Hello everyone. I'm not at all a networking/IT type of user, but I have a question that someone hopefully can answer. I'm thinking about setting up a more advanced LAN for myself. I want to have one computer running Windows Server, and all my printers and hard drives would be connected to that computer to be shared on the LAN. I also want to assign users specific permissions about the network devices they are accessing, while keeping the majority of their user data on their own computers, and also while ensuring that they can log on to their computers when not connected to the network. Is this at all possible, and if so, where can I start (in terms of a book or other reference material) to figure this out? Thanks a ton. -Zane Kaminski

Hi Zane, You could connect a (wireless) router to your ISP modem and hook up all your pc's in the LAN to it. In the configuration of the router (http address of the gateway the router uses) you should enable wpa2 security and possibly mac address filtering. The configuration of the router is self-explanatory most of the time. The instructions are also on the http pages. Remember wireless connections need to be set up while connected to the router by cable. The user data will mostly be on the pc's the users are logged into but I bet you want to be able to share folders over the network (that is between pc's on the LAN). Installing pro versions of operating systems would enable you to use ftp services to share files. Assigning users to groups (client) and configuring permissions on the ftp server pc is a good way to fine tune security. Access to certain services can be configured trough windows firewall, e.g. printer and file sharing and web services. I would advise to turn dhcp server on the router for easy and reliable configuration of the network. MAC address filtering is an extra security measure but can be quite a drag if you have friends over with a laptop wanting to connect. You can also use hardware profiles on pc's if -for instance- you don't want the machine to connect to the network. Create another hardware profile and disable the LAN/WAN connections in device manager. At startup you can choose between the different profiles; it's also possible to set the amount of seconds this option will be on screen. The most obvious reference material to look at is the help files on the machines and the router. Press F1 when your pc has started and search on "LAN setup" for example. I hope this helps you along fine.Information is provided "AS IS" without any guaranty nor liability and, in no lesser extent, with devotion and care.

Thanks for the reply. I've already got the wireless network and everything set up. This is more of a question about using Active Directory to manage these resources on a server dedicated to this.

That's a totally dofferent issue. Maybe this might help: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754438%28WS.10%29.aspx Information is provided "AS IS" without any guaranty nor liability and, in no lesser extent, with devotion and care.

That looks perfect. Thanks.