Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition fills many of the same roles as Standard Edition and adds features primarily geared toward improving reliability and scalability. Enterprise Edition supports a maximum of eight processors, which is double Standard Edition’s capability. Enterprise Edition also supports Address Windows Extensions (AWE), providing an extra gigabyte of memory to applications by reserving only 1GB for Windows, rather than Standard Edition’s 2GB/2GB split between the operating system and applications.

Enterprise Edition also supports Windows Clustering, allowing you to build failover clusters with two nodes. The Cluster Service allows you to create clustered file shares and clustered printers and supports clustered applications, such as SQL Server Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server Enterprise Edition. The Cluster Service even enables you to cluster applications that aren’t specifically designed for clustering, provided they meet certain criteria spelled out in the Windows online documentation.

In 2001, Safeware(http://www.safeware.com) estimated that thieves stole over 500,000 laptops for that year but only 15,000 desktop computers. Laptops make the most obvious and enticing targets because of their small size, light weight, and high resale value, so if you’re traveling with a laptop in public, do your best to hide it. Walk through any airport and you’ll see many people carrying their laptops in distinctive black carrying cases, easily recognizable to a thief and nearly impossible to identify by sight if stolen. Instead of carrying your laptop in a case that screams out "Laptop! Steal me!" put it in an ordinary briefcase or backpack, or even in a paper shopping bag to disguise it as a souvenir from an overpriced airport gift shop.

Establishing a Linux TCP/IP network requires two components of hardware: the network interface card (NIC) and the network medium. As with most things in life, you can opt to go for an inexpensive card and medium or spend lots more money for full-featured items. As the amount you spend increases, you get more functionality and benefits, although usually with diminishing returns for your dollar. Before deciding on the type of network interface cards to use (unless you already have some), you should decide on the type of cabling the network will use so the connectors on the network interface card can match. 10Base2 and 10Base-T are really the only two cables that you’ll want to consider. The alternatives are much more expensive or require special hardware.

Sometimes stealing an entire computer may be too obvious or difficult, but stealing the components inside may be a lot easier. After all, anyone can tell when a computer suddenly disappears from a desk, but who will notice when a computer suddenly loses a hard drive, a video card, an external Zip drive, a trackball, or a memory chip? To stop someone from walking off with an external device, such as an external hard drive or computer speakers, you can glue a metal plate to each item, thread a computer security cable through these plates, and anchor everything to your computer.