[olug] Help a small NPO

[Christopher R. White]

Bill Brush wrote:
> If you're not in Omaha, where are you?  I'm in Lincoln.  I'm not an
> uber guru, but I know the basics.
>
> Bill
>
> On 2/16/06, Christopher R. White <cwhite99 at charter.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> Don't make it to omaha often, but I'm more than able to drive.  Contact
>> me off list to possibly set something up!
>>     
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>
>
>   
I live in Kearney.  I saw a link somewhere about the OLUG InstallFest 
last July and decided to attend as Linux info is scarce here in 
Kearney.  After attending, I joined the mailing list to learn more and 
have been lurking ever since.  I am not looking for a handout with my 
post, rather I want to collaborate with someone who understands Samba 
more than I and who is willing to help me design a system and learn from 
there.

I realized this morning after reading my post that I didn't give as much 
info about my setup as I should have.  I appologize now for the long 
post I'm about to send.  Our office is currently host to some 20 PCs 
with about 30 users which is why roaming profiles is such a necessity. 
The total number of PCs is not expected to grow much as the available 
space for PCs is about all used up (we're having to place desks outside 
of office doors to accommodate all our users).  The number of users may 
climb a few higher, but I do not expect it to ever reach critical mass 
until we can remodel (not expected any time soon).  All network lines 
have been ran by myself, and are done as professionally as possible to 
avoid running parallel to power, etc, but it is not a professional job 
by any means.  Our server space is limited to a single closet underneath 
a stairwell so remote management of the server(s) is an absolute must.

I became the admin by chance after it was realized that somebody was 
needed to fill this role, I have no formal training in this area, simply 
I knew more about PCs than anybody else working at our company at the 
time and still today.  It is NOT my full time position at this company, 
much to my dismay.  The server I'm looking to replace is very old and 
was setup and donated by a friend of mine as an "it'll work for now" 
system.  This was nearly 3 years ago, it is running a "not quite legal" 
copy of MS Windows 2k Advance Server, we were going to purchase a copy, 
but even with NPO licensing, we cannot afford such expenses.  In 
addition to managing the repair and maintenance of the PC equipment at 
the office, I also manage our corporate website, email system and am 
venturing into performing similar roles at our sister offices around the 
state. 

The server I have in mind would perform Domain authentication and store 
remote profiles, with the availability of adding additional roles in the 
future (VPN, hosting our own mailserver, etc.), but this is not 
required.  Remote management is a must as well as it should be easy to 
administer.  This machine will serve as a reference for future machines 
I would like to build for our sister offices so I do need to learn what 
I am doing.

If you have ANY questions or comments, please feel free to contact me

Chris White
Email: cwhite99 at charter.net
Cell: 308-224-9657