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REFURBISHED XTR RAQ 1 GIG RAM DUAL 30 GB HD's W/ RAQ 550 OS |
If the other all-in-one small-business appliance servers in this roundup are Swiss Army knives, then the Sun Cobalt RaQ XTR is a stiletto. Marketed as a heavy-duty Web and e-mail server designed primarily for the ISP and Web-hosting markets, the Intel-based XTR is a good choice for medium-size or larger companies wishing to develop and host their own e-mail, Web, and e-commerce servers.
Like the UVNetworks WebBox 1000, it lacks the file- and printer-sharing features of the general-purpose appliance servers in our roundup. As such, it has no real place in the smallest offices, unless they have or anticipate large e-mail and Web server needs.
What differentiates the RaQ from the UVNetworks WebBox, its closest competitor in this roundup, is that the RaQ ships with a complete software development environment, including GNU C++, Sun's Java Development Kit, several scripting languages, and several Unix text editors—which makes the device ideal if you have Web developers on staff who can use these applications.
The RaQ is housed in a 1U rack-mount chassis with a clever drop-down front panel that contains a backlit LCD and a set of buttons used for setting the IP address and for status monitoring. Also hiding behind the panel are the RaQ's four removable hard drives. These drives can be arranged in a RAID 0, 1, or 5 configuration, offering good storage and redundancy.
Installation can be handled through the RaQ's browser interface, which is surprisingly simple and easy to learn. It provides three levels of control: User, Site, and System. It makes extensive use of color-coded icons and includes extensive roll-over help buttons.
The System interface is the top-level management interface, and it gives full access to overall system management settings. The Site level lets the administrator delegate control of individual Web sites to individual users. Employees can access, view, and change their e-mail settings through the User level, a nice feature that removes this burden from the administrator.
The Apache-based Web server includes FrontPage extensions and allows multiple Web sites to be hosted on a single RaQ. The e-mail server provides SMTP for outbound mail and POP3 and IMAP4 for inbound mail, but there's no Web-based mail server, as in most of the other products in our roundup.
www.RaQport.com
2004 North Monroe Street
Arlington
Virginia 22207
Tel: (703) 528-0114 or 703 880-1649
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940-8300
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