Retail 2003 disks

[Inf0]

I work for the US division of a German medium business. They have a site license (or however you want to describe it) for server 2003. They have stated we are covered under their license and have given me the key to use, but it is for a retail cd. All I have is Dell OEM cds and the license won't activate with them.

Is there any LEGIT way to get retail server 2003 media from MS or a vendor without buying another license?

[Menelmarar]

CDW often carries media only.
Newegg does sometimes, for some products as well.
Buddy called up microsoft to get a vista 64 disc, media. I think he only paid shipping.

if you legally own the license, I don't see anything illegitimate about torrenting an iso.

[Menelmarar]

Hell...just have corporate IT guys, make an ISO of their valid 2003 disc, and put it on a corporate FTP server or network location... Or overnight a burned copy to you.

Corporations often have very low shipping costs due to volume deals and accounts.

[Inf0]

Awesome, found it on CDW. I never even considered that it would be available through standard retail chains due to what I would have thought would be piracy concerns.

Too scared to torrent a disc just because it might be laced with something. ;)

Thanks much.

[Inf0]

Hell...just have corporate IT guys, make an ISO of their valid 2003 disc, and put it on a corporate FTP server or network location... Or overnight a burned copy to you.

Corporations often have very low shipping costs due to volume deals and accounts.

I should have stated (since that is of course the obvious solution) that getting anything shipped to us from them takes minimum 3 weeks. Assuming you can get them to cooperate in the first place. :p

[sdotbrucato]

Awesome, found it on CDW. I never even considered that it would be available through standard retail chains due to what I would have thought would be piracy concerns.

Too scared to torrent a disc just because it might be laced with something. ;)

Thanks much.


When it comes to most software, the actual software is "free" it's the right to use it (license) which costs the money. Without a proper license key, your install will be hosed, not passing wga and things of those likes.,

Take Vista for instance, If you buy Vista Basic, the disk will contain all of the different variations of Vista. So technically you can install Ultimate, but without a valid Ultimate key the install will become useless after the thirty days

[Keiichi]

Call Microsoft WWF or if you have a technet plus or msdn subscription you can just download the ISOs from those channels.