Small P2P network with 12 WX Pro 64b PCs

[bxdobs]

Currently using a "registry modified" W7 Pro 64b machine with a 2T drive to provide a simple P2P file share with 12 WX Pro 64b PCs ... the W7 machine was modified to allow more than 20 simultaneous connections/shares ... wrote down this mod in a safe place ... but ... it was too safe a place cause I can't find it ... haven't found any way to modify a WX machine

Have used samba in another life to connect an NT machine to AIX ... wondering if anyone can comment on the feasibility of using Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 and Samba either on a standalone PC OR running in a VM to be able to handle between 30-40 simple file share connections. Or should I be considering learning how to configure a Ubuntu Server?

Basically have 3 root shared folders on Windows 7 that are mapped to drives on up to 12 WX Pro machines (max 3 mapped drives each) ... typical types of files being stored are: photos jpg, access mdb/accdb, word, excel, and or pdf files

Root Folder (d: 2TB drive)
Share Folder 1
Sub folders
Share Folder 2
Share Folder 3

Share Folder 1-->J
Share Folder 2-->K
Share Folder 3-->X

Thanks in advance

 

[KGIII]

There's nothing really that you can do with Ubuntu server that you can't do with Ubuntu desktop versions. They're the same operating system - just with different default software and configurations. Having a desktop environment might make it easier for you to manage, as you're seemingly new to Linux.

I've never needed to play with Samba, but some folks have no problems with it. Others have issues, but they seem to get resolved quickly. Also, Ubuntu has no such limitations like how many people can connect at once.

 

[bxdobs]

Thanks for that information/clarification of limitations