Re: networking requirements - do I need a domain controller?!

From: Steven L Umbach (n9rou_at_nospam-comcast.net)
Date: 06/14/04 

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 17:32:27 GMT

Your small network can work perfectly fine without a domain controller. What you
mainly lose is centralized user management, centralized management of group and
security policy including password policy, and loss of certain technologies such as
kerberos authentication which can be very useful for implementing ipsec network
security. If you don't need any of that and don't mind managing the users in a
workgroup environment then that is your choice. In a workgroup for example, if you
have twenty users that need access to two servers then those user accounts will need
to be manually entered and maintained on each server which can be cumbersome managing
password changes. I personally prefer the domain configuration but each to their
wn. --- Steve

"Chris" <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2C99C105-8E7C-4B53-9BD7-222DB075D722@microsoft.com...
> I'm trying to figure out whether or not I NEED to go through the hassle and added
overhead of maintaining a domain controller; hopefully, someone can answer this for
me as I plan out our office's new network...
>
> We are a 20-person office, mixed Mac and Win 2k/WinXP systems. We have one Win
2K-based file server (Dell Powervault file server appliance), our e-mail and web
services are outsourced and our office printers are handled by a Win2k Server-based
print server (has to be Win2K Server). That's it.
>
> We're about to upgrade our network w/ unmanaged switches and a Linksys router which
will handle DHCP, firewall and routing services.
>
> Right now, however, our desktop systems have manually-assigned IP addresses and we
have an old WinNT server acting as a domain controller. I know this because shutting
doen the server makes all of the network printers and the file server disappear.
>
> I would love to be able to abolish the need for a domain controller w/ our new
network and am hoping that this will be possib;e considering our modest setup.
>
> Can anybody tell me if i can get away w/o one once we make the described hardware
upgrade? Shouldn't systems be able to see our file server and print server w/o having
to have a domain controller?

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Strange Irregular DNS/Networking Problems
    ... My network is not a complicated set up and only has one domain controller. ... problems with DNS resolving after changing DNS servers. ... I was already using the server for DHCP. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.dns)
  • RE: Strange Irregular DNS/Networking Problems
    ... Disable offloading in the network adapter properties ... After doing this on the server and the client it seems to have fixed ... Tested with just one client and the domain controller on the ... "Meinolf Weber" wrote: ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.dns)
  • RE: Strange Irregular DNS/Networking Problems
    ... Disable offloading in the network adapter properties ... After disabling all these things file transfers across the network are a lot ... My network is not a complicated set up and only has one domain controller. ... I tried doing a net stop server after the network stalled as from an article ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.dns)
  • Re: IPSec / domain isolation: confusing MS documents
    ... workstation, he is able to attach to server ressources again, but for our ... The user right for access this computer from the network ... will not work for computer accounts unless ipsec is being used. ... securing a domain controller. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.security)
  • Re: How to connect the NT4 PCD from windows 2003 server
    ... internal is on top of external on the network connection ... for lmhosts files on NT4 server, ... >> type glcdom, which is my NT4 domain controller name, it ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.security)
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