Can you help? I'm working with a secondary school whose principal ICT infrastructure comprises some 200 networked workstations talking to three Xenon based servers. Unfortunately this also runs RM's CC3 (Community-Connect Three) proprietary management software glued on top of Windows 2000 Server, which makes it sooooooo sloooooow ...to the point of being unusable at times. Even worse the whole caboodle is supplied via a 'managed services' contract, which means the school has been almost powerless to get the system's dire performance problems fixed. Well I've just heard they'll be freed from this contract in time for the new academic year in September. However the replacement they are being pushed towards is Windows 2003 Server ...unless of course 'yours truly' can persuade them otherwise. So I'd really appreciate your help persuading them Linux is a far better server option ...alas Linux on their workstations would be a step too far (at least for now ;-) How you can help Well to begin with I'm looking for some reference sites willing to share their experience, preferably secondary schools in the SW (Devon, Dorset or Somerset) running a Linux plus Samba based network. Ideally I also need to set up a demonstration / trial system within the school, enabling them to experience 1st-hand what they've been missing out on all along. The hardware for a small trial should not a major problem for me, but I do need some way of simulating a heavily loaded server -- the equivalent of say 60 or so workstations attempting to log in at roughly the same time. I'd also appreciate any useful tips you might have and sample configuration files appropriate to a school environment. In return I'd be happy to comprehensively document what I do and share this with all. At present the basic system configuration is: Approximately 1200 user accounts in total; Users have a typical home directory allocation of up to 100 MB; Shared curriculum resources currently occupy 15GB in total; Home directories can be accessed remotely via the Internet; Staff can also access curriculum resource remotely; At present e-mail is POP-3 based using Outlook as the client; All the workstations run XP (SP2) on mostly identical hardware; All users are configured to use 'roaming profiles'; A small number of staff connect their laptops to the network; More classrooms are being equipped with interactive white-boards; The servers are networked through two high-speed (1G) switches; These connect to secondary (100M) switches wired to workstations; All workstations have Internet access via a high-speed ASDL link. Workstation hardware comprises mainly identical Celeron 1200 boxes with at least 500MB RAM fitted in each one Presumably the principal server software will comprise Linux (SuSE) Samba Squid Apache (for internal Intranet and external web presence) Firewall [...suggestions please?] Mail server (POP-3, IMAP, Web Mail) [...suggestions please?] Anti-virus (server and e-mail scanning) [...suggestions please?] Remote Access [...suggestions please?] Configuration & management tools [...suggestions please?] Backup software [...suggestions please?] Workstation software will include Open Office (NB: MS Office retained for the time being) Firefox E-mail client POP-3 and / or IMAP [...suggestions please?] Anti-virus (workstation) [...suggestions please?] Remote config & management tools [...suggestions please?] Thanks in advance, David Bowles