Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 18:37:17 -0500 From: Matt Penna <mdp1261@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> To: Steve Brown <freebsd@prayforwind.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can FreeBSD do this... Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20020225180233.01e81c60@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> In-Reply-To: <20020225225248.HDT27257.tomts11-srv.bellnexxia.net@there>
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At 05:52 PM 2/25/02 -0500, you wrote:
>The proposal they've been offered involves a BB router, everyone behind it,
>including a Win2000 server. This would involve $1700 to Microsoft for
>licences. Would it be worth it to use an opensource solution or would it cost
>more than that for them to pay someone to figure out how to do it with
>FreeBSD?
Steve,
I did something just like this several years ago, only there were about 15
wintels in the office. I actually used Red Hat Linux, as at that time, I
had discovered FreeBSD only recently and wasn't that familiar with how it
worked, yet. Still, the principles are the same.
To answer your technical questions, yes, FreeBSD can do all of that. Samba
will give you an excellent Windows file and printer sharing solution, and
under most circumstances will actually work more quickly and reliably than
any MS solution, and cost 100% less. At my last job the file and print
server ran on NT4 and failed at least once every 3 months (apparently a
great record according to Gartner...); the Samba servers I have set up have
never failed even once. Your Mileage May Vary.
FreeBSD can easily do routing, though I don't have as much experience with
that as I usually use OpenBSD on my routers. I'm not sure I would suggest
having the fileserver double as a router - partly because of security,
partly because of concern for disruption should you need to do a system
upgrade for any reason. If you need to bring down the router because of a
bad NIC or perform a major security upgrade, everyone in the office can go
on working on their files and printing documents without incident -
assuming they don't need to get outside of the network for the balance of
their work.
A 486 can do a routing job of that size with power to spare. Go dumpster
diving or peruse Ebay and use any old machine you can get your hands on.
The last paragraph I quoted above is the important part. Are you saying
there's no one there who knows any kind of UNIX? If you're going to throw
UNIX boxes at a Windows admin who is either inexperienced and/or unwilling
to learn something new, you're going to have a disaster. The system will
not run well and the users will likely throw fits, evntually scrapping your
carefully designed UNIX solution in favor of a Microsoft solution because
that's what the admin knows.
In an office that size, I'd be surprised if there was a full-time IT guy to
begin with. In that case, find a student majoring in IT or Computer Science
from a local college and have him/her work part-time as a co-op or intern.
Just about everybody going through any IT program today has experience with
some kind of UNIX - usually Linux. The co-op will be grateful for something
they can put on their resume, management will be happy that they have an
admin who costs only about $10 an hour, and if the person you hire has a
sense of humor, the users will love them, too.
Assuming it's planned and set up carefully, that configuration will run
forever. Last I heard the machine I set up at the job I mentioned above had
been rebooted only once for a hardware upgrade, and I left the company in
August of 1999.
Best of luck!
Matt
--
Matt Penna mdp1261@rit.edu
ICQ: 399825 S0ba on AOLIM
"The trouble with computers, of course, is
that they're very sophisticated idiots." -Dr. Who
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