CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [408]
Figure 23-16 A domain controller eliminates the need for multiple logins.
Modern domain-based networks use what is called a directory service to store user and computer account information. Large Microsoft-based networks use the Active Directory (AD) directory service. Think of a directory service as a big, centralized index, similar to a telephone book, that each PC accesses to locate resources in the domain.
Server versions of Microsoft Windows look and act similar to the workstation versions, but they come with extra networking capabilities, services, and tools so they can take on the role of domain controller, file server, remote access services (RAS) server, application server, Web server, and so on. A quick glance at the options you have in Administrative Tools shows how much more full-featured the server versions are compared to the workstation versions of Windows. Figure 23-17 shows the Administrative Tools options on a typical Windows Vista workstation. These should be familiar to you. Figure 23-18 shows the many extra tools you need to work with Windows 2008 Server.
Figure 23-17 Administrative Tools in Windows Vista Business
Every Windows system contains a special account called the administrator account. This one account has complete and absolute power over the entire system. When you install Windows, you must create a password for the administrator account. Anyone who knows the administrator password can install/delete any program, read/change/delete any file, run any program, and change any system setting. As you might imagine, you should protect the administrator password carefully. Without it, you cannot create additional accounts (including additional accounts with administrative privileges) or change system settings. If you lose the administrator password (and no other account with administrative privileges exists), you have to reinstall Windows completely to create a new administrator account—so don’t lose it!
Figure 23-18 Administrative Tools in Windows Server 2003
In Windows XP, open the Properties window for My Computer, and select the Computer Name tab, as shown in Figure 23-19. This shows your current selection. Windows Vista and 7 show the computer name right on the System Properties dialog box and give you a link to the 2000/XP-style dialog box (Figure 23-20). Clicking the Network ID button opens the Network Identification Wizard, but most techs just use the Change button, which brings up the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box (Figure 23-21). Clicking the Change button does the same thing as clicking the Network ID button except that the wizard does a lot of explaining that you don’t need if you know what you want to do. Make sure you have a valid domain account or you won’t be able to log into a domain.
At this point, you’ve prepared the OS to network in general, but now you need to talk to the specific hardware. For that, you need to load protocols.
Figure 23-19 Computer Name tab in Windows XP
Figure 23-20 Computer Name location in Vista
Figure 23-21 Using the Change button
Protocols
Simply moving data from one machine to another is hardly sufficient to make a complete network; many other functions need to be handled. For example, if a file is being copied from one machine to another, something must keep track of all of the packets so the file can be properly reassembled. If many machines are talking to the same machine at once, that machine must somehow keep track of which packets it sends to or receives from each of the other PCs.
Another issue arises if one of the machines in the network has its network card replaced. Up to this point, the only way to distinguish one machine from another was by the MAC address on the network card. To solve this, each machine must have a name, an identifier for the network, which is “above” the MAC address. Each machine, or at least one of them, needs to keep a list of all of the