cheif

Chief

Case	CPU	RAM	HD	Video	Drives	OS	Sound	Monitor	Modem	Network
Midtower	PIII 667	1gb	60GB 80GB	Banshee 16mb	31/2,CDRW, tr3 tape	W2K Server	sb16	15 LCD"	56k	10/100

The origonal Chief became my network server, when I finally figured out how to configure NT Server. The version of NT that I initially

got came with something that Microsoft called a "HOT pack". This was a kit including NT4 Server and a number of tools and tutorials. Unfortunately it was only available to computer professionals off of Microsoft's' OEM site at a cost of $125 (a real bargain for all that you got). If you are in the computer business, and can prove it (Microsoft called me at work to make sure), then you ought to be on this site http://oem.microsoft.com . Do not use the www. prefix or you will get an error. The kit included a copy of W2K Server, as soon as it came out. This is the full version, and is not time or feature limited. The purpose of these kits is to give computer professionals a chance to familiarize themselves with Microsoft's' software. The software costs hundreds (in some cases thousands) of dollars retail, and leaves programers, and developers who are not wealthy with the choice of either pirating the software, or allowing themselves to fall behind (The kiss of death in this line of Work).
    The first incarnation of the Chief was the PDC for my newly formed domain. It used NT4 Server. I initially set the machine up in a mid tower instead of a mini, to give me the option of adding a tape drive, and/or a CD recorder. I have taken advantage of this and installed a Travan tape drive, and a CDR/W. The Travan drive will hold around 4 GB, and the CDR/W will handle 650, though this is reduced to 620 on formatted CDR's, and around 500 on a formatted CDR/W. A formatted CDR/W can be used somewhat like a big floppy, and I will generally leave one in the drive as a sort of a permanent storage device, when I am not using the drive to archive or burn discs. The mother board was upgraded to a slot one unit (initially the machine had a socket 7 cpu).
    The tape drive and CDRW are less viable as back up devices than they used to be, because of the enormous sized hard drives that are becoming standard. It would take nine tapes (with compression enabled), and who knows how long, to back up the main drive if it is ever filled. The main drive is a 60 gb Maxtor, which was added when the machine was completely rebuilt. I am certain that in the future, the needs of software will increase to the point where a drive of this size will seem cramped. For now the drive is far more than I need, for normal use. The machine also has a second hard drive, a Saegate 80gig unit. The second drive is used, mostly, as a file server for all of my software. I have copied every CD, download, and driver in my collection, on to this drive (with room to spare). I have also set aside a portion for user shares, something I am playing with for work. These large drives allow several of my computers to back up to each other, rather than to tape or to cd. The rebuild included a new motherboard, and ATX case. The motherboard is an Asus slot 1, which I transplanted my old PIII 550 into. This CPU should be plenty for the needs of a server on my small network.
      The Travan drive (4.4gb), and the CDR/W mean that this server was a natural back up point for all of the machines on my network.. I presently have a 120gb external drive, and an external DVD burner to act as back up devices. The machine itself is housed under my drafting table, next to my phone and network hub, and will never be turned off. I had initially planned on having this unit permanently connected to the internet, and hosting my web pages, while acting as a gateway, and firewall for the rest of my network. I had planned on doing this through a DSL connection with a permanent I.P. Web hosting is so cheap these days, that I no longer see any point in doing this myself.
    The machine presently drives an LCD monitor, but I eventually plan to have no keybopard, mouse, or display connected to it. Instead, I will completely administer the machine through the workstations on my network.The machine now uses Windows 2000 Server. I have converted the hard drives to dynamic drives, which is something new to 2000, and gives me a great deal of flexibility in regards to partitioning, sizing, and adding drives. W2K does not have PDC and BDC, all domain controllers are considered to be peers. There are also a number of other nice built in features. Though all of my machines have static I.P. addresses on my network, I have enabled a small range of numbers to be used as DHCP addresses, and made the Chief a DHCP server. I have also enabled IIS, and DNS/WINS. On top of al of these other features, this machine can be made to be an install server. I have network boot discs, which would allow me to put a new machine with a blank hard drive on my network, and completely load W2K Professional, Office 2000, and a number of other applications, automatically. This feature also allows these machines to repair their software installs, if files become corrupt, or are moved, or deleted. Very nice! An update to server 2003 is pending.