Typical Small Business Network Layout.
The following example takes the same diagram in the article
Modems Routers and Switches
including a small business server.
The computer work stations in this example are represented as monitor and keyboards.
Using a switch in this fashion frees up the extra LAN ports on the router which
can also be used, but more importantly expands the size of your network allowing
the use and sharing of more computers or devices
such as file servers, web servers,
mail servers, fax servers and more commonly copiers.
The same umbrella of protection is being supplied to the network.
In some business networks,
its sometimes preferable to turn off the DHCP service in the router and allow the Small Business Server to use
its DHCP service.
The example at right shows a Windows Small Business Server
acting as the domain controller.
Not not shown here are the critical internal or external backup tape drive or the
UPS(Uninterupted Power Supply) powering the
and expands it to include a 12 port switch which in turn feeds the wired devices
on the network
Roberto Almodobar, TechSupportFree Staff Writer
Saturday, December 19, 2009
the Server,Modem, Router and Switch.
Why use a domain controller when I already have a file server?
The typical file server in a peer to peer network provides basic file sharing and
security for the file server allowing folder permissions to be set and scripts,
short cuts or mapped paths to be created for users. It also can provide backup capability.
The domain controller on the other hand most importantly provides security for all computers
joined to the domain along with the control of shared resources on the network. It accomplishes
this by requiring a user login security account. Once the user successfully logins in and
is authenticated, the domain controller will use a variety of policies, and Active Directory
settings to automatically set user and group rights through out the domain.(Some are system policies, others can be configured to meet your
needs), The domain controller provides a central location to control access to your network.
For purposes of this article I will refer to the Domain Controller as the Small
Business Server or sbserver. Here are just a few beneifts of using a Small Business
Server:
Instead of using a basic WORKGROUP name in a peer to peer network, the term DOMAIN name
is used in business networks and is usually a fully qualified domain name such as TechSupportFree.local, for security and for DNS to distinguish the internal private network from the internet it is highly recommended and usually given the extension of .local. Computers that are then joined to
the domain become workstations that are partially managed by the domains security policies. The user is required to have a user name and password, this account is set up using Active Directory or the Server Management Wizard on the sbserver
by an administrator or manager of the domain.
Each user account set up on the sbserver will also have its own private and secure user folder
located on the sbserver named after the user, a script is usually in place
to map a drive letter to this folder such as U:\ which appears in My Computer
on the users workstation and allows the user to create folders and save work securely
to the sbserver. This benefit allows the users work to be backed up by the
sbserver nightly. The My Documents folder on the users workstation
can also be redirected to the users folder
on the sbserver.
Membership groups can be created on the sbserver, and users added. Some of
the default groups include domain users, administrators, remote desktop users, remote web workplace
users, printer operators.
Network copier/printer/scanners can be managed by the sbserver and can be shared by all users of the
domain, or can be reserved for a particular group.
Shared folders can be setup on the sbserver with group security policies in place,
for example a shared folder called finance could be created but only users belonging
to the finance group could access it. A script in place could map the drive letter
such as F:\. A member of the finance group would have both the U:\ user
folder, and the F:\ finance folder appearing in My Computer on the users workstation.
Each user can access the domain from any workstation. When using roaming profiles
the users local desktop settings are also stored on the server and follow the user.
For these few reasons alone having a domain controller of some sort simplifies the
management of small business networking
while providing security.
Here are a couple of examples of additional applications:
If the sbserver has Microsoft Exchange(Email server) included, or if a second server is acting as
an Exchange server, then Active Directory will be modified to show
additional Exchange/Email options and provide automatic email address creation based
on the user and domain name or allow customization during user setup. Exchange provides
a rich source of services inclusive of email, distribution groups, public
folders. It allows for (OWA) Outlook Web Access over the internet using a
browser to check email, or Outlook itself can be configured locally on a remote
computer to connect directly
to the exchange server over the internet. Great for
laptops on the go and working from home.
Other features of sbserver include the internal (intranet) company web site and
share point services along with IIS(Internet Information Services) to allow the
hosting of multiple web sites turning your server into a web server. Anti
Virus and automatic updates to all the joined workstations can be managed from the
server.