Windows Server 2003 & NT4.0 Remote Office Connectivity

[jhcumms]

We have a main office running in a Windows 2003 domain. We have a remote office that we plan to have connect to our main office with a site-to-site VPN connection (hardware-based). Currently the remote office users are in a workgroup. We plan on implementing NT Server 4.0 in the remote office as well. Essentially we would like to have the remote office users a part of our domain for easier management. What is the best to set this up using Windows Server 2003 and NT Server 4.0?

 

[ntinlin]

You have only two choices really.

1.
Join NT machines to your 2003 domain as domain members
Easy to do but all authentication traffic would go over WAN and might be quite slow. Problematic if WAN goes down.

2.
Put a 2003 DC in remote office to handle authentication.
Join NT machines to 2003 domain
All authentication etc. will be handled locally so if WAN goes down users can still log in and work

You can't have NT4 BDC's in a W2000 or W2003 native domain which is presumably what you have.
You can have NT4 member servers still though.

Although why you'd want to add NT4 servers nowadays I'm not quite sure. You've obviously had to buy W2003 CAL's already and a 2003 server license isn't too expensive.

Neill

Neill

 

[jhcumms]

Thanks for your response. Would it be possible to make the NT Server 4.0 a PDC in the remote office so all authentication would be handled locally, and the remote office would still be part of our current domain?

 

[jhcumms]

-UPDATE-

Come to find out, you can have Windows NT 4.0 Server in a Windows 2003 domain. Check out the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...003/all/deployguide/en-us/dssbe_upnt_anlz.asp

I hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.