Maximum users allowed to connect to a Windows 2K box?

[Lokin]

Anyone has a concrete figure of how many users can connect to a Windows 2000 Professional box? I vaguely remember a figure around 8. I have done some digging in the on-line help file yielded no result.

If 8 is the maximum users can connect to it, then I think samba will be the way to go. Win2K Server is just too expensive. :)

[q9]

More details: what exactly do you want to achieve with it?
Personally if you don't have any reason not to, I'd use Linux on the server. You can then configure it as a file server, web server, email server etc without having to worry about paying anyone anything. No restrictions on the number of users either.

[Lokin]

We have already been using Samba/Linux as a file server. There is one Win 2K machine also used as a server for file sharing and printer sharing. Looks like we might switch off the Win2K sharing and use the samba server all together. One of the printer can not be used through samba printer share. I think HP tried to sell their DirecJet printer server so the printer driver will not work through a normal network share except DirectJet.

Although not confirmed. I think Win2K professional only allows 8 users connected to the box at any same time. If more people need to access the shared volumn, then Microsoft expect people to buy Win2K Server and pay for all the client access licences(ses).

[q9]

Microsoft definately try to corner you into buying something different. I don't have any good information on JET Direct etc as we use them under NT/2000 and I generally don't have to do anything with them.

As an aside: We have recently been attacked by the Nimda virus, and it spread very quickly through open shares. I wonder if Samba would have allowed it to spread so quickly?

[Lokin]

I don't think Samba would have been affected much by nimda. Nimda looks for open shares, but only if the open share allows "guest" account without password as well as the guest account has permission to write to the share.

Different story with NT boxes. The worm gets spreaded by broken email program. Then the worm creates a guest account on the NT box with Administrator privileges and open the doors.

[q9]

Another thing nimda has done is it somehow broadcast its existance to somewhere else. We received huge spikes in TCP traffic, CPU utilisation etc about a week after the infection on all servers that were infected.

Another good reason to use Linux really.

[gilles lussier]

Win2kpro can manage 10 computers. If you have win2k server, then it depends on the open licence that you are getting.