CONTENTS

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Advantages:- ................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Disadvantages:- ............................................................................................................................................................................... 2
PEER -TO-PEER NETWORK .................................................................................................................................................................. 2
ADVANTAGES .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
DISADVANTAGES ............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
CLIENT SERVER BASED NETWORKS ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
ADVANTAGES .................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
DISADVANTAGES ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
REQUIRMENTS TO RUN A CLIENT SERVER NETWORK ........................................................................................................................ 3
NETWORKING OPERATING SYSTEM (NOS) ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition ................................................................................................................................ 3

WINDOWS SERVER 2003 WEB EDITION ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition .............................................................................................................................. 4

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition ............................................................................................................................. 4

SERVER ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 4
CLIENT MACHINE ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Fat ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Thin ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Hybrid.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

CLASS ROOM EXERCISES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Configuring Windows Server 2003: Domain Controller (Active Directory) role & DNS (Domain name server) role ...................... 5
ACTIVE DIRECTORY .......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
ADDING A USER USING ACTIVE DIRECTORY ....................................................................................................................................... 7
GROUP POLICIES ............................................................................................................................................................................. 8

ADVANTAGES .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
GROUP POLICY MANAGEMENT CONSOLE ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Organisational Units........................................................................................................................................................................ 9
ASSIGNING THE ROLE OF A DHCP (DYNAMIC HOST CONFIGURATION PROTOCOL) SERVER ............................................................ 10
TYPICAL SERVER ROLES AVAILABLE................................................................................................................................................... 11

FILE SERVER ............................................................................................................................................................................... 11

PRINT SERVER ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11

APPLICATION SERVER................................................................................................................................................................ 11

MAIL SERVER ............................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
EVALUATION OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2003 ............................................................................................................... 12
Networking Mathew Jose
INTRODUCTION

In a very basic form a network is essentially, two or more computers connected together by some form of transmission medium
that enables them to share information. A network regardless of the size i.e. the number of computers and peripherals involved
or the area over which it is spread, works on the same essential concepts of Networking.

ADVANTAGES:-

Productivity and efficiency may be increased because of large scale, low cost production runs

Technology transfer and the accuracy of information are facilitated.

Resources are conserved as only one item of equipment is needed where before many might have been required

The worldwide exchange of information is increased

Allows access to remote computers

DISADVANTAGES:-

 User work dependent upon network & data loss.

 Resources could be located too far from users.
 Network management and security can become very difficult.

PEER -TO-PEER NETWORK

This network does not have any centralized control by anyone and also doesn’t consist of a main frame server. What this means
is that if one user has a file or several files on a computer then it is up to the discretion of that user whether he/she would like to
allow access to that specific file or not and also decide as to what rights the accessing user may have to that file i.e. read only,
read- write or no access. The only similarity to a client server network is the fact that the physical hardware e.g. cabling,
switches along with protocols used are the same. The use of a NOS is not mandatory in this kind of set up as well.

ADVANTAGES

More resilient to disruptions i.e. if a server crashes the whole network will crash however in a P2P if a host crashes that
won’t disengage the entire network, only some transmission of data will be affected.

It is not expensive to install as servers cost a lot of money so the data processing power and storage space of individual
client machines can be fully utilized without incurring massive expenses.

Shared files can be directly accessed amongst each other, henceforth no separate storage space / equipment is
necessary.

DISADVANTAGES

 P2P network can only function effectively to a maximum of 15 machines.

 Security/ integrity of data can be very heavily compromised as owners/authors of files may choose not to have any
security / passwords set up for authorising use of data prior to access.
 If a system resource such as a printer is connected to a client machine then on a busy day it could take up all of the
systems resources forcing it to function ineffectively / crash.

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CLIENT SERVER BASED NETWORKS

In a client server based network there are many less powerful client machines that are connected to a very powerful main frame
server. Depending on the layout of the network and the environment tin which the network is built the processing for many of
the applications on the network may be conducted by the server or it may be used for various other purposes such as for
storage purposes or an internet server etc. Any communications that take place on this type of network goes through the
server. This enable very close monitoring of what happens over the network and makes administration very easy such as
assigning rights to different users depending on their relevance is one of the many advantages of a client server based network.

