Building A Server For A Small Business

[teleutias]

Hello Tom's Hardware community:

This is my first post so I apologize if I make some sort of error within the community rules. I am helping a woman build a new server for her small business. Here's my question: I can rebuild an old desktop she has and set that up to be the server. But I am under the impression that I could buy a NAS server, which would be cheaper. This server has to be able to be remotely accessed from offices out of the state (it is just one person, and only to back up data). Is this possible with a NAS server or should I just go ahead and rebuild the desktop?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Proximon]

If there is already a network set up with a router then yes that's possible. Have a look at this D-link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155019&cm_re=dns_320-_-22-155-019-_-Product

And read over the manual
http://sharecenter.dlink.com/user_manual/DNS-320_manual.pdf

With a bit larger budget you can get a more feature-rich NAS that may give you better performace... but in your case I suspect you are talking about only small amounts of data. Here is an example
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108042

I am currently deploying two of the D-links and so far so good. Configuration can be just a bit slow due to the weak processor... no big deal here. I put a WD Caviar Green 1TB in each.

 

[teleutias]

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at this NAS server
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108065

She does have a router set up. The most important thing is that on the computer that she currently uses as her server (which is 12 years old) allows her remote office to use Corel Paradox on that computer. If I installed Paradox on this server could her remote office still use it? That's the only place where I see rebuilding the computer as the advantage.

 

[Proximon]

Sorry not familiar with Corel at all. It's a DBMS? Hmmm you need to look at the minimum system requirements and operating system compatibility. It must need some sort of OS to run? Even if it's DOS.

A quick look up shows that there was the original DOS version and a newer Windows version.... I doubt you can run either of those on a NAS.

 

[JordoR]

While I am not one to oppose the building of custom pcs/servers... depending on the size of this small business, it may be worthwhile to purchase one from a reputable local supplier.

I am a contract employee at a small business and the owner recently purchased a nice Dell server from a local supplier. The benefit of buying a DELL is that it comes with excellent tech support, not only from the supplier - but if he is unable to fix it DELL can respond very quickly.

Admittedly it will be more expensive and it might not be worth it if theres only a handful of employees. But in a small business if your server is down and you lose time/money because of it you will be kicking yourself that you didn't invest in something of a greater quality. I've seen cases where companies actually lost clients because there was a deadline and they made themselves look inadequate by not even being able to afford a proper server.