XC Cube as a server

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We brought a XC Cube PC when we started the business just over 3 years ago and when we brought it we were told it could be used as a server. We are running XP Professional OEM software and the PC is 1.7Ghz with 512mb Ram. We want to be able to access the PC and emails via the internet.

What I want to know is were we told the right information about it being able to be used as a server and secondly what software if any we would need?

Thanks in advance.

Ian

 

[Dwebs-Ltd]

Do you just want to remote control it from home or when your out and about?

You could use Remote Desktop to connect to the box and it will be just like using it in the office.

 

[aaronspromotions]

Do you just want to remote control it from home or when your out and about?

You could use Remote Desktop to connect to the box and it will be just like using it in the office.

We want to be able to use it as if we were in the office, i.e go on to business system, check emails etc......

Cheers

Ian

 

[Dwebs-Ltd]

In that case various options VNC, RDP etc

They will only allow 1 user to be connected though its not a terminal services box.

RDP is probably the easiest forward port 3389 from your router to the PC (PC needs to be on a static IP ideally). What we usually do on our servers is change the RDP port to something random which can be done in the registry. You can also restrict RDP access to specific IP's either on your router or by windows firewall.

 

[leemason]

We brought a XC Cube PC when we started the business just over 3 years ago and when we brought it we were told it could be used as a server. We are running XP Professional OEM software and the PC is 1.7Ghz with 512mb Ram. We want to be able to access the PC and emails via the internet.

What I want to know is were we told the right information about it being able to be used as a server and secondly what software if any we would need?

Thanks in advance.

Ian
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Any PC can be used as a server. If you have an old laptop it could be used as a server. The only real difference with servers is they tend to have more expandability and resilience that desktop machines. They tend to have more memory expansion capability, dual power supplies, RAID disks, etc but i essence they are simply glorified PCs.

The main thing with servers it how to share things and how to access them. What e-mail do you use? It would be best if you want to access your e-mails over the Internet to use some sort of server based system that is web enabled and secure.

I would recommend desknow (www.desknow.com). This can be installed on Windows XP and then accessed using a web browser from anywhere (other PC's in the office or from the Internet). If you have a firewall you would have to open up port 443 to the "server" (this provides https) and you can access it from anywhere. If you have an existing Internet domain that you want to use you can setup a name like webmail.my-company.co.uk to access it. Desknow provides all of the facilities that you may be familiar with in Outlook plus discussion groups, file sharing (inc. sharing server based files), and instant messaging. Shared calendars and shared contacts are also supported.

As with anything else if you are storing all of your data on one system as a server make sure you make good and regular backups. Any hardware can fail (and does).