Hands on: Turn a desktop PC into a server

On the downside Linux can take a while to get to grips with, but the latest implementations aren’t that difficult and there are no real costs involved, other than those associated with downloading the software and burning it to a CD.

With a desktop version of Windows you’re limited to workgroup file sharing. If you want a full domain-based network, again, you will need either to install a copy of Windows Server or look at one of the Linux distros that’s able to support this kind of networking.

To this end most Linux distros are available for either desktop or server deployment, with most of the server deployments able to act as a domain controller on a Windows network.

File sharing
Assuming that simple workgroup file sharing is all you’re after and that you have decided to stick with the existing Windows software, I would first uninstall any unwanted applications, such as Office, Adobe Acrobat and so on.

These won’t be needed and will otherwise consume valuable disk and, possibly, memory space. Similarly I would also remove superfluous Windows options and utilities, such as Internet Explorer, using the Add or Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel.

Next, I would make sure any volumes I wanted to use for sharing were formatted with NTFS rather than a Fat file system, as this is a prerequisite if you want to control who can do what on the server.

Similarly, I would disable simple file sharing (SFS) as this causes Windows to authenticate remote users as guests rather than individually, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to restrict access to particular folders.

Unfortunately, simple file sharing is the default and only option on Windows XP Home (another reason why you might want to give it a miss), but it’s easy to turn off on the Professional edition (you will find it under My Computer/Folder Options). After that you will need to add a user account to match the cr edentials of each Lan user wanting to store and access shared files on the PC.

Having done all that, and made sure the server PC is in the same workgroup as others on the Lan, it’s just a matter of deciding which volumes or folders you want to share.

On a Windows XP system, right-click the folder concerned, select Sharing and Security from the pop-up menu and click on Share this folder. You can then either limit the overall number of users or, by clicking the Permissions button, control exactly what each user, or group of users, can do with the share.

Other server options
Sharing printers attached to the server PC is, similarly, easy to do. On an XP PC all you have to do is navigate to the Printers and Faxes window, right-click the printer required and select the Sharing option.