>Jim Eddins and Dave Stevenson pointed me towards the cost angle so I just did a little research on the Dell site. A reasonably configured server coplete with tape backup, UPS and MS Small Business Server comes in at around $2000.

Well, there's your problem looking on Dell's site <bg>.

Actually even if it was $2,000-$3,000, I think I'd be looking to hookup with a leasing company to finance that type of situation. They could pay $50-$60 per month, which ought to be budgetable, with a 100% write-off.

At the end of the lease turn around and buy the equipment if they want it or turn it in for all new equipment.

Not only that, you could make a little profit off the server/software plus get 13%-16% from the lessor, which means you could offer to pay the first 6 months of the lease for them, (if you wanted).

Of course I'd hold that out as an additonal incentive if they're balkish.

For that matter, you could include the cost of your entire solution in the lease proposal. Most leasing companies have no problem with software being a large part of the overall cost.

As for the cheaper solution, I'm running P2P at home with XP and I would think it would work in most situations, but I've never tried in a real world business situation.

Regards,

Jim Eddins
dbx-Technologies
www.FoxToolbox.com