YWAM Information Technology

Hi,
sounds like a somewhat tough job to get all these together on a network. The probably best suggestion I have for is, be patient.

I'm working in an office with mainly Macs (OSX 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 & a couple Media 100 with OS9.2) plus my Linux machine and every once in a while a Windows XP is around. So far I have never been able to connect from any of the Macs to an WinXP, but I think they all have been Home edition.
If I'm not mistaken than XP Home only connects to max 4 other machines at any given time. I dunno how it is with W2k Home vs. Pro. Although I must say that I never had trouble connecting a Mac to my W2K Pro, when it was still alive (God bless this faithful machine which is in computer heaven now). I never figured out how to do it the other way round. You didn't mention whether the W2K's are Home or Pro. But this could be something worth to investigate how that really is with the Home vs. Pro. You also mention 1 desktop with WinXP, I'm assuming this is Home since you specified the laptops and the server as XP Pro.

I don't think that all these computer belong to YWAM, right? So, something to start with would be to make sure that all settings on all machines are correct. Changing a setting on ones personal computer might cause trouble with the networking on your base. With this particular machine, at least.

Before you throw out anything maybe, first of all, we can evaluate what you need and what your options are.
You have 15 W2k for data entry. What sort of data, does that depend on Windows in general and/or an old version of a program that does not run on anything newer (I hope this isn't the case)? Or are they there because you had them and they simply do what they are needed for? Is that data local or in a shared directory on the server or is that a database on the server??
In other words, could these machines replaced with something else? What is YWAM and what is private owned, anyways?

Which leads me to the question which programs you need. Mainly I mean YWAM owned computers, since what people load on their personal is basically their own choice according to their needs. You didn't say anything about email server, etc. So, I assume you don't depend on any service like this on the server, really just and only file and printer sharing.

Another question that comes to my mind is, what about backup? Do you have backup, is everything from a local computer on the file server as well? That would mean there is some sort of serious HDD space available which probably could not simply be put on one of the G4's.

Possible solutions.
Get a Windows Server. By this I really mean a server version of Windows. This, for sure, requires new hardware for the server. But that should work "out of the box" (correct configuration assumed) with all your Windows machines plus the Macs can connect via a Remote Desktop. However, every computer that connects to the server needs a client license which cost real money and I don't think the base will pay for those who use a personal Mac and want to connect to Outlook or whatever.
All in all, this is a rather pricey option.
If you think that is too expensive than don't even look at a Apple server. Besides that I don't know how they network with Windows, anyways. A big advantage here is that no one needs to adjust to anything new really. Windows is still Windows, on a local computer or on a server doesn't matter.

Another option would be to go Linux. Ya, I know that would add another OS but let us take a closer look. First of all Linux has a piece of software called Samba. With that almost every OS can access the server for file sharing.
The next thing that comes to mind is your W2k machines. Unless you have a special service contract with MS the OS is no longer supported. Means, no more bug fix, etc. You are stuck in case of security issues, you depend on the programs that are (still) available and supported for W2k. Sooner or later you will be stuck with old versions of programs. If you can update all these machines? I dunno, but to get 15 WinXP Pro licenses is somewhat pricey, anyways. From that point of view it might be worth thinking about to better go with a Windows server if the programs are Windows dependent.
If, however, the programs can be replaced with Linux available stuff you could install Linux and have up-to-date programs and OS. If, of course, the machines are powerful enough for an up-to-date Linux. But you also could set up a remote desktop connection to a Linux server or get rid of W2k all together and install a Linux Terminal Server (LTSP). In case of Linux you only have to pay for the hardware. I believe Kevin can give you some insight about the LTSP, the needed hardware, etc. Other computer then can still access shared folder(s) on the server.
So, with Linux you can have a "simply" file sharing machine (even without a desktop environment which will save some hardware resources), you can set it up for remote connections or you can have LTSP. All at no extra cost. Also, if you get a computer donated that someone just wants to throw out because it's too freaking old a new client cost you exactly as much as it cost you to pick up this computer. You connect to your LTSP, no extra client license needed.

Of course all that depends on your needs.

Without knowing what HD space you need. But if you decide to get a "ordinary" desktop and use it as server, you can get one with SATAII HDs. With that you can put 6 drives in your machine @ 1TB each at the moment. That gives you a theoretical 6TB storage. Minus OS etc of course. In that case it would be wise though to set up a RAID and add some redundancy. Depending on your needs you can have 2x3 drives mirrored and there you have a backup right in the machine with ~3TB storage. Broken HDs need to be replaced immediately, I guess that should not be necessary to mention. You also could then, when this system is up and running give your old server the same amount of HD space and mirror the 2 computers every night.

Well, as I said, things depend on your needs but also on your budget.
But I must say that so far my best experience is with Linux. If I only would have one OS (exact same version!) then I probably would stay with exactly that. But in a mixed environment... I never had trouble to get any machine at least in a terminal to connect to Linux, pretty much works out-of-the-box. But I had trouble connecting Macs with Macs, actually even with the same OS version, not to speak of mixed environments. So much for the "simply works" adds. What ever way you go, be patient and expect some work that needs to be done. I never had a "simply works" experience. If it just works, great, if not you work to make it work. That's just how it is.

I know, that was not exactly the info you were asking for, I guess. But maybe there are a few ideas that help you get going.
Ah ya, before I forget. Keep your hair right where they are. Better throw the computers out. In fact, I dispose them for you for free. ;)

Greetings from the MatriX,
neo