snow leopard server question

[nigameash]

I am in charge of maintaining the website and computer systems for a small organization(its a student body of my university). its a student newspaper so in a month, at least 3 newspapers are published. all their data is stored at present on a g3 powermac. they were planning on doing some hardware and software upgrades and i suggested that the g3 power be replaced by atleast a mac mini as we dont have a very large budget. now the question is that should i tell them to upgrade to a mac mini server instead?

the requirements are-
1) storage of data- articles, etc
2) it should be accessible from anywhere over the internet
3) easy setup, monitoring and access

all the computers will be upgraded to snow leopard soon so will i be able to provide for it all using just a snow leopard client or should i get the server edition? also all the desktops at the office are macs but i need pcs to connect to the network too. also at present the server connection is wired and i need to make it wireless. so what hardware will i require for that? anything specific or should i just get a time capsule?

at present, the g3 powermac is using the vnc server application and himanchi.

thanks

 

[belvdr]

If the current G3 has enough power and storage, I'd go with the standard Mini and save some money. I don't see anything the server version offers that would be of benefit to you.

 

[nigameash]

well the current g3 has to go as its running tiger and its too slow anyways for any real work! so the question is between a snow leopard client and server. also about making it wireless!

 

[belvdr]

Server doesn't add anything in those respects and is a total waste of money and resources on the machine.

 

[nigameash]

ok, so how do i make the entire network wireless? what hardware do i use?

 

[belvdr]

ok, so how do i make the entire network wireless? what hardware do i use?

You use access points. That said, if you are on the university's network, I'd highly advise you to work with them on this. Your questions lead me to believe this is your first attempt at wireless and the last thing you want to do is expose the university's network to anyone with a WiFi card.

 

[nigameash]

nope, this isnt my 1st attempt. i was merely wondering if sum1 had a particular netgear router in mind

 

[belvdr]

You may not need a router at all. Without some explanation of how everything is currently connected and packets are routed, it would be just a guess.

 

[nigameash]

well this network with the student newspaper is an internal network and i dont want it shared with the entire university campus and i want full monitoring and access to the clients connected, etc. so the logical thing would be to get a router and have it either wirelessly connect to the campus network or via ethernet and then install a 2nd network which i can control. so i would require more hardware

 

[belvdr]

I'd strongly advise you to work with the university if you are connecting to their network.

For monitoring, it depends on what type of monitoring you desire. If you just want to see who is connected, you can do that with an access point.