CompuServe Messages

Sorry for the confusion <G> On a non dedicated server your machine is doing double duty. It is the server, and at the same time it is someones workstation. If the application they are running crashes so badly that you have to reset the computer to recover (as opposed to just using <CTRL><ALT><DEL>) then you are rebooting your server too, much to the annoyance of your other users. With a dedicated server your machine is only doing one thing, being a file server. The likelyhood of having to reboot it is less than if it were non dedicated. In a small operation a non dedicated server may not be much of a risk. You need to look at how your users function and how critical their work is and then decide if the cost savings of using a non dedicated server (you save the price of one machine) is worth the possibility of having your non dedicated server lock up and need to be reset while there are active files open. This is not that big a disaster. Network operating systems are pretty flexible, expecially the peer to peers. If an application on a non dedicated peer to peer server hangs you can usually just walk around the office and ask folks to save their work and log off, then go reset the server. The server software and the local application are running in different virtual machines. Having one lock usually doesn't affect the other. Because of the size of our network and the type of applications I feel much safer with a dedicated server.