Domain or Workgroup

Drunken_King

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
111
Hello everyone. I have a friend who owns a dealer where they currently run a workgroup network. They have been thinking of maybe getting a new server and possibly running a Server Edition of windows for a domain. They have around 5-6 computers and they want me to set up everything and get everything going. Currently people go into their office and mess with the computers and I would think that having a everything centralized on the server and enforcing policy's on the computers would be the better bet. They will also want me to install Exchange and RAS. So do you guys think they should move into a Domain environment or stay as workgroup?
 
If you are going to use Exchange for that 6 person environment (I suggest you don't unless you have a nice maintenance contract with them) you'll want to go the domain route.
 
If they are expecting growth, then I would move them to a domain. I would get at least two servers though. Lacking that, I would make sure my domain server backups are working and stored offsite.

As far as exchange; I would look in to hosted solutions. Rackspace I know has some deals, but there are a ton out there to find. Also, unless they have their hearts set on exchange, you could do gmail apps with their domain for free for that number of users ( check the EULA, it may not be free for businesses ).
 
Is this a car dealership? Those are usually governed and supported by whoever the parent car brand is for their dealership...like GMAC or something like that....they're part of a WAN.
 
They are small car dealership with many different types of cars. I'm gonna give the domain a go for their small environment cause they are expecting growth. As for Exchange I will look into the hosted solutions. Thanks for your input.
 
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