Best server OS for our needs?

[el_pablo]

I'm the developer for a small company this is looking to upgrade the server. We currently have 2 old servers that could be merge into a single one. One server is for Active Directory, DHCP and DNS. The other is a file server.

There is only 8 employees in the company where 4 of them works from there home. With our new server, we would like to share an application that would run from the server to the external employees. I've read about "Remote Desktop Services" which enables remote application access, but we would need to get "Windows Server 2008 R2" which is quite expansive.

What kind of solution could replace Windows Server?

[jamesblunt2000]

yes its expensive it meets all ur requirnemnts

[el_pablo]

Do you think it's possible to get something under 5000$ with Windows Server 2008 R2?

[jamesblunt2000]

yes but may u have to spend some bucks more but the chances are u can have it under 5000

[el_pablo]

Do you think I should build a server from an i7 or a dual Xeon?

[jamesblunt2000]

i believe a dual xeon would be better

[~Darkseeker~]

In terms of Servers, most SMALL businesses prefer Windows based servers, due to the relative simplicity of Domain administration. For your External Employees, you need to look at setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This lets your employees log into the server from anywhere with an internet connection - and use files and resources from your servers with a SSL, IPSec or HTTPS encrypted connection, as if they were actually in the office. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008/2011 make the whole thing very easy and integrated.

[How To] Set Up A VPN Connection in Windows 7 | Windows7hacker
Virtual Private Networks

VPNs are quite easy to understand, if you can get your head around the protocols that make them work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunneling_protocol

Windows XP-Vista used L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Procol [layer two of the OSI model - data link]) as it's main TP, but 7 has a new one called SSTP (Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol) which makes full use of SSL and TSL encryption methods at Layer 4 (OSI Transport TCP/UDP) of the model.

[jamesblunt2000]

good i like ur post.......

[root]

you might want to consider small business server.

it'll let you run AD, and exchange and SQL and a file server from one box. (it's also cheaper than buying the three bits of software separately).

on the other hand, if you can forgo AD and use something else then you could setup a linux server
it'll do DNS quite happily and DHCP quite happily.
it can terminate vpns (using something like open VPN).
you can have file shares on it using samba.
you can have an LDAP server running on it for authentication...

the best bit of this is that it's completely free.
the worst bit is that unless you've used Linux before the learning curve will be steep.

[Indigo]

Oh good, I was about to have a batch of kittens if no one mentioned SBS. SBS is fantastic for what you guys need, and as root said, you get everything included with it - AD, File Services, SQL, etc.

The other nice thing is that SBS includes a lot of extras out of the box like VPN support which is bloody fantastic, integrated backup support, and it runs on nearly anything - throw some nice hardware at it and it'll purr. I run 2008, but 2011 has some refinements that make it pretty attractive too. You can do it on your own, but take a look at solutions from OEMs as well, the service contracts from some of them are amazing.