ADVANTAGES

Centralized - Resources and data security are controlled through the server.

Scalability - Any or all elements can be replaced individually as needs increase.

Flexibility - New technology can be easily integrated into system.

Accessibility - Server can be accessed remotely and across multiple platforms.

Speed: - Network will run far better as data and resources are handled by a dedicated machine.

Backup as all data is stored centrally it is easy to backup

Support and management as the server controls the majority of settings on the network etc the job of support is far
easier as the main element of support is provided to the server and not individual machines

DISADVANTAGES

 Dependability - when the server goes down, operations cease

 Lack of mature tools - it is a relatively new technology and needed tools are lacking e.g. Automated client software
distribution
 Lacks of scalability - network operating systems (e.g. Novell Netware, Windows NT Server) are not very scalable.
 Higher than anticipated costs

REQUIRMENTS TO RUN A CLIENT SERVER NETWORK

NETWORKING OPERATING SYSTEM (NOS)

A NOS is a network operating system is in true essence an operating system that has extra options and services, packaged
together to run a network effectively and efficiently. The user interface of let’s say for example Windows 2003 server is a
combination of Windows 98 and Windows XP put together. The only differences are the additional services they offer such as
Network services, file system services, Active Directory etc. It is these tools that allow a NOS to control a network and administer
it from one central point. Novell were the first developers to build a NOS.

We are specifically going to aim to look at the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server. Some of the older versions of the network
operating system range are Windows NT, Windows 200 server and now Windows has launched Windows Server 2008 and it is
based on the Vista kernel and it includes a brand new feature known as “HyperV” a virtual server facility.

Windows 2003 server consists of many editions below is a list of the major ones with a brief explanation of each:-

WINDOWS SERVER 2003 R2 STANDARD EDITION

Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition is the ideal multipurpose network operating system for the everyday needs of
organizations of all sizes, but especially small businesses and workgroups.

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WINDOWS SERVER 2003 WEB EDITION

Designed for dedicated Web serving and hosting, delivers a single-purpose solution for Internet service providers, application
developers, and others who use or deploy specific Web functionality.

WINDOWS SERVER 2003 R2 ENTERPRISE EDITION

Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition builds on the capabilities of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition by adding
reliability features needed for business-critical applications.

WINDOWS SERVER 2003 R2 DATACENTER EDITION

Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition is built for mission-critical applications that demand the highest levels of scalability,
availability, and reliability.

SERVER

A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to client computers over a local network or the Internet.
Examples include Web servers, proxy servers, and FTP servers.

Servers tend to be very powerful machines as they do a large chunk of the data processing for the network normally consisting
of more than one processor. An array of hard disk drives and are always well kept in a cool environment as they are never
turned off for anything other than maintenance purposes. The above mentioned Networking operating System is installed onto
a server. A server can be used for many purposes hence forth are assigned various roles.

CLIENT MACHINE

A client machine is mainly designed for the purpose of accessing remote services from a main frame server. What this means is
that all or most of the processing of data is done by the server. A client machine only provides the user with a user interface to
perform operations. Even though it looks like the client machine is doing the tasks requested depending on the design of the
network the amount of work done by the client machine and the server varies. Due to these processing needs clients can be
divided into mainly three types:-

Fat Client

Thin Client

Hybrid Client

FAT

A fat client is a client that performs most of any data processing operations itself, and does not necessarily rely on the server.
The fat client is most common in the form of a personal computer, as they can operate independently.

THIN

Thin clients use the resources of the host computer. A thin client's job is generally just graphically display pictures provided by
an application server, which performs the bulk of any required data processing. Programming environments for thin clients
include JavaScript.

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HYBRID

A hybrid client is a mixture of the above two client models. Similar to a fat client, it processes locally, but relies on the server for
storage data. This approach offers features from both the fat client (multimedia support, high performance) and the thin client
(high manageability, flexibility).

