Windows workgroups/domains (noob question)

July 4th, 2005, 5:49 am

Hi guys,

I know this is a noob question, but I really can't remember much about windoze workgroups & domains.

Q1.: One can't have domains in XP Home, right?
Q2.: Can one have a workgroup, that contains more workgroups?

Thanks for reading,
Torst.

[ATNO/TW]

July 4th, 2005, 6:41 am

Domains exist when the network is running off a domain server, such as Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Server, etc. And you are correct, XP Home machines cannot be joined to a domain. They can, however access domain resources by mapping drives to domain shares and using a domain user authentication. We have a couple of partners' XP home machines running at work, and they are able to access domain resources including network printers just fine.

You can have multiple workgroups on a basic peer-to-peer home network. The key is that machines of the same workgroup will only see other machines that are part of that workgroup. So Workgroup A machines will all see each other, but they will not see machines in Workgroup B and vice versa.

July 4th, 2005, 6:55 am

Thanks a lot for that, it explains a lot.
But can Workgroup A machines not access workgroup B at all?
And, could there be a Workgroup X, containing Workgroup A and B as some sort of children?

[ATNO/TW]

July 4th, 2005, 7:22 am

But can Workgroup A machines not access workgroup B at all? - Yes, but it's much easier if they are part of the same workgroup. The idea of workgroups is purely organizational. With domains, organization is handled through Active Directory (Windows), NDS (Novell), etc. On a peer-to-peer network it's handled through workgroups, and is merely for convenience, for example, all accounting computers may be part of an "Accounting" workgroup, management may be "Management" workgroup and so on. On a home network, there's virtually no need for multiple workgroups. Here's a very basic tute on setting up a peer-to-peer network:
http://www.chicagotech.net/workgroupsetup.htm


And, could there be a Workgroup X, containing Workgroup A and B as some sort of children? - No - child workgroups do not exist. You would have to be on a domain to do child groupings.

July 4th, 2005, 7:30 am

Thanks, I really appreciated your help.

Rgrds,
Torsten.

[ATNO/TW]

July 4th, 2005, 7:57 am

Glad it helped. Cheers.