How do I add a server to our network and assign it an IP address?

[lesj1968]

Hi

We have a network consisting of 4 server machines all linked through a Router and Switch. I'm not very knowledgeable regarding networks and IP addresses / DNS's etc? We have another machine which has IIS 5 which I am going to upgrade to IIS 6 (will I encounter any problems migrating to IIS 6??). We then plan to add it as a new additional server to our network. How is this done and I assume I have to assign it an IP address? How do I assign it an IP address?

What else do I have to do to add the machine to the network? I will connect the machine via cat 5 cable to the router and Switch. Will this automatically make it visible on our network - after I have assigned it an IP?

Simple question - what does a DNS do? I assume this is a "central" IP address of the whole network?

Many thanks for any help and information.

Les

 

[lesj1968]

I also assume I have to add the new machine as a "new computer" in Active Directory. Is this correct? Do I need to assign the computer a machine "name" - how would I do this?

 

[lesj1968]

We use Windows 2000 as the operating system on all our machines.

 

[cyberspace]

Hi, you have many questions there!!

Is your network in a domain environment? If so, you will need to add the machine to the domain, which you do by right clicking on "My Computer" then going to Properties, then the Network Identification tab. You also "name" the comptuter in this tab.

Click properties in there and follow the steps to add to the domain.

To assign IP info, you go to My Network Places, then "Network and Dial Up Connections". There will be one that says "Local Area Connection 1" for your Servers Network Card.

Right click on that, then go to properties. Scroll down to "TCP/IP" highlight that, click properties. You can then add the IP Address, Subnet mask and DNS info (get Subnet and DNS from another Server, and assign the IP address in the same range. For example, if you server is 192.168.1.1, give it an address in that range, eg 192.168.1.x.

Of course this will vary if your network is subnetted - If the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 or 255.255.255.0 or indeed 255.0.0.0 then this is not a problem for you so don't worry about it as any address will be able to talk to any other address (Note however, that if you have say a host that is 192.168.1.1 and one that is 192.168.2.1 with a 255.255.255.0 mask - they will not talk to eachother, you will need to change the mask to 255.255.0.0)

If you give me some more detailed information on the IP/Subnet scheme in use then I can give you a more specific answer.

DNS stands for Domain Name System. What this does is map IP addresses (which computers work with) to domain names (such as

http://www.microsoft.com,

which humans wok with). It is nothing to do with a "central" ip address.

Adding a machine to a network in a domain environment does not require a manual entry into the computers container in the AD, once a machine is added to the domain and assigned an IP address/Subnet Mask/Default Gateway/DNS Server, the new machine should automatically appear in the computers container. (This may differ for non-domain environments though, I am not an AD expert )

Hope this has helped you


Systems Administrator
BSc Network Computing, CCNA. Both in training!