CLASS ROOM EXERCISES

At first the hardware was set up our lecturer provided us with a 24 port managed switch, which he had divided into 3 VLAN’s
(Virtual LAN).All the machines in our lab had been pre loaded with Windows Server 2003 (Standard Edition, SP2) At first we had
to choose one machine that would be the server for the VLAN. After the machine was chosen, we then verified that it was
connected properly. We were provided with a router/ gateway address as well. We were the “66” VLAN. After this the IP
settings for the server was configured to:-

I.P Address :- 10.66.9.1

Subnet Mask:- 255.255.0.0

Default Gateway :- 10.66.0.10

Preferred DNS Server : -127.0.0.1

Before we got this far, we encountered some issues with the type of cable used normally a new generation switch is capable of
coping with any type of Ethernet cable regardless of whether it is a crossover or not. Unfortunately this switch did not have this
facility therefore we had to make one and then use it.

CONFIGURING WINDOWS SERVER 2003: DOMAIN CONTROLLER (ACTIVE DIRECTORY) ROLE & DNS
(DOMAIN NAME SERVER) ROLE

Once all the above settings had been completed and verified. We went on to the next task which was to assign the role of
Domain Controller. Domain controllers store data and manage user and domain interactions, including user logon processes,
authentication, and directory searches. For our server to provide the Active Directory service to network users and computers,
we shall configure this server as a domain controller.

After boot-up and login, we were presented with a "Manage Your Server" window, inviting us to add and manage server roles.
Here we chose add a server role and chose Domain Controller. We were again presented with 3 choices we chose “Domain
controller for a new domain”. A Domain is a group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit with
common rules and procedures. The forest contains one or more domains and is typically used to represent organizational
divisions or units. After which we were asked to set up a DNS Server.

A DNS server specifically links the IP addresses to the host names e.g.;- when a user types www.google.co.uk the DNS server
looks up the name and finds that www.google.co.uk belongs to the IP address 74.125.79.147, and then routes it to that location.
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A “Forest” is a Microsoft term and is used to define a group of domains. This is usually used in big organizations to sub divide
units and sections.

ACTIVE DIRECTORY

Active Directory is an implementation of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory services by Microsoft for use in
Windows environments. It allows administrators to assign policies, deploy programs to multiple computers, and apply critical
updates to a whole network. Also stores information and settings relating to an organization in a central, organized, accessible
database. Active Directory networks can vary from a few hundred objects, to a large installation with millions of objects. It is
through this bit that all the users are managed and administered along with determining privileges.

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ADDING A USER USING ACTIVE DIRECTORY

Here we can see how to add a user to a domain this is the first screen asking for the details. As you can see there are various
other tabs that consist of the many settings that can be pre determined for each user. Some of the important settings are:-

General: - Consists of the user’s personal details such as name and contact numbers etc.

Address: - Consists of user’s contact address.

Account:- This setting consists of various user properties such as logon name, domain it belongs to, what hours of the day the
user may login, options for the password such as password expiry, requirement of a strong password, ability to change or reset
password etc.

Profile: - This option consists of assigning a user a logon script. A logon script is a series of instructions that a workstation follows
every time a user logs on. These instructions are held on the server in a 'script' file, which is a batch file that workstations can
access and run. A login script allows creation of a single text file containing a set of instructions which are distributed to all the
computers that need it. It is here mostly that the network drives are set and user rights assigned for additional purposes if any.

Example of a logon script to assign a user with their network drive: -

Set objNetwork = CreateObject ("WScript.Network")

objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive "H:” \\M503PC66\Mathew

Remote Control :- This setting enable the administrator to view what the user is doing and take over the user’s session with or
without their permission depending on the settings in this section.

Session: - This is where the time limits for each session for users are set. Also an idle time limit can be set as well.

Member Of: - This section assign users to a domain since a user could be part of one or more domains they can be assigned to
other domains from this section.

Security: - A very important aspect, this is where all the rights are set for each individual user depending on what they need
access to and what they need to do.

Environment: - This is where the settings for connecting the user to their respective network drives and printers are set.
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GROUP POLICIES

Group policies are used by administrators to configure and control user environment settings. Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are
used to configure group policies which are applied to sites, domains, and organizational units (OUs). Group policy may be
blocked or set so it cannot be overridden. The default is for sub-objects to inherit the policy of their parents. There is a
maximum of 1000 applicable group policies.

