three desktops comunicate via lan to one of the computers disk. we want to eliminate all of the desktops with one server.
2006-11-20 01:57:37 · 8 answers · asked by den 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Computer Networking
sorry unclear question by untrained person. We have three desktops, all old and unreliable, we want to replace with a server with three monitors. is this possible?
2006-11-20 02:11:10 · update #1
Yes Rationalm, that is what we want. We just dont know what equipment we need or what to call the hardware to order it.
2006-11-20 02:19:13 · update #2
If I understand correctly, you want to replace three old desktops with a single computer that all three users access at the same time?
acklan is correct, you CAN do it with a single server and three dumb terminal connections but it will cost a bundle.
It would be more cost efficient to just buy three upgraded PC's and network them together as before.
If you need them to share files, you can always buy a fourth PC/Server and use that as a file server and have all three store files there.
Another option would be to keep your old desktops, buy a powerful server with Windows 2003 running three virtual servers and have each user use their old PC's to remote into one of the virtual servers with remote desktop. That's kindof a funky way to do it though... I'd suggest going with the last option.
2006-11-20 11:09:26 · answer #1 · answered by The Psycho 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Have you misworded your question? Are you asking, "Can three computers be replaced by one computer, a server?". The answer in either case is yes.
If you have three computer accessing one computer, and you only use one computer at a time. I believe that would be a great idea.
If you are using the computers for file storage only and not to work with programs a simple solution wold be a NAS (Network Attached Storage). In the link below is an example of a NAS*. It can either be connected to a LAN via ethernet or directly to a desktop\workstation\notebook by USB 2.0. If you have a LAN you can connect to the router\switch\hub. If you are consolidating to just one computer just plug into the USB port on the single computer.
For simple file serving you can use a desktop with Windows 2k or XP Pro and MySQL** as a no cost alternative.
Add On:
From what you added you would be best of with a basic desktop (Around $800) and a NAS ($200 to $500) so that they can share storage and have backup incase one of the computers fail. Tie them all together with a basic router ($40 to $80). If you go this route stay away from wifi. Beleive it or not you can by all of this at Walmart. off the shelf.
What you described in your last addon is call a terminal server. That is a cost you really don't want. Just the software will cost you $1000+, and you will not be able to configure it yourself.The cost would be $3000 to $5000 to install a server and another $3000 for 3 "Thin Clients".
Sorry if I went over board.
2006-11-20 02:21:21 · answer #2 · answered by acklan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Terminals that did/do not have a harddrive of their own and run of a server as you would like are called 'dumb terminals'.
What you do is create one server, then connect up to 3 dumb terminals to this server. This way, all the information is held on the server, and not on individual computers.
There is a downside, but it may not matter that much. Due to the 'dumb' terminal having to get all of its information from the server, it does take a little bit more time for things to be displayed.
2006-11-20 02:38:58 · answer #3 · answered by Mark aka jack573 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uhm... it sounds like you're saying that these three desktops connect to a server, yet you want to replace them with a server. I'm not understanding. If you're looking for storage, I'd say say replace them with a server. A Mac Pro would make a great server.
2006-11-20 02:03:23 · answer #4 · answered by UbiquitousGeek 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
quite extremely some topics, in a good number of cases as a ability to percentage some set of elements (printers, scanners etc) or to percentage information from one source extremely than duplicate them onto diverse computers. they could also act as an section proxy or for serving webpages (a internet server). the actual server might want to host any kind of software servers so long because it isn't overtaxed to the ingredient of being not waiting to service requests.
2016-11-29 07:32:13 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
um? well so you basically want everyone to use the same system? i guess you can do that there is nothing that says everyone has to have their own system. but you dont really need a server per se you could just use a regular workstation for that. if i am understanding this right which i dont know that i am. you may just want to ignore this answer all together.
2006-11-20 02:12:24 · answer #6 · answered by rationalm1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Marketing people have started talking about "thin clients" instead of dumb terminals. As usual, they don't feel obligated to stick to dictionary definitions, but searching thin clients is the easiest ways to get started with shopping.
To get you started with your shopping, I googled thin client and found:
http://www.thinplanet.com/
http://www.thinclient.net/
http://www.thinlabs.net
I should clarify, thin clients and dumb terminals are fairly minimal computers. The cost is very low for thin clients, as the server's the only one that needs to be valuable and reliable. You may find as you're shopping under thin client, the companies that market thin clients also have other solutions.
If you are interested in the meanings of thin client and dumb terminal, wikipedia's pretty helpful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_terminal
2006-11-20 07:05:42 · answer #7 · answered by btoblake 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if you are acessing a fourth pcs hard drive via 3 other pcs, you already have a "server"
2006-11-20 02:01:58 · answer #8 · answered by Helping Since 1969 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