[kgilmore]

What do all business's have, when you log onto the server and not the actual machine, so every has the same files and programs,
What's the actual name for that.
I've got windows server 2003 enterprise edition, and i would like something very simular to that, how do i go about doing it?
Cheers.

[Andypandyere]

Its called a network, you have a server where all files are kept & shared, a router which routs the local computers to the server, usually by network cabling or wireless connections.

[leoh187]

Hi

The exact setup that they use is an Active Directory, which is part of Windows Server 2003.

It can be quiet complicated to set up, so may be worth getting some help.

Where abouts are you located, as I may be able to help you out?

Many Thanks

Leo

[serverguy]

As the other poster said, you are after a domain and Active Directory.

A domain is basically a group of computers and users that trust each other. They are each given permissions from a Domain Controller as to what they are allowed to do. For example, a normal user is not allowed to delete someone elses files.

As you said, you want all the computers to have the same access to programs and files. You also sometimes want any user to be able to log onto any PC and get their normal desktop with all there normal stuff.

It is done with Windows Server 2003 or soon 2008 and the desktops must be running XP Pro or Vista Business or higher.

There are a number of versions of Windows Server, and enterprise is designed for bigger businesses but will do what you want fine, unless the business is less than about 75 users then it is easier to use Small Business Server.

On the server, you need to set up a domain controller. This is basically the secretary for your network and manages all the users and what computers and printers there are. You can have multiple DC's, but one is more than enough for a small network.

On the DC you need to create user accounts for all the people that you want to be able to log on to the domain. You also assign them what rights they can have to what folders.

You also tell the DC about all the computers that you want to be part of the domain and it will manage them. For each computer, you need to have a license to allow it to join the Domain. I think that Enterprise comes with quite a few but I am not exactly how many.

On the desktops you have to install some programs on the actual machine, whereas others can be run on a network share.
Some programs allow you to give the user the option to install a program if they want it, and if they decide they do it will download off the server and install.

When you add a user to the Active Directory, you can liken it to giving the user a pass to enter the server. It will allow the user to access their personal files and folders and any folders that you share to them.

They log in through a normal desktop, but rather than using the local settings stored on that PC, they use the settings stored on the server. For example, they can have a folder mapped to their own filespace on the server, so as they have their documents on whichever PC they log in to.

The benefit of using a server based network is that administration and management is much easier because you only have to make changes once on the server and all the desktops will change to. For example, if you want to add a user that can log on to any PC, you only have to make it once on the server and click to allow them to log on to any PC. If there was no server then you would have to go around and create that same user on every single PC.

Passwords are also kept in sync in a domain environment, so if a user changes their password on one PC, it will seem to change on every other PC as well.

Active Directory also makes it easy to keep tabs on other things like printers. It is easy to stop people from printing to the A1 colour inkjet that cost £10 a page when they could just use the A4 B&W laser.

You can make the system as dependent on the server as you want. You can have the entire user profile stored on the server, called roaming profiles, and have the users entire profile, including the My Documents, desktop icons and wallpaper and anything else you could want. But this is not recommended because of the large amount of time that it takes for the profile to copy from the server when the user logs on and then copy it back when they log off again.

A better option is to use folder redirection for the users documents and then to have a general policy for all the other computers to make the desktops similar. With folder redirection, the user can work directly off the server, so when you click on My Documents, you seamlessly open a folder on the server. You can work straight from this and there is no delay for copying they files around.

This is great, except for when the user takes his laptop home and then can't access the server and get at his documents. But, Offline Folders solves this problem by keeping a local copy of all the users data in sync with the server so as the user always has his documents.

A server system can be hard to set up but it is in no means impossible. A good understanding of general networking and Microsoft software are pretty much necessary but everything else can be learnt.

If you have less than 75 people in your business then it is worth looking at Small Business Server. This significantly reduces the complicated work in setting up a domain and active directory and adds some useful features for small businesses. It is well worth a look.

I hope that this has given you some more understanding of how a Windows Server Based Network works. If it has all gone completely over your head then it is probably best not to try and do it yourself.

But if you understand most of it then I think that you could get it going.