[atorres0506]

I have a win 2003 server running in the office, a netgear firewall, 48 port gigabit switch and about 35 computers connected to the switch. I can connect to any computer do anything I need to over the network. How can I apply changes to a workstation from the server? Say I want to disable the "delete history" on all the workstations in Group Policy, how can I do this in the server and then apply it on all of the computers instead of going one by one? I tried it but it only applied it to the server.

[serverguy]

I assume you have Active Directoy set up and these computers are in a domain?

[atorres0506]

No, they are not part of a domain. They are just set in the regular workgroup section. But now it might be a good idea cuz the company is growing fast and it would be easier to control the network. But how would I do the active directory and domain?

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by atorres0506

No, they are not part of a domain. They are just set in the regular workgroup section. But now it might be a good idea cuz the company is growing fast and it would be easier to control the network. But how would I do the active directory and domain?

Group Policy depends on a domain, and that is the reason why it only applied to the server. You just edited the servers local policies.

It must be a nightmare to manage 35 computers not in a domain. Yikes.

Setting the server up to be an Active Directory Controller is not all that bad, its just all the other things that are needed as well.

First of all, If you currently just have 1 server for 35 people, and they are using that server for business, I'd suggest leaving that particular server exactly as it is for now.

My reasoning is that if you attempt to install AD on it and something goes pear shaped, you will be presented a nightmare of 35 users wanted there data, trying to restore the server to how it was before, hoping things will work again etc.

Just don't change anything at the moment.

Right, now that disclaimers out the way I will explain.

Setting up a domain will give you many more options then you have now, due to the fact that all the clients will be managed completely by the server, ie. change something on the server and the clients will follow suit (kind of).

You could also allow users to work from different computers and have their files follow them around through My Documents redirection. (Do not ever think about setting up Roaming Profiles, it will lead to nightmares later on!)

All of the actual users will be stored on the sever, so you will not have to duplicate users on different computers manually, or try to work out where one users profile data is.

You can also centrally manage the actual PCs, getting them to get the updates from the server, publishing software updates, backups etc etc.

Basically theres loads of benefits of setting up a domain, and for 35 computers I'd think it was pretty necessary.


You're going to want a decent server for 35 concurrent users, especially if all there data will be stored on it. More on this later.

I'd suggest buying a server from a reputable company (HP, Dell, Fujitsu have some good deals at the moment) and setting it up with Server 2003.
You could also use Server 2008 now.

Get it set up as a Active Directory, migrate all the files over to it from the old sever slowly, get a backup system in place and test it, get all the users data slowly off their current workstations and put it in their folders on the server, create all the user accounts in Active Directory, basically making it as easy as possible for when you finally roll the new server out.

Then, one you have the server up and running, bring it on to the network, maybe just taking over some of the file sharing roles of your existing server to begin with. Make sure that it is all working and then just add all the clients to it and get rid of the old workgroup once and for all.

Depending on the specs of the old server, it might be worth keeping it online, even if it is only doing a few roles, maybe like DNS or storing backups. This would take some of the workload of the new server but if the existing server is old there probably wouldn't be much more reliability to be gained.

This all applies if you would be setting up the domain while users are still active on the system. If you can do it on the summer holiday for example, you might be able to reuse the existing hardware, as downtime would not be a problem.

As for your original question, I assume you want to do this so you can see what sites your users have been on.

I can only imagine this being a absolute nightmare to manage, because you'd have to log on to each computer to see their history, and they'd still be able to delete their history manually if they wanted to.
Also, I think if they used Firefox or Opera, then they could still browse anonymously.

The best way of monitoring their history would be to use a proxy server that would log everything that went through it. Check out Smoothwall Express for a free Linux distro that might be worth setting up. You're current router can also probably track what goes through it. If you need per user monitoring, have a look at WinGate.

Heres a Active Directory Setup Tutorial http://www.visualwin.com/AD-Controller/

Heres a good Server 2003 Admin Tutorial http://www.learnthat.com/certificati...__MCSE_70_290/

Heres some info on GPOs http://www.learnthat.com/certificati...id=424&index=0

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them. I'll do my best to answer them.

[atorres0506]

Thank you for your reply. You've been a great help. It's funny that you mentioned getting another server cuz that's exactly what am preparing to do cuz the old server is giving us problems. I will setup the new server with the domain, active directory and everything i need and once it's up and running migrate the files from the old server to the new. I know that the best thing to do is setup the server from the start but i couldn't really do anything cuz the network was already set when I started working in the company. Thanks again for all of your help!

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by atorres0506

Thank you for your reply. You've been a great help. It's funny that you mentioned getting another server cuz that's exactly what am preparing to do cuz the old server is giving us problems. I will setup the new server with the domain, active directory and everything i need and once it's up and running migrate the files from the old server to the new. I know that the best thing to do is setup the server from the start but i couldn't really do anything cuz the network was already set when I started working in the company. Thanks again for all of your help!

No problems.

If you have any problems or need any more help feel free to post in this thread or drop me an email.

Just when you do it make sure the new server is completely ready before you take the old server off line.

It doesn't matter that you couldn't do anything from the start, but you can improve it now

I don't know if you saw them, but the tutorials on Learn That (http://www.learnthat.com/certificati...__MCSE_70_290/) are really thorough and well written. Good bed time reading :)

How do you handle email / remote access etc?

[atorres0506]

'Arial','sans-serif']Thanks! I'll be sure to read all that I can so I can be more prepared before starting anything. The emails are regular emails using MS outlook. I don't have to worry about and email server and as for remote access, I have no problem connecting to any computer or server. I use different methods like, gotomypc, ftp, realvnc, remote desktop. Hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow I've found a server that will fit our needs and in a couple of days, week or two have the server running.

'Arial','sans-serif']I'll be sure to post a thread or email you if i run to any problems or have any questions.

'Arial','sans-serif']Thanks!!!

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by atorres0506

'Arial','sans-serif']Thanks! I'll be sure to read all that I can so I can be more prepared before starting anything. The emails are regular emails using MS outlook. I don't have to worry about and email server and as for remote access, I have no problem connecting to any computer or server. I use different methods like, gotomypc, ftp, realvnc, remote desktop. Hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow I've found a server that will fit our needs and in a couple of days, week or two have the server running.

'Arial','sans-serif']I'll be sure to post a thread or email you if i run to any problems or have any questions.

'Arial','sans-serif']Thanks!!!

Good luck in your server hunting