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eomha |
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saintly |
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[08-17-2000] eomha : We are a group of 25 people. Not well off but trying to work togeather.
We are trying to get basic understanding of:
What should be the hardware and internet configuration for Networking 25 computers for using cenralized Windows 98 or Windows 2000, centralized Office 2000 and Internet Access.
We are willing to pool funding to get one DSL or ISDN etc line.
We thankyou for your help.
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[08-17-2000] saintly :
You cannot, unfortunately, use one central copy of either the Windows OS or MS Office. Every computer must be running a separate copy of Windows98/2k and Office. This is for both technical and legal reasons.
What you *can* share, however, is files, expensive devices like laser printers, internet connections and talk to each other over the network.
The physical hardware for this would consist of 1 ethernet card (NIC) for each computer, several ethernet hubs (each hub comes with a set number of connections, you need to total more than 25 connections, with enough extra connections to connect the hubs to each other).
It would probably be best if you also bought one extra computer to have the DSL access, connect the printer to and host the shared files. You do not have to have one though; you can use computers that are already being used for that.
To share files and printers, the computers need to all be in the same 'Workgroup', have different unique names and have designated folders and printers that are shared for other people to see.
To share an internet connection, one computer needs to be set up with the DSL/Cable/whatever connection. Then all the other computers need to be assigned a unique IP address. All the other computers need to be told to use the connected computer as their Gateway onto the internet. The setup of all these features is not technically difficult and could be accomplished by someone moderately skilled in working with networks. Perhaps all set up in one day (perhaps 4-6 hours) with the person charging between $25-60/hr.
If you hire someone locally, you can expect ongoing support and maintenance as necessary.
Does this answer your question? If I missed some part of what you wanted to know, let me know and I'll try to cover it.
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[08-18-2000] eomha : Thank you for your prompt reply.
You have noted that I can not network Window 98/2000 or Office 98/2000.
Yet my understanding was that both are capable of running on a network.
I understand the licensing issue. May be we will need to get a license for networking Windows and Office 2000.
Our hope is to not to have to invest in expensive computers individually. Instead to invest collectivly in a good server and to harness the nework/server capabilities from our Pantium 100 and Pentium 133 computers. May be we will have to increase the RAM on our computers to 64 Meg. But rest of the investment should be for server and cables and network card.
What do you think ?
Another question : Do you know of any web sites that evaluate different Networking configurations for computers and Internet ?
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