Office Networking

[Jacko]

Hi guys,

Quick question really.

i want to setup a medium spec server machine in the office, and have 4/5 machine acting as dump terminals. so any of the staff can access there files emails etc of any machine.

i also need the server to auto backup all files etc each week (friday night etc.)

how do i go about doing this>?? i am no newbie at pc setup etc.. but network aint my forte/thing.

so any guides links etc would be great.

was looking into domain setup and using static IP. also need the server to be print server.

Any help appreciated.

[ap0c]

We use windows 2003 server, there is a guide for setting it up as the domain controller here:

http://www.visualwin.com/AD-Controller/

There is a backup utility that comes with win server2k3 that is often overlooked, it actually works rather well!
If you have the budget I would get an external drive to back up to, or another set of internal HDD's. If possible get a server with raid and get the drives mirrored for minimal downtime. Anyhow, more info here:

http://www.ilopia.com/Articles/Windo...03/Backup.aspx

Hope this helps!

[RhinoBanga]

It really is piss easy.

Make sure each PC has a 10/100 ethernet NIC and hook them all up with CAT5 cables to an 8 or 16 port hub/switch. You may even want to consider gigabit since it's so cheap although you will not get true gigabit speeds as you be limited to the transmission speed of the clients, e.g the ATA bus rate.

Then set your file/domain server to IP address 192.168.0.1 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and make sure the OS (W2K3 SBS or Linux?) running on it has DHCP setup. Configure the DHCP server as having a range of, say, 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.200 with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

With the clients configured to automatically get their config info via DHCP it should just "work".

Using the above settings gives you breathing room for adding in static IP hardware, e.g. printers, if you want. You would then just configure the DNS server on your fileserver specifying it's IP address and the clients will then be able to communicate with it.


If you setup a domain, on either Windows/Linux, you will get roaming profiles which means that anyone can logon to any machine and start using it. As part of your configuration (logon bat files with AD or Samba on Linux) you can configure local mapped drives to networked shared directories, so the data written to these drives is written directly on the server. This makes backups so much easier. Plus it gives you the option of setting up shared directories for people to swap files.


You may also want to set the fileserver as the default gateway to the internet as then you can do all sorts of nice things, like run an internet proxy (ala squid) to control access and generate usage reports.


I used to run an AD domain on W2K3 at home here but eventually dumped it for OpenSUSE 10.3. It's a bit harder to configure and the hardware compatability is a bit lower but it's free so you don't have any issues with licensing plus (in my experience) it's faster.


If you need any more help just shout.

[tombott]

With RhinoBanga here, some sound advice.
And I would go OpenSuse as well, Windows 2003 SBS is good, but a rip-off.
There is plenty of OpenSource software and OS's that do a cracking job for free.

[tombott]

Forgot to say there are some great guides on setting up Linux servers here

A guide on OpenSuSe is here

You can even download VM Images to play with here

[Jacko]

cheers for info guys. opensuse sounds pretty handy to use if its free

what kind of server requirments do i need? as its not CPU hungry i guess it wont need to be high spec, we have a few external drives lying around so will backup to them for now i guess.

[RhinoBanga]

Depends on what you are going to do m8 tbh.

Since this is going to be used for business I would defo recommend a RAID setup (say 2x320GB mirrored) *and* add an external USB 320GB HDD for secondary backup purposes.

For the CPU anything from the past 2-3 years will be fine, esp with OpenSUSE, but chuck in as much RAM as you can afford/get your hands on.

Then get yourself a cheap LaserJet 2200D (duplex) from ebay for £50 delivered and your network printing issues will be sorted too. I prefer a networkable printer in case the fileserver goes down I can still print.

For backups on W2K3 I used the AT (scheduler) command to kick off a script to use the in-built backup software to backup and verify to a file, then create a secondary external copy. Now on my Linux box I use the cron (scheduler) subsystem to do a TAR and compress of the files I need; but again copying the files to an external source also.

Also you don't even need a monitor on the fileserver once it's setup. I used to use Remote Desktop on Windows and on Linux I now use the free NoMachine NX software (http://www.nomachine.com). In either case you can remotely connect to the server for configuration/support purposes, even via the internet.


Again, if u need any more help just shout.

[RhinoBanga]

Also, I forgot to say if you go the Linux route you can get a great free email/collaboration system:

http://www.zimbra.com/


It's an amazing exchange alternative, however if you really want/need exchange/sharepoint I would recommend you outsource this since oyu have very few users. I love exchange/Outlook and this is my preferred way of working. I costs me £5 per user per month (myself, the misses + 3 kids) and that entitles me to use Outlook and OWA too:

http://www.sherweb.com/


Yes, I have to pay every month but then I don't have the costs or maintenance headache of exchange.


If you give us more info as to your goals we can provide better advice for you.

[rmj2663]

wrong place

[Jacko]

the windows 2003 server route seems best, as i am not at all clued up on linux based software, we have the networked printer already going direct into the 20 port switch.

got 2x 320GB sata drives sitting on my desk, and have just resourced a dual core machine with 2gb DDR2 memory (gonna throw in some more as its dirt cheap these days, make it up to 4GB or summit!)

gonna raid the 2x 320gb drives.

gonna setup with monitor then remote desktop if we ever need to do anything.

next after machine is built its going on a secure location bolted to flooring for a little extra "security".

only things i need to research now is setting up a domain for all the other machines (5 at moment) so any of the staff can login to any machine and access there files/emails/internet. i would also like to restrict users from installing apps etc and downloading shite (to keep them virus free as long as poss!)

all 5 machines run windows Xp and we have company laptops running both XP and some vista! i hope this wont cause any issues.

[Jacko]

will keep you updated as we go along, prob gonna be monday now before i do anything, spent the day building machine and started the windows 2003 server (small business version!) which still hasnt finished installing yet! talk about slow...

so may need your assistance if you dont mind "RhinoBanga"

you got msn or icq or summit??? may need to ask questions if i get stuck.

[Jacko]

this will be a good learning curve for me, i am clued up about most things computer/IT related but networking is something i dont regulary touch up on (and i should do really!)

[Jacko]

ok domain setup and other computers see it, i cant add users in windows 2003.

i try to add a user but gives me error;

"windows cannot set the password for test because;
The password does not meet the password policy requirements, check the minimum password lenght, password complexity and password history requirments"

i have tried to change the password policy and basically diasbaled all the above, yet it still doenst let me add a user??

any help is appreciated.

[Over Carl]

There was a link in the internet section a few days ago to generate long and very secure keys. Dunno if thats what you wanted, but it should be a way round it for now.

[liveseytowers]

Try putting a password in like Networking01 with numbers and a capital letter in?

[RhinoBanga]

ok domain setup and other computers see it, i cant add users in windows 2003.

i try to add a user but gives me error;

"windows cannot set the password for test because;
The password does not meet the password policy requirements, check the minimum password lenght, password complexity and password history requirments"

i have tried to change the password policy and basically diasbaled all the above, yet it still doenst let me add a user??

any help is appreciated.

2 things:

1) Are you sure you changed the domain policy and not the local policy?

2) Did you force a group policy update, i.e. gpupdate /force

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window...615851033.mspx

[Jacko]

i changed the domain policy, but cant remember doing gpupdate, this done in command prompt?