Creating a basic server-based network.

[Computer Head]

2000 professional computer (workstation/client)
IP address: 10.0.0.3 [B]First two octets are 10.0[/B]
Subnet Mask: 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway: Nothing
DHCP server: 10.10.1.1 [B]same as server[/B]
DNS servers: 10.10.1.1 [B]same as server[/B]
(A couple lines above the IP address, for DHCP Enabled, it says Yes) [B]DHCP is received from server[/B]

2000 server computer (server)
IP address: 10.10.1.1 [B]First two octets are 10.10[/B]
Subnet Mask: 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway: Nothing
DNS servers: 127.0.0.1 [B]The server is the DNS server, that address is called a loopback[/B]
(A couple lines above the IP address, for DHCP Enabled, it says No) [B]Server has static IP[/B]

OK, I'm sorry if I am confusing you. Hopefully my annotations will help. I believe your communication problem is because of the difference between the first two octets of each IP address. Your workstation, which receives its address from the server (DHCP Server) has an address of 10.0.0.3. Although, the server has an address of 10.10.1.1. The first two octets of each address are different. That's most likely your problem. So on the server (the computer running Windows 2000 Server with the address that is current 10.10.1.1), change the IP address to 10.0.0.1. Keep the subnet mask the same (to match the network), and if you need to specify a DNS server, keep it at 127.0.0.1 so it looks back at itself for DNS. The server is also a DHCP server and a DNS server (default roles), so making the IP address match the "scheme" by setting it to 10.0.0.1 should help with communication. If certain circumstances require that the server needs to keep the 10.10.*.* range, then the scope in the DHCP manager on the server need to be adjusted. Hopefully this helps. Plain and simple, change the server IP address to 10.0.0.1 to match the other workstation.

Most likely your problem resides that the subnet is different on the two computers. I'd imagine if you set a static IP on the workstation for 10.10.1.2, a subnet of 255.0.0.0, and DNS server to 10.10.1.1. Try that and see if it helps.

Disregard these instructions.

 

[Novice2000]

I just changed the address on the workstation to 10.10.1.2. It worked but didn't work. Here's what's going on. They are now seeing each other, but I can't access the other. When I double-click the icon of the other computer in "Computer Near Me" under "My Network Places", it asks me for a network password and username. Why is it doing this? Why won't it let me access these computers?

 

[Computer Head]

I just changed the address on the workstation to 10.10.1.2. It worked but didn't work. Here's what's going on. They are now seeing each other, but I can't access the other. When I double-click the icon of the other computer in "Computer Near Me" under "My Network Places", it asks me for a network password and username. Why is it doing this? Why won't it let me access these computers?

This is a user account issue. So what we are going to do is set up a user account on both of these computers so that they grant sharing privileges to one another. So, basically create an account on each computer by right-clicking My Computer, click Manage. Go to "Local Users and Groups" and open the Users folder. Right click in the white area, and click New User. Specify a username and password for this account and remember it. It will need to be the same for both computers. Now, for the server account, leave the permissions alone. However, when you configure that same account on the workstation, I would change the permissions to be an administrator. To do this, open the user account properties in Computer Management, click the Member Of tab, and click Add. Type the word "Administrators" (with the s at the end, and without the quotes) and click OK. Administrators should be added to the list. Now click Users and click Remove.

I know you asked why they can't have the same user account. Let me try to explain this as simply as I can. In a typical office environment, you might have 10 employees. You might have somebody who works in Marketing, somebody in Sales, and don't forget the CEO. But should everybody have access to each other's files? Should the Sales employee have access to the CEO's payroll records? So each employee would use a different user name and password. However, these accounts must also be created on the server that hosts these files. From there, the person in charge of the server would create permissions to tell each account what folders they are allowed to access, if that makes sense.

The reason you are being asked for a user name and password is because the same account doesn't reside on the server, so in essence the server is making the assumption that this is an unauthorized user account that is not allowed to communicate with this server. Does that clear anything up?

Let me know if you need any more help or have any more problems.

 

[Novice2000]

This is a user account issue. So what we are going to do is set up a user account on both of these computers so that they grant sharing privileges to one another. So, basically create an account on each computer by right-clicking My Computer, click Manage. Go to "Local Users and Groups" and open the Users folder. Right click in the white area, and click New User. Specify a username and password for this account and remember it. It will need to be the same for both computers. Now, for the server account, leave the permissions alone. However, when you configure that same account on the workstation, I would change the permissions to be an administrator. To do this, open the user account properties in Computer Management, click the Member Of tab, and click Add. Type the word "Administrators" (with the s at the end, and without the quotes) and click OK. Administrators should be added to the list. Now click Users and click Remove.

I know you asked why they can't have the same user account. Let me try to explain this as simply as I can. In a typical office environment, you might have 10 employees. You might have somebody who works in Marketing, somebody in Sales, and don't forget the CEO. But should everybody have access to each other's files? Should the Sales employee have access to the CEO's payroll records? So each employee would use a different user name and password. However, these accounts must also be created on the server that hosts these files. From there, the person in charge of the server would create permissions to tell each account what folders they are allowed to access, if that makes sense.

The reason you are being asked for a user name and password is because the same account doesn't reside on the server, so in essence the server is making the assumption that this is an unauthorized user account that is not allowed to communicate with this server. Does that clear anything up?

Let me know if you need any more help or have any more problems.

I think you're right because I was thinking that it maybe has something to do with me not having a user profile on the workstation. On the server I do have one, the administator, which also has a password. So I'm going to follow your instructions above.

While I'm doing the stuff in your last post, I have one more question for you. Well, maybe one more. Is this a peer-to-peer network that I just created? My main objective is to create a server-based network so I can learn how to set-up and maintain server-based networks. This is good though because the two computers are starting to see each other. If this is a peer-to-peer network that I just put together, what do I have to do now to make it a server-based network? And thanks for all your help and patience bud.

 

[Computer Head]

I think you're right because I was thinking that it maybe has something to do with me not having a user profile on the workstation. On the server I do have one, the administator, which also has a password. So I'm going to follow your instructions above.

While I'm doing the stuff in your last post, I have one more question for you. Well, maybe one more. Is this a peer-to-peer network that I just created? My main objective is to create a server-based network so I can learn how to set-up and maintain server-based networks. This is good though because the two computers are starting to see each other. If this is a peer-to-peer network that I just put together, what do I have to do now to make it a server-based network? And thanks for all your help and patience bud.

Hey bud, glad to help. Honestly, I consider this network to be a little of both (server based and peer-to-peer). It's server based because you would be using the server as a file server (theoretically), but it's also peer-to-peer because technically the server isn't running the show. The server is acting as both a DHCP and a DNS server so it is a server-based network in that sense. But if you are doing this to learn more about having a server-based network, I would do some reading and maybe some playing around with the server. More specifically, play around with Active Directory and create a domain on the server that the client will join. In today's networks, an Active Directory domain is quite common. Any Windows Server book should cover Active Directory. I'd suggest looking into that as it is a vital piece of knowledge for Windows Server-based networks.