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i'm running a server off of Windows Xp. I know its not the best os to run a server on. so i was thinking of switching to Windows Server 2003. But whats so different about it. What sort of features does it have. and does anyone have any comments about it.
What do you mean when you say "running a server"? What services(file and print, web, dns, dhcp) are you providing? Whom are you providing those services to?
There are lots of reasons to use Windows 2003 server, or even windows 2000 server instead of windows XP to "run a server", but in order to provide you with useful information we need more information about what you are doing.
I'm running a web server. i'm hosting a few people.
windows 2000 will be enough to fill in the shoes. You can enable the IIS for you to be able to host a website.
Considering the cost of Windows Server 2003 you'd probably be better off just staying with XP. Unless your gonna be hosting a very high number of people XP should be ok for you.
Assuming that you are using IIS(if using apache, this info is not of any use to you, you may want to consider apache, although not if youare going to use asp with vbscript or anything). Most likely XP will be fine for you, and you will know when you grow out of it. No reason to spend all the extra cash if you do not need to. Having said that, here is some info and a link.
Some of the limitations of IIS on windows XP pro are that it only allows 10 simultaneous connections, and will only allow you to host one "site" on the box. Windows 2003 server will allow pretty much as many simultaneous connections as you want, and as many different sites as you want.
Of course a site is somewhat blurry, if you just give the people you are hosting a directory under the default web site, it might not affect you.
Also there are several other things which are different. I suspect that you cannot use virtual hosts in IIS for XP. User management and security/policy management is most likely easier done on windows 2003 server. windows 2000 server(2003 as well, I have not looked) also has IISLockdown and urlscan tools, which if run will significantly improve the security of your server, I do not know for sure, but I doubt those will be applicable for IIS on XP(like I said, I havent tried it).
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/p...rviews/iis.asp
I use Windows 2003 to host Unerror and it's great, alot more stable than Windows XP, or any of the other Windows versions I've used before. And, let me remind you that Windows XP is not a server OS. Hosting Websites on Windows XP Home is not a good idea at all, it isn't the greatest for stablilty, or speed. I recomend Windows 2003.Quote:
Considering the cost of Windows Server 2003 you'd probably be better off just staying with XP. Unless your gonna be hosting a very high number of people XP should be ok for you.
EDIT - Well, acctually, I would recomend Linux to host servers, but, Windows 2003 is an amazing Operating System compared to the other versions, in my eyes.