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Still Using Windows 2003?
You would think that most service providers operating a shared hosting environment would have moved off the now 13 year old Windows 2003 product. Apparently that is not the case, Fasthosts, a fairly large hosting company, is still using 2003.
You can read about an outage they had plus a 2003 vulnerability causing them headaches at the link above.
That said, does anyone else use Windows 2003 for a shared hosting environment still?
Comments
Hey, i know people still using windows XP on their desktop. And i know at least one man who used windows 98 until last year.
Not for a shared hosting environment but I have clients who still uses 2003 on their internal network.
They crunched the numbers and calculated that the risk of it being comprimised is less then the cost of setting up a new server.
I am still using windows 3.0.
what is he using now?
Windows ME, I reckon.
Debian. I installed it for him.
can you check if he is still the same
@ehab it is only used to access one internal web page (some web based store page, for entering orders, etc.) so i think it will not be touched until the hardware dies
I know a retail food chain that is still using Windows NT (!) in their cashiers!!! (although it is a closed environment with absolutely no connection to the internet, but accessible via intranet from all their stores)
Yeah the FH issues have been causing problems for me for the last week.
The main one being lack of communication.
i dont think vulnerabilities will be a problem if you run additional (third-party) security software ontop of the outdated OS.
XP embedded is widely used here in Sweden for cashiers, smartboards.
haha a lot of the cash machines in the UK still use a stripped down version of Windows NT
Some well-known fast food chain still using XP for their cashiers stuff and Windows 2003 for their back-end stuff. So yeah not surprised.
You're right. Just changed my personal laptop from XP to windows 8 recently only hehe
It's being used here for ATMs. If you smash enough buttons you used to be able to trigger a reboot :-D
At my former place of work they use 2 vendors for ATMs they are using XP embedded and NT.
FYI, Windows 2003 is still a supported product by Microsoft. It doesn't go off support until next year:
http://support2.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=Windows+Server+2003+R2
Microsoft still issues security fixes for 2003:
http://support2.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy
Even once the deadline passes plenty of companies, especially big corporations will continue to use it. Look at XP...
@jbiloh - You would be amazed at what it takes to run a hotel, I am about off my last 2003 server.
Xp Embedded still receives updates AFAIK
That... Worries me.
Why? Sounds like an opportunity to me. Unless youre a bank.
It is certainly an opportunity for romanians
All your ATMs are belong to us, mwaaaahahhhahha
we can say he is the windows papa
I have a customer with an office server on Windows Server 2003. We are already making plans to migrate it to something newer before next summer.
I am not a huge fan of Windows Server 2012 R2. It works fine, but its user interface is similar to Windows 8. I can work with it, but I don't have to like it. I wonder whether the next Windows Server version (common base with Windows 10) will be available before Windows 2003 reaches end of support in July 2015. My guess is no.
Yes my little brother used it on my old desktop.
You can either:
a) install classic shell on the server
b) install the free Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on your Windows 7 PC and use it to manage the server from your PC.
Problem solved.
C) Use PowerShell and Enter-PSSession -ComputerName
The normal Windows upgrade process works when trying to upgrade or there are some special instructions.