Hi jay,

>>Just an explanation I do with my home network. It might give some ideas.
>>
>>4 - workstations.
>>2 - Laptops
>>1 - Server.
>>
>>Workstations:
>>1 XP Prof, 1 for development
>>1 Windows 98, testing
>>1 XP Home, Private and administration
>>1 Win2000/XP prof in dual boot, Testing machine
>
>Do you keep W98 around because of legacy stuff? What do you mean by administration? Of the network or is that just personal stuff?

Well, lots of (large) clients still run Windows 98 so I can't dismiss that plast form. Esspecially with testing. Ad regards to administration I ment the financial administration.


>>Laptops
>>1 XP, Business laptop, SQL - server
>>1 Windows 98, Testing laptop.
>
>Meaning you have just the client-side of SQL Server setup, right? Enterprise Manager, stuff like that?

No a whole new instance of SQL server. For testing purposes. Just to test on another instance of SQL server as it was originally developped on.

>>Server,
>>Windows 2000 server, Using for :
>>- Gateway to Internet through NAT.
>>- VPN, to allow my coleages to log in
>>- Terminal Server, to allow my coleage to develop applications through TS.
>>- Stores all sourcecode of my projects.
>>- Printer server.
>>- Domain controller
>>- SQL Server

>What is NAT? Source code: Do you use a controller like VSS or do you mean you delevelop directly to a shared directory on this machine or is it just a place to keep archived source code?

NAT is a Windows 2000 build in software router. Just to connect each workstation to the 3 networks and the internet. I develop directly on the server through TS, and test through the development machine accross the network.

So, it does not matter where I am in the world. As long as I'm able to use remote desktop connection I can develop on my machine.

>>Further for testing purposes.
>>- Three networks. 10MB BNC(coax), 100MB UTP, and 54 MBPS Wireless
>
>Do you have all machines on all three?

Nope. But if required to have one machine on one or the other it is just connecting those and set the TCP/IP settings appropriate (two networks uses DHCP, on one uses fixed IP adresses)

>>For productivity,
>>- Using dual monitor (1280 x 1024) for development (though I love to upgrade to a triple monitor setup).

>I hear good things about this. I haven't done it as I felt it would be harder to keep looking back and forth between them.

It works very well. Each time I'm working on a one monitor setup I miss the real estate.

>As an aside, with that many boxes kicking around how are your monitors setup? Do you have a switch or keep a monitor per box?

I still have got a monitor per box. My office is not that small that I need the space for that. Nowerdays a 17" flatpanel is not that expensive anymore.

>Do you have any good resource for getting the Server 2000 and SQL Server setup and configured nicely?

I think others should jump in here. The most knowledge I've got about this is looking at help files, google and experimenting (and wasting lots of hours).


Walter,