[tech-cord] a server for all

[George Tuttle]

Tech Coordinators:       Two things have happened that have caused me to rethink how I am operating my network.  One, the lack of funding, and two, the cost of maintaining a complex network.  Its a double whammy!  Since Wednesday, I have spent a lot of time on the phone talking to contacts on the west coast primarily.  I asked all of them the same question.  'If you were starting over putting in a new network with all of the internet condiments and you wanted a cheap and easy to use solution, what would you use?'  The largest response I received was Cobalt Cube 3.  Previously, I had talked to Scott about a more secure web server and he had suggested it and I also ran across one at our local co-op.  Since then, I have used one in Omaha and they are phenomenal!  Its multi-platform, doesn't care if you have Macs, PC's or both.  The management is done through a web browser.  It has everything a school would need except content filtering and anti-virus.  Outside of those 2 items, it has everything!  It was designed from the beginning for applications like schools.  The one that I would recommend is the Large.  List price is $2099 but you can buy it locally for about $1850 and from CDW-G for about $1750.  The neat part about this is that you can buy into this system no matter where you are at. I'm going to use it as a web server with caching and probably the email server with web based email.  I probably won't use DNS, DHCP (NAT), or firewall features.  If you haven't implemented any of those yet, here is a cheap solution for those as well.  I'm going out on a limb to say this is the first server that has something for everybody and think that the AEA guys should consider evaluating and supporting it!  Here is the URL.  TAKE A LOOK!    http://store.sun.com/catalog/doc/BrowsePage.jhtml?catid=60312   George