new to this forum

[warmongr]

Hi.<br>
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New to this forum. Need some help. My company does most of it's work on Linux with respect to software development, however we have an ever increasing number of Windows users that provide us subject matter documentation using win98 and win95. We have roughly 30 of these clients on our network in a huge, cumbersome, peer-to-peer configuration. It is an admin nightmare especially as the company grows and more and more of these clients come on line. I want to be able to manage these machines from my server rack, not via sneaker net. I would like to use NT however I am not sure how 9x will interface with the NT Servers. I won't have to upgrade the clients to NT WS will I ? Can I get my Win98 boxes to process startup scripts on the PDC's?<br>
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Can you all give me some advice? I am familiar with NT WS and Server, however I would not consider myself an NT Administrator.

 

[FarSide]

I have a Win NT Server 4.0 with about 50 clients running off of it. Those 50 clients are all either Win 95 or Win 98. I've never had a problem with startup scripts with the Win 95. I have had some trouble with the Win 98 Second Version not wanting to login. As far as managing them over the network Win 95 or 98 is not the best choice unless you install a program such as PC Anywhere to be able to access that computer over the network. For manageability over a network NT Workstations are the number 1 choice. Good Luck!

 

[Zelandakh]

I have 6 NT Servers, 60 PCs and 50 Macs. I use a domain with log on scripts to set network drives. All files stored centrally on servers. Therefore there is no real need to manage 95 machines.<br>
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Printing is managed by everyone printing to lpt1 and then the logon script captures the lpt port to you can redirect easily.<br>
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All very simple really. The only management required is updating the anti virus defs which I do with Norton Sol Suite.<br>
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This help?

 

[MasterRacker]

I have 5 servers runnning NT4 SP5 and about 120 clients running both Win95 and NT4. We use persistent connections on the workstations for drive mappings. Since we don't use any old DOS apps we don't bother to capture LPT1 for printing, just connect to the printers which are all networked via HP JetDirects and controlled and shared by a NT server.<br>
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We also have users store all files on the server and only use local hard disks for holding the OS and applications. (One exception is notebook users who obviously need to use the HDD off line but then sync files when they return to the office. - however, we have them do this manually since, in our opinion, My Briefcase requires too much training to be used safely) It's written right into our policies that IS is not responsible for files lost on a local hard disk, only from a server.<br>
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We have WINS and DHCP running and have disabled LMHOSTS lookup on all clients, so everything is pretty much dynamic. Other than application upgrades and virus definition updates, there is very little client machine administration.<br>
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You definitely want to put in an NT server and create a domain. A large peer to peer workgroup would certainly be a nightmare. I would also recommend a second server (a standard desktop machine with NTSRV installed on it would do) set up as a BDC. If you have a WAN you will need a BDC in each location for decent authentication performance (if you had a full T1 to each site you might get away without this.)<br>
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If you really feel you need to do a lot of remote workstation administration, NT would be the best client, but it's not really necessary. 95 and 98 integrate into a domain quite nicely.<br>
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Hope this helps.