nmX.Memnoch

This is awesome news. I'll definitely be checking it out this weekend.

I just don't see the point if it limits you and you're going to be paying for another ISP anyway.

If he's going to setup an AD Domain it's generally more accepted to have the Windows Server 2003 box as the DHCP server. You have finer control over the scopes when you use 2003's DHCP server in that you can configure the DNS servers (which he'll want his DC's IP as the first DNS server, then the ISP's after that), WINS servers if used, BOOTP, etc, etc. But yeah, the final answer is still the same...just configure the router's IP as the gateway in your DHCP configuration. Also, if you setup AD you're going to have to authorize the DHCP server. If you don't do that step the DHCP server won't work.

You want them to be able to add/update files but not delete them...correct?

Yes. The HKCU hive is the NTUSER.DAT file located in the user's profile. If the user has logged onto the workstation you may have problems deleting the profile without rebooting the workstation...unless you have the Microsoft User Profile Hive Cleanup Service tool installed. Note that you cannot delete the profile if you are logged on as the user who's profile you want to delete.

You need a floppy with the drivers for your SATA controller. When you start the Windows setup press F6 so it asks for disk controller drivers.

Why not get rid of the other ISP and use just the ADSL connection?

I'll probably pick up a pair of the 150's as soon as I can. My Raptors are the original 36GB model. I may hold off until later in the year...planning on doing a complete system overhaul about midway through the year.

I've got one of the WD Media Center drives and they're pretty nice. Being able to use either FireWire or USB is a very nice option. Has anyone tried upgrading the drives in these? I didn't purchase the drive I have...but if I were purchasing for myself I'd say go with the drive and seperate enclosure. As has been mentioned several times, you can upgrade the drive at any time.

StorageReview.com posted a review of the new WD Raptor drives today: http://www.storagereview.com/articles/2006...1500ADFD_1.html They confirm that it is a SATA 150 drive. I haven't read the entire article yet but the numbers look pretty **** good so far. The clear cover on the enthusiast version is a cool option as well.

Diskeeper 10 with the Diskeeper 10 Admin tool is very nice. You can use it in a Workgroup environment (provided you have a common admin account/password on all of the workstations) but it works best in a Domain environment. It even offers reporting features so you can see what machines are running low on drive space (percentage is configurable), if a scheduled defrag failed for any reason, and a few other things. Even without the Admin tool you can still schedule defrags. I have all of my DK clients set to defrag while the screensaver is on and also on the weekends. To do it without the Admin tool is a little more work but can be done. Basically you just set the schedule on one machine. Then copy Diskeep.ctl from %PROGRAMFILES%\Diskeeper Corporation\Diskeeper. Then export the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Diskeeper Corporation\Diskeeper\Preferences registry key. From there all you have to do is copy the file and import the registry key after you install Diskeeper.

Awesome utility. We've been using that at work for a few years to do disk-based backups with the /CLONE switch (along with some others of course). Should you decide to purchase be sure to read their license scheme. It's a bit different than you think it would be.

Agreed on both the Thermaltake and Enermax suggestions as well. I have a Dual PIII-S 1.4GHz system with 3 x 15K RPM SCSI drives and 3 x 7200RPM IDE drives with an Enermax 550W power supply. It's running without a problem. To tell you what "cheap" PSUs can do...I have another system that's Dual Xeon 3.06GHz/1MB L3 running 8 x 7200RPM ATA100 drives, SCSI CD-ROM and SCSI tape drive. I originally picked up an Aspire 680W PSU trying to save a few bucks on an already expensive system. Turns out that PSU didn't have enough amperage to power up all of the drives, CPUs and addin cards at the same time. I found this out through some trial and error...disconnecting two of the hard drives would allow the system to boot just fine. I replaced the Aspire PSU with a Thermaltake 680W that has three 12V rails...voila! The system is now running perfectly.

I use a utility called NETUSER.EXE. I can't remember where I found it at and wasn't able to find it on Google again so I've just attached it. Syntax is as follows: NETUSER username /pwnexp:y You can also rename accounts with it. NETUSER.zip

CACLS.EXE This is a tool that comes with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP (as well as Server 2003). There is an extended version called XCACLS that you can grab from the MS site. C:\>CACLS /? Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files CACLS filename [/T] [/E] [/C] [/G user:perm] [/R user [...]] [/P user:perm [...]] [/D user [...]] filename Displays ACLs. /T Changes ACLs of specified files in the current directory and all subdirectories. /E Edit ACL instead of replacing it. /C Continue on access denied errors. /G user:perm Grant specified user access rights. Perm can be: R Read W Write C Change (write) F Full control /R user Revoke specified user's access rights (only valid with /E). /P user:perm Replace specified user's access rights. Perm can be: N None R Read W Write C Change (write) F Full control /D user Deny specified user access. Wildcards can be used to specify more that one file in a command. You can specify more than one user in a command. Abbreviations: CI - Container Inherit. The ACE will be inherited by directories. OI - Object Inherit. The ACE will be inherited by files. IO - Inherit Only. The ACE does not apply to the current file/directory.

As long as you don't change the configuration on each single drive you won't. Just in case though, he should be sure to double check his stripe size. If the controller does clear the configuration for some reason you can recreate the array as long as nothing on the drives have changed and you configure it exactly as it was.

Neither. You shouldn't be looking at power supplies from anyone other than Antec, OCZ Technology, PC Power and Cooling or Thermaltake. Maybe even add Enermax to the list. If you want to save yourself a little money and still get a quality power supply, look at this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817103937

What drivers are you using? The WinXP 81.98 drivers should work without a problem. Be sure to look at the option you're choosing from NVIDIA's driver chooser on their site. The Windows 2003 option is for the x64 (64-bit) version. This driver won't work on the 32-bit version of Server 2003. Just download the Windows XP driver and use that...it should work without a problem (I just used the same driver to install a GF4 in my Windows Server 2003 box).

It even applies to bytes of RAM! That chipset should support more than 1GB RAM...unless Intel limited the mobile version.

Could be that WD just hasn't released it in North America yet. Dunno. Everything I've read so far says it's a SATA "II"* drive...except for the WD site. I generally tend to believe the manufacturer first. * I usually refuse to use "SATA II" since there isn't really such a thing.

Just to touch on that a little more...RAID0 speed increases don't scale with the number of drives you add. Two drives will give you anywhere from 25-50% speed increase (definitely not double), three drives will be a little faster, and four a little faster than three. It does eventually get to a point where adding more drives won't give you any benefit other than space. RAID1 writes aren't that much slower than single drive write times. The data is usually written to both drives at the same time. The extra overhead is because the controller does a checksum of the files to make sure they're identical. This is a read operation though so it shouldn't be noticeable unless the controller has to make a correction to one of the files (not very common and could be a sign that things are starting to go bad).

As long as you have a regular PCI slot to put the card in it shouldn't cause any problems at all.

I was under the impression you were using II6 with my original reply. I now know you're using IIS5. Do you have the IIS Lockdown Tool installed? If so, do the following: Go to %SystemRot%\system32\inetsrv\URLScan\ and open URLScan.ini. Look for the following section: ; Deny executables that could run on the server .bat .cmd .com Comment out the .bat line so that it looks like this: ; Deny executables that could run on the server ; .bat .cmd .com If you have UseAllowExtensions set to 1 then you may also have to add the extension to theee [AllowExtensions] section of the file.

Office 95 from 25.

That looks pretty darn close to the current list view myself. I personally prefer the Details view anyway so I can quickly sort by file type, date, etc.