and it's very stable.

[Rubberman]

You can get some nice hardware w/ RHEL/CentOS server software running for a couple thousand $$ that will handle an office like yours very nicely, yet providing you some security and stability over doing server applications on your workstations (oops, forgot and turned it off before the weekend backup... doh!). Service (system & network management) can be outsourced and if they are good, you won't need them very often - a few hours every couple of months for a system checkup and tuneup, just like you would your car. Initial setup costs will vary, but make sure you get full hard-copy and electronic documentation of the system configuration, passwords, network settings, etc. as well as a full system image backup when the system has passed your acceptance criteria. In my workstation/server, I use a removable (lockable) carrier for my system disc, and keep a copy in another carrier, so if the system drive goes into lala land on me, recovery is a quick process of swapping the drive (unlock, slide out old, slide in new, lock) and rebooting the system. That added about $100 to the system, but it is well worth it from the business continuity perspective.

[billmckinstry]

Here in Papua New Guinea we do not have Linux support and server hardware is not competitively priced.
We have managed quite well with hardware over the last 10 years by using spec'd pc's as stand alone servers.
The problem has been support for linux. At one time there was a support guy but that was then.
I have managed to keep it together with the help of some glue and nails.
From info I pickup there is user friendly software out there (centos) but again, here in PNG, we can not just download a 600mb file to check it out. Until recently, we paid USD30c per mb and often our monthly bill was over USD500. This for a small 3 to 5 person office
Costs came down to USD8c per mb now but still there is a big risk that the download will fail and you have to start all over again.
Cheaper here to order a disc to be posted and download updates.

Have re installed the server software as a gateway imap mail server only and this seems to be very happy. Can email locally and rec from outside but can't send out. Covered in relevant forum.

Thanks again for the great advice and assistance.

[Rubberman]

Ok. If you need it, here is a site that will ship the latest CentOS DVD for $5 USD. Don't know what shipping is from them to Port Moresby, and I have never used them. I found a link to their site from the CentOS web site.

CentOS Linux - LinuxOnline.biz

FWIW, you can use just about any old PC with enough RAM and hard drive space to run a server. I didn't realize before when I made my comments as to where you were located.