Eleo

Luckily I got a second PC to use as the server. Using Windows 2003 as a workstation and a server simultaneously was very annoying.

Let me elaborate. I have five PCs, one of them is the Server. The Server has Windows Server 2003 installed, but obviously I can't do anything with it unless I can somehow communicate with the other 4 workstations. The router, obviously, has a WAN port and four other ports for computers. This would be adequate if I had three workstations in a server, but I have four workstations and a server. The only way for the server to have access to the rest of the network is by sharing a connection from my workstation. My workstation, not the server, has two ethernet cards in it. The Server cannot take another network card, as it is a very tight system with no room in it for anything else but what it is in there (my dad stole it from work; it's basically a company PC and was built that way so people couldn't take it home.) I shouldn't need anymore equipment than what I have; although it would be easier to get a bigger router or a USB hub or something, I should be able to get the network running with what I have. Internet Connection Sharing, according to Microsoft, will not work correctly of the workstations have a domain controller. All of the PCs need the internet. Your plan doesn't work because the Server only has one network card and cannot take anymore. Thanks for trying, though.

Windows Server 2003 is pretty new to me, but I think this is where creating a subdomain or child domain would be useful. I believe you can create a child domain by starting Run and typing in dcpromo. Perhaps then you have those student computers join that subdomain. It may be that staff and students can log onto student workstations but students can't log onto staff workstations that way, because they exist in a subdomain or "child" domain as opposed to a "forest" domain. I may be entirely wrong though. That's just a guess. Anyone feel free to correct me.

My router only has four ports, or slots, or whatever you call them. Unforunately, it is necessary to have five computers networked. I was told with two Ethernet cards installed in one PC, I could use internet connection sharing to my advantage, so I put two in one of the workstations (not the planned sever; it is a very tight system and hardly customizable; there's not room for s*** else in it besides what's there.) So I tried this: DSL Modem -> Router -> Workstation with two Ethernet cards -> Server as well as DSL Modem -> Workstation with two Ethernet cards -> Router -> Server Neither worked, for reasons beyond me, but I did read ICS can't be used on networks with a domain controller, so whether I got those two setups to work is pointless. I was told I was supposed to use NAT, but I can't figure that out either. Can anyone suggest a solution using the equipment I have?

Okay, I ran Alcohol 120% install with the /a switch. It asks me to choose a network installation point. Where should this be? How does this somehow install the software for all members of the domain?

Perhaps you could install Windows XP (temporarily) onto the Windows 2003 drive, in another directory, just to see if it recognizes the other hard drive. It might determine whether it's a hardware problem or if it's just a shortcoming of Windows 2003.

Please take the time to help out a complete newbie regarding Windows Server 2003. I recently installed it with the hopes of managing a domain. I've had a few successes at what I've tried, but otherwise a lot of failures. I have pretty much just one problem as of late: I'm simply managing a network at my house. One of the biggest problems I ran into, being the only person here remotely computer literate, is to manage the other three computers. It is simply a chore to go from PC to PC installing the same software over and over again. I had a feeling, there must be an easier way to do this. The networked computers at high school and college all had the same software on them, so I asked myself, how do I do that? Someone suggested Windows Server 2003 to "deploy" certain programs across the domain. The problem I ran into was that Server 2003 used only msi files, and programs like Firefox, Thunderbird, WinRAR/WinZip, a BitTorrent Client, WinAmp (and special codecs like FLAC and MAC and ogg and mpc), Ad-Aware, some kind of virus software, Registry Mechanic--the simple programs that everyone here needs to be happy (and some I insist they use from time to time), Microsoft Office 2003--aren't distributed as msi files. After doing some research, I thought getting InstallShield 10.5 would make things better. It apparently had the ability to make .msi files. I tested the software, downloading Firefox as a .zip and creating an .msi installer, then setting it up in Groupe Policy Object Editor -> User Configuration -> Software Settings -> Software Installation. This, at first, appeared to be effective. When I logged onto a client computer I noticed that the .msi was installing before I logged in. I then clicked on Firefox to see if all had went well, but instead of the program launching, an installer launched. This isn't how I planned things... I had downloaded someone else's Firefox .msi installer and I guess it did what is called a "silent install?" Meaning when it installed while I was logging in, the program installed entirely and I could open it as soon as I was done logging in. Obviously, my limited knowledge of everything, Windows Servere 2003, InstallShield 10.5, .msi in general, is keeping me from doing what I want. Ultimately I'd like to be able to deploy software without having other people make it for me, so I'd like to know where to go from here... I see a lot of "silent install" threads in the Application Switches forum, but when I look at what's posted, nothing there makes sense to me -- like I'm missing some fundamental knowledge everyone else who browses there has. So the questions are: How do I do a silent install to client computers on the domain? If creating .msi files is involved, how do I create them properly, so that they install silently? What do I make of all the info I see on the Application Switches forum? Another problem is that such software is ending up installed on the Server -- is there anyway to make software only get installed on client computers, or to certain users? An unrelated question: is there anyway to remotely control what themes/wallpapers/etc client computers on the domain use? I tried settings this via group policies, but again, all the restrictions I created affected my computer (the domain controller) as well. I couldn't even access my display settings... Is there some way to apply such rules only to certain users? This post was pretty big. I hope someone helps me out. Thanks in advance.