How to create a windows xp domain?

i also have sky tv sattellite would it be possible to watch sky and record tv over the network thanx again keith

Okay well I'll take a stab at this one.

For the server it very much depends on what O/s you are planning on running. Server 2003 or Linux?

Linux requirements if you run it in console mode are very low really. In fact Bigwebmaster has a great guide on his website regarding linux server requirements. Can't find it on his website but got another link to another copy of it here:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HP-HOWTO/sizing.html

I think its fairly old but the parts you need for linux are fairly low key really.

For Server 2003 I'd go for a dual core CPU mainly because of the media server stuff, especially if its going to be transcoding(which ideally in fact you'd get a dedicated card for, I saw a PCI video encoding card not long ago in a magazine. Fairly reasonably priced).

I'd say at least 2Gb of RAM, dependant in some ways on what people will be doing with the server etc.

Hard drives:
I would suggest using RAID to mirror the hard drives which means you will need 2 of each. You seem to know a bit about computers so I assume you are aware that if you divide a 160Gb drive into 5 parts they won't each get 32Gb, closer to 30Gb as a 160Gb drive is really only about 152Gb. You would probably be better off in some ways getting two 500Gb drives. The second mirrors the first, the first is separated into the partitions you want. Obviously SATA at least, preferably SATA2(and if you buy a new motherboard it most likely will be SATA2 anyway).

DVD-RW:
You might in many ways want to get a DVD-RW drive as well, primarily for the possibility of backing up video from the media segment or backup of the other files. Reason I suggest the media segment is that it can be a long process if you are backing up 40Gb of data to DVD discs. And a tape backup option is probably a bit more than you really need.

Printer:
3 words. Personal Laser Printers.
They are getting cheaper and cheaper and they are also the cheaper to run per page than Inkjet printers. The next question is whether you want colour or not. I'm figuring yes since you have two teenagers in the house who will no doubt use it for printing out assignments. For example looking at a review I read just before, AUS$1331 for the printer, mono cartridges are AUS$98 and last for 8000 pages, colour is AU$166 and lasts for 8000 pages as well and the "printer maintenance kit" is good for 200,000 pages but at a price of $1199, which lets face it by that point your more likely to buy a new one. Its networkable etc. If not a lot of printing will really go on then a Inkjet might be just as good a choice in the end. There are cheaper laser printers out there but it's important to read reviews to determine what the running costs are, the per cent cost and the quality as some sell for $400 but the per page costs are 5 times as high etc.


The server 2003 workings might not be totally correct and there are other people here better qualified to work out this, I'm working off what I plan myself for a Media Centre PC.

Oh SkyTV.
This I do know a bit about.
Unfortunately there isn't a lot of options in this area. The decoder box that they supplied will no doubt only have one output channel. You can try a third party decoder box, they are usually more full PVR hardware though, so hard drive to record TV shows on etc. If you could transfer the files from the PVR to your computer then it would fulfill your plans though.

Keith,

I don't know if you'll be checking this, but chances are I'll assume you didn't pony up the $8,000 to create your own Windows 2003 domain or become a Linux expert in SAMBA in order to simply share some files and allocate disk space to your family.

What I would do:

Create an XP Pro-based system, and throw your hard drive(s) in there. For backups, yes a DVD-RW would be nice, but you would be better off with a removable disk, such as an external SATA Hard Drive. (Even a USB 2.0 external would get the job done. The point is you have the capability to have your backups off-site, in case - for instance - your house gets carried away by a tornado). Obviously your files won't be the greatest of your worries, but it is one less headache in the event of an unforeseeable catastrophe.

Now, it sounds like you're simply trying to allocate each member of your family a fixed amount of hard drive space on a Windows-only "Domain" using a flat network architecture. Considering they're your family, and that this is a home network, everyone will most likely be using windows platforms, thus everyone will probably be using the NTFS filesystem. This means separate partitions on your hard drives would be, in short, a waste of both time and resources. By doing that, you're losing valuable space between each partition, and it's completely unnecessary. Instead of partitioning your hard drives, we'll focus on simply manipulating the many available tools in Windows XP Pro that control the permissions and security levels involved in file sharing.

