delving into virtual networking.

[greenbrucelee]

Hopefully on Friday I will find out that I'll be able to book my A+ exams (fingers crossed) and will be going onto the N+ after I pass (fingers crossed again). I will be odering a load of books that come with trial versions of various OSs and will therefore use them in my Virtual Network.

Which do I choose out of virtual PC and VMware? and can you get full blown instructions on how to use these or is it a case of figuring it out?

[BosonMichael]

Try them both and see which one you like better.

[BrotherBill]

You may already have them, but here's a couple of links.

http://www.vmware.com/
http://www.vmware.com/download/server/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx

[greenbrucelee]

cheers Bill, I'll have a look.

[simongrahamuk]

For ease of use and setup I'd recommend Virtual PC, as I think it has a simpler interface. That said at home I use both parallels and vmware.

[Phoenix]

Personally I would dive in to the deep end and use the superior product, VMWare Workstation 6.0
it costs money, but nothing touches it in terms of functionality for a desktop virtualisation solution

The more questions you have the more we can answer here and benefit everyone!

[Stoney]

Microsoft also offer virtual machine downloads of their operating systems and applications on a trial basis (30 - 60 days or something).

You just download the vm file and the o/s is already installed for you. It's quite handy for getting to play with the new stuff if you don't have an Action pack subscription or similar.

I've never used VMware so I can't comment about that!

[greenbrucelee]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Personally I would dive in to the deep end and use the superior product, VMWare Workstation 6.0
it costs money, but nothing touches it in terms of functionality for a desktop virtualisation solution

The more questions you have the more we can answer here and benefit everyone!

money is something I don't have a lot of so I'll have to stick to the free versions

Originally Posted by Stoney

Microsoft also offer virtual machine downloads of their operating systems and applications on a trial basis (30 - 60 days or something).

You just download the vm file and the o/s is already installed for you. It's quite handy for getting to play with the new stuff if you don't have an Action pack subscription or similar.

I've never used VMware so I can't comment about that!

Ahh cheers I did not know that. That might prove useful

I am looking to use OSs such as server 2003, XP pro, Win2000 and if anyone else can suggest any others I should be running let me know.

I take it for the N+ getting those to communicate with each other and being able to share resources would be put me in good stead for the exams.

[Phoenix]

err getting them to talk to each other in a virtual environment is rather moot, as long as they are set up with the same networking they will talk, not much too it really (vmware will even issue DHCP addresses to them for auto addressing)

If you cant afford VMWare Workstation go for Server, its free and almost as good, and the VMWare products can also load microsofts VHD files so you can run the downloadable VMs in VMWare products

[Stoney]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

If you cant afford VMWare Workstation go for Server, its free and almost as good, and the VMWare products can also load microsofts VHD files so you can run the downloadable VMs in VMWare products

Did not know that! I've always meant to get hold of the free version of VMware and have a play but just haven't ever got around to it.

[onoski]

I use VMWare Server which is free, but would use Virtual PC as I like the way it list the vm pc's. But and then again they both equally very roburst.