Server client setup question

[wisbeech]

Hi all,

please forgive the utter noobness of this question, i am fairly new to all this and while i understand some stuff there are some areas that baffle me a a bit.

Okay basically my question is this. Hypothetically speaking i have set up a windows 2003 server, set, added a file server role to it through the configure server part and have files on the server i want to share. What i dont understand is how to connect a client computer. I understand it will be part of my network, i would have the server connected to a switch and then add the client to the switch. But what do i have to configure on both the server and the client so they can see "each"other, by that i mean ping each other and that both can access the other, but more importantly the client can query the server and i can access files as and when needed.

Cheers in advance.

[ltmccaul]

The are a couple of ways to do what you are talking about.

1.) If your client is running XP/2000 Pro you can configure your 2003 server as an Active Directory domain. This is the easiest way to share files without having to worry about firewalls/multiple user accounts.

2.) Without AD. Turn on file sharing on the firewall on the server side. Create a local account on the server that you will use to access the files. Check the security on the files and make sure that account has full rights to it. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHARE PERMISSIONS AND FILE PERMISSIONS. Typically administrators will assign full rights to everyone at the share level and modify/restrict the file permissions. Then you will need to go to the client, make sure file sharing is turned on in the firewall. Go to Start -> Run and in the browse box type in \\. Once you connect it will ask you for a username and password, this is what we created earlier. From this you can map network drives and have fun.

Sorry for the long description but if you are going to run 2003 there are many options you have available to you.