Domain and workgroup coexisting on same network

  • Thread starter Thread starter CiZiN
  • Start date Start date
C

CiZiN

I know that I have learned that if you are setting up a
network, you should either use a domain or not but don't
do it half way. I working with a client of mine that is
running a simple database program that is run across the
network that is having corruption problems. I am working
to get their network up to standards. The server is just
acting like a file server. The technician before me had
setup a 2k server in a domain and 5 workstations ranging
from 98se to xp home. The server is in a domain and the
workstations are setup in a workgroup all communicating to
a share on the server. I decided to recommend to this
client that we either move all computers to a domain or
demote the server. My boss asked me to get solid proof on
why this would be a problem. Can anyone give me a direct
knowledge base article or exact reasons why this would be
a problem.

Thanks
 
Cizin,

With win98se and winxp home there is no option to join the 'computer
account' to the domain. Your best option is to join it to a workgroup with
the same name as the NetBIOS name of your domain. If you log on to those
machines with a username and password that is the same as an existing domain
user account ( user name and password ) then that workgroup user will be
able to access the things that the domain user can access ( well, as far as
NTFS access is concerned ).

An example. Let's say that on that WIN2000 domain controller ( domain dns
name - yourdomain.com; domain NetBIOS name - yourdomain ) the previous tech
set up five user account objects: JBench, TMunson, GCarter, IRodriguez and
CFisk. All have the password of 'password'. These are the five domain user
account objects. All of these user account objects have been added to a
global security group called "Catchers". Furthermore, "Catchers" has been
added to a local security group called "SOFTWARE", which has been given
permissions to a shared folder called INSTALL on the WIN2000 domain
controller. Inside this INSTALL shared folder is a bunch of software - like
Adobe Acrobat Reader, Ad-Aware, Norton Anti-Virus 2003, WinZip, etc. If
John logs on to his win98se machine using 'JBench' as the user name and
'password' as the password and that win98se machine is a member of the
workgroup 'yourdomain' then he will have access to the INSTALL folder ( he
will naturally have to map a network drive to it... ) and be able to install
all of software in that folder ( assuming that the permissions applied to
the local security group allow that ).

Question: the 'server' that you mentioned - is it a Domain Controller? You
state that it is just acting like a File Server. That is fine. I would
guess that this server is an AD Domain Controller as you do mention twice
that it 'is in a domain'.

Question: have you contacted the database software people to see if they can
offer any support. They may have seen this problem before and might be able
to at least make some suggestion as to resolving it. Don't necessarily
count on that but it good to go to the source.

HTH,

Cary
 
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