Home Forums Discussions Problems Does anybody use MS 2003 windows server with AC

Does any body use MS small business 2003 server with user CALS??

The drawback is it has user CALS which could be $100 per computer.

Advantages are it has fax software etc.

We have done so for the past year+, and it works fine. We use a mix of user and device cals (same price) but device cals allow multiple users to work on the same device (cal), without each user needing a license counted for them.

SBS has some drawbacks that has made me switch to full server, full exchange, etc. as our practice has become more dependent on a functioning server on at least a 18/7 basis (and 6hrs isnt enough time to build and restore a backup server box). The main issue is that SBS only allows for one domain controller. If one wants redundancy of the domain controller and the server state on a second server, we had to switch away from sbs.

Using the included fax server works ok, but has some limits. The main one we found with ac2 and 3.x was that printing letters to the fax printer often (but not always...) fails to be 'saved' in the imported files section. One gets around this by printing in some way that saves the file, closing and reopening the saved/imported file and printing that to the fax server. Second, if you have a letter, the encounter note, and the demographics sheet being printed (in other words multple reports for one fax), each is considered a seperate print event and you end up sending multiple faxes. We get around this by printing to a pdf creator, then adding the second, third, etc, parts (also printed in pdf) as merging onto the end of the letter pdf, and then once the final pdf is built, printing that to the fax server. We save the letter(only) pdf and then import it to the imported files section and delete the html letter (which almost always hass formatting problems after its saved by ac). You can not use the provider database in AC to pull up fax numbers, but you can use public and global, as well as private, contact lists from outlook/exchange for the fax contact list, for the SBS fax server.

good luck!

Do you think it is faster than xp peer to peer network?? Thank you for your kind reply.

I really have no idea. I had a peer set up at home and used it for a test bed and practice system for AC, but switched to a server base to facilitate other work my wife and I do a while ago. On a 2-3 user peer, with one of the users on the ac 'server', it didnt seem to be a hugh difference in performance, but the network ran over 1ghz copper and a fast switch and all pcs were 3+ghz p4 with fast drives and lots of memory. anything that loads or slows down a peer (or server-based) network is going to take a toll on performance.

I'm also on SBS 2003 premium. Ran off xp pro for a month but with 3 docs nurses, etc. quickly hit the user limit. Has worked really well but have had the same fax problems as reported. Scripts work great. It will work with win2K win XP and tablet edition. Can't use full server with XP Home but can get AC to run. Have not had a server crash yet. Also this comes with SQL if and when Jon migrates. You can actually get this cheap on good old EBAY for 250 standard edition up to 5 or 6 hundred for premium. Can also get user cals 220 per five. Does it run faster? It does when u get to the user limit on XP Pro but I didn't see much difference if u were under that.

I've got a question for you. What is the upper limit of users, clients in XP pro??? I've heard some folks hint at it but I can never get a clear answer as to what it is. We run a main machine on XP pro to house the AC database and use as a terminal too, and then we're wirelessly networking in two XP Tablet (a form of XP Pro I've been told) laptops. I was thinking of adding a few extra machines down the road. Anyone know the answer to this one??? Thanks....
Paul

I have XP home edition network, no server, 8 users (7 computers, 1 printer server), works well

The user or (connection) limit for Windows XP Pro is 10. Same goes for 2000 Pro and NT4.0. These are for concurrent connections. XPPro does not require user licenses.
You can add as many "local" users as you like to the MAIN computer and if you add identical users to the other machines they can seamlessly access the network shares added to the MAIN PC.
If you are talking a Windows Server SBS or Standard Server the IT rule of thumb is whatever you have the least amount of is the number of CALs required. IE. 10 users with 5 PCs then get 5 DEVICE CALS. Conversely, if you have 5 users(logins) and 10 PCs then get 5 USER CALS.
Hope this helps.

Quote

the IT rule of thumb is whatever you have the least amount of is the number of CALs required. IE. 10 users with 5 PCs then get 5 DEVICE CALS. Conversely, if you have 5 users(logins) and 10 PCs then get 5 USER CALS.

Love this IT advice. This helps a lot. Wise words.

Regards.