Group policies are linked to domains, organizational units, or sites in Active Directory. A policy must be linked to a container
object in Active Directory to be effective. They are stored in any domain for storage but can be linked to other domains to make
them effective there also. The policy must be linked to the container (site, domain, or OU) that it is stored in to be effective in
that container. One policy object can be linked to several containers. Several policy objects can be linked to one container.

(JensLippmann, 2004)

ADVANTAGES

You can assign group policy in domains, sites and organizational units.

All users and computers get reflected by group policy settings in domain, site and organizational unit.

No one in network has rights to change the settings of Group policy; by default only administrator has full privilege to
change, so it is very secure.

Policy settings can be removed and can further rewrite the changes.

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GROUP POLICY MANAGEMENT CONSOLE

Prior to GPMC, administrators used property pages in various Active Directory administrative tools to manage Group Policy. For
example, an administrator who wanted to implement policy for users might open the Active Directory Users and Computers
snap-in, find an appropriate Organizational Unit (OU) and open its property page to access the Group Policy tab. On the Group
Policy tab, the administrator might do any of the administrative tasks, like creating Group Policy object links or manipulating
their order to achieve the desired results. Whatever the tasks, when the administrator leaves the Group Policy tab, access to a
visual representation of Group Policy ends and a view that focuses on Active Directory’s user and computer objects appears.

GPMC integrates the existing Group Policy functionality of the property pages on the Active Directory administrative tools into a
single, unified console dedicated to Group Policy management tasks; GPMC also expands management capabilities with new
features. Administrators still use Active Directory administrative tools to manage Active Directory, but GPMC replaces the Group
Policy management functionality of those tools with its own.

ORGANISATIONAL UNITS

A particularly useful type of directory object contained within domains is the organizational unit. Organizational units are Active
Directory containers into which you can place users, groups, computers, and other organizational units. An organizational unit
cannot contain objects from other domains.

An organizational unit is the smallest scope or unit to which you can assign Group Policy settings or delegate administrative
authority. Using organizational units, you can create containers within a domain that represent the hierarchical, logical
structures within your organization. You can then manage the configuration and use of accounts and resources based on your
organizational model.

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(Microsoft Technet, 2005)

As shown in the figure, organizational units can contain other organizational units. A hierarchy of containers can be extended as
necessary to model your organization's hierarchy within a domain. Using organizational units will help you minimize the number
of domains required for your network.

Organizational units can be used to create an administrative model that can be scaled to any size. The only difference between
groups and Organisational unit is that a group is used to assign network resources to individual users however an OU is used to
assign administrative roles to individual users. (Microsoft Technet, 2005)

ASSIGNING THE ROLE OF A DHCP (DYNAMIC HOST CONFIGURATION PROTOCOL) SERVER

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network protocol that enables a server to automatically assign an IP address to
an individual computer's TCP/IP stack software. DHCP assigns a number dynamically from a defined range of numbers (i.e., a
scope) configured for a given network.

The added advantage of a DHCP server is if the client machine moves different subnet, the client will send out it’s discover
message at boot time and work as usual. However, when at the first boot up you will not be able to get back the IP address you
had at your previous location regardless of how little time has passed.

Again we go to Manage Your Server option here we choose the option to add a DHCP server role. Here some additional
components were needed so we borrowed the installation CD from our lecturer for Windows Server 2003, after this we were
asked to name the scope. A scope is a valid range of IP addresses which are available for assignments or lease to client
computers on a particular subnet. In a DHCP server, you configure a scope to determine the address pool of IPs which the server
can provide to DHCP clients.

In the next screen we were asked to enter the range of IP addresses available we entered from 10.66.0.1 to 10.66.0.100. Also a
subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 was set. Here we were given the option to exclude any IP addresses in that range if we wished to do
so the IP address 10.66.0.10 was set to be excluded as that IP address belonged to the default gateway. After this the lease
times for each IP address was set to 2 hours.

After this we were asked to configure DHCP server options and we chose yes. Here we set the default gateway and left the
domain name, DNS server and WINS server options empty.