In your Windows XP Pro machine that is to eventually become your central fileserver, go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management and you'll see a few handy tools you have to work with, specifically "Local Users and Groups" and "Shared Folders". At this point, you'll want to turn off Simple File Sharing - that's going to give you plenty of control (almost like a domain, but not quite) over your shares.

After you've turned off SFS, you'll want to create an user account for each member of your family. Under "Local Users and Groups", click "Users", then click "Actions" and finally "New User". Type the credentials, and repeat using different credentials for each account.

Now you have the option to create groups. Groups help you manage high numbers of users more easily, because instead of adding each user to each folder, you can add any number of users to a group, and simply add the group to the folder. This, in some situations, saves time. However, in your situation, I wouldn't recommend it because it's an extra step that you won't need. I will, however, briefly cover it in case you're interested:

Under "Groups", you'll want to make at least one group for file shares, one group for administrative purposes (access to everything) and one group for printer access. This is assuming your network printer will be attached to this fileserver.

For instance, you may name the group that has access to files as "FileAccess", and the group that has access to your printer as "PrintAccess". Add the appropriate user accounts in each group, like your user account in "Administrators" and "FileAccess"

Long story short: You can create folders on the root of your fileserver hard drive, and name them anything from the user's name to 1, 2, 3...etc. By right-clicking the folder and choosing preferences, you can use the security/sharing tabs to control which users and/or groups you would like to have read/write/access permissions.

To be more specific, you'll want to add each user to their particular folder, and give them full control over it. You'll also want to remove "Users" from the access list, as well as anyone else that doesn't require access to the folder. You may also want to consider giving yourself administrative rights over each folder, but that's better left up to you. (You'll have access to the folders anyway by logging on to the server with an administrative account).

Now that you've set up your folders, users, and permissions, we're going to want to access all of it - that is the point, right?

From any machine, open "My Computer", click "Tools" and "Map Network Drive". In the field, type \\servername\sharedfolder where "servername" is the name you gave your fileserver (or the static IP address you assigned it) and "sharedfolder" is the shared name of the folder you want to access. You will be prompted to enter credentials (the username/password for the account that has permission to access the folder) and, provided everything went as planned, voila! - the user has access to a semi-private networked drive on a central server running XP in your home.

If you run into any speedbumps (or if I failed to address something - I did this from memory), feel free to hit me back with questions. Just let me know what area you got stuck on, and I'll do my best to help you out.


Good luck,
RILEY

I think you've pretty much solved the issue to do a domain work around. Good stuff. However, the only thing I think you left out would be how to limit the allotted space for each user. Sure they will have their own directory, but kid A could use up the entire disk space, leaving nothing for anyone else. Really I guess it will be up to the administrator (dad) to monitor this anyway.

Good post. Thanks.

I have a 3 (all xp pro) computer setup with 2 NAS devices. I moved one of the machines from wired to wireless. Now I cannot get that machine to reconnect to the domain ('WORKGROUP') using only a wireless connection.

Anybody know how to remove all references to the workgroup domain in XP so I can rebuild it? I have tried creating a non-existing domain and then recreating the workgroup, but that did not work.

I do NOT have a domain server.

Thanks in advance.

Bill.

Sounds like a wireless problem not a workgroup problem.

I don't think it is. one other laptop can connect to the workghroup with no problem. I also have a bridge that connects to the workgroup. I have been looking in quite a few places for the answer - this group came the closest to discussing my problem.

I may have to just build a new workgroup and connecting everything to that network - starting with the recalcitrant computer.

If your workgroup worked fine in a fully wired scenario and now doesn't work because you switched to wireless would point to some sort of wireless issue. Wired or wireless it is basically all the same. I have an actual domain running at my house and I have three wireless laptops that can connect to the domain both wireless or wired without any change in configuration.

You also need to stop using the domain terminology. You are not running a domain. You are running a workgroup, huge difference.

you can not make the domain with the help of the windows xp. if you want to make the domain . installed the server 2003 or more than you can make the domain as the computer and make all the other computers as client.

windows xp does not provide the domain feature . this domain feature is only from the servers.

after installing the server 2003 . installed the active directory so that the you can make the computer as domain .

you need a switch and router to connect the rest computers with each other .

you could make an ftp server with file zilla you can get it here: filezilla-project(dot)org