After this we got confirmation that the DHCP server had been setup and were taken back to the Manage your server screen.
Here we go to manage your DHCP server option and then we go into server options and the Configuration options here we look
mainly for 2 options. 003 to set the router IP address and 006 to set the DNS server IP address. This would enable clients joining
the domain to inherit a DNS Server address along with an IP address, a subnet mask and a default gateway address (they will be

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able to browse to www.pcworld.co.uk without knowing that its IP address is 195.92.228.186).

If the DHCP server is still not “active”, we merely need to “authorize” the DHCP server.

TYPICAL SERVER ROLES AVAILABLE

Windows Server 2003 is a multipurpose operating system capable of handling a diverse set of server roles, depending on your
needs, in either a centralized or distributed fashion. Some of these server roles include:

File and print server.

Web server and Web application services.

Mail server.

Terminal server.

Remote access and virtual private network (VPN) server.

Directory services, Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, and Windows
Internet Naming Service (WINS).

Streaming media server.

However for the scope of this course I shall be talking briefly about a few of them namely:-

FILE SERVER

A file server provides a central location on your network where you can store and share files with users across your network.
When users require an important file such as a project plan, they can access the file on the file server instead of having to pass
the file between their separate computers. If your network users will need access to the same files and network-accessible
applications, configure this computer as a file server.

PRINT SERVER

If you plan to use a computer to manage and share printers on a network, configure this computer as a print server.

APPLICATION SERVER

An application server is a computer responsible for the storage and processing applications from a central location allowing
several client machines to gain access to an application simultaneously over the network. Used for large databases, which may
be accessed by several clients at a time.

MAIL SERVER

Configure a computer as a mail server to install E-mail Services, which provides e-mail transfer and retrieval services. E-mail
Services includes the POP3 service, which provides e-mail retrieval, and the SMTP service, which provides e-mail transfer.
Administrators can use the POP3 service to store and manage e-mail accounts on the mail server. After configuring this
computer as a mail server, users can connect to the mail server and retrieve e-mail to their local computer using an e-mail client
that supports the POP3 protocol, such as Microsoft Outlook.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

JensLippmann. (2004, August 1). What is Group Policy.

Microsoft Technet. (2005, January 21). Organizational units.

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APPENDIX

EVALUATION OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2003

As a beginner in the networking field I do not have a lot of experience with other Network Operating System. However some of
its rivals are UNIX and Novell. Compared to these Microsoft Server is relatively easy to install and support, even though the
directory structure used by Active Directory has been adapted from Novell. Windows Server is developed and sold by Microsoft.
The company continually provides supports and updates. Users who are familiar with Windows will find themselves comfortably
using Windows Server. Most people using Windows Server hosting utilize Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. This is the main
reason why people are turning to Windows Server hosting. Users can develop web site using familiar interface of Microsoft tools
such as Microsoft FrontPage, Visual Interdev, and Microsoft Access. With ASP users can develop a database-driven web site
using Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL as the database. This is one of the drawbacks of UNIX even though they were
developed basically as Network Operating Systems, after numerous tries from UNIX developers the user interface is still not very
easy to get adapted to even for someone like myself. However there are a few drawbacks to Microsoft Windows Server. Unlike
UNIX, Windows Server requires more system resource. You need a powerful machine to run Windows Server. The Windows
Server does not have a good reputation in term of server stability. The Windows Server needs reboot more frequently than
UNIX. If you are using Windows Server hosting services, you may find yourself investing a lot of money in the development tools.
Most of them are Microsoft products. The costs of applications that can run on your web site are usually higher than that of
UNIX. For example, you can find a lot of free scripts to run web board, chat room, web stats, email (and more) for your UNIX-
based web site, but you won't find many free applications in Windows Server world. Over all I would gladly recommend
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for small to medium size businesses, for larger organizations I would stick to the enterprise
edition even though more expensive Microsoft technical support will give you priority. I will not however recommend Windows
Server 2008 as it is based on the kernel from Windows Vista which means it will use up a lot more system resources and crash
more frequently. Also this version is not very stable at the moment.

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