Home Network/Authentication

cheechm

cheechm

cheechm

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16 Jan 2008
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I need to come up with a solution for my home network and authentication of the several computers. This is the current situation:

There are 5 computers (all different users) which are networked together using an HP Procurve switch. There is also a Dell Poweredge 1950 server and a QNAP410-U connected. Finally, a few Sonos zoneplayers are connected.

The solution I need to come up with is how to authenticate this all. Every computer will connect to the server to backup and share (for Sonos or PS3 Media Server for instance).

To make life easier, here is an example:

PC A -> User A
PC B -> User B

Is there a way in which I can centrally store all of the logins, although still make it so that only User A can log onto PC A and same for user B? And then when they login, they are automatically connected to the server, under their share.

I have access to Windows Server 2003 if that makes life easier?

Otherwise, I'm happy to try other solutions on my server. Running vMWare ESXi 4.1, so can try multiple things.

Thanks
 
could use some VBscript to map shares on the computers to the server every time someone logs on to the computer... if everyone is going to have write access just set the permissions on the share to allow everyone to do this.

Stelly
 
However if I understand correctly, that will be based on me inputting their password onto Freenas or something, and then if they change it, it won't change on freenas (if that makes sense)
 
m4rkw7 said:
This is what you want, create a domain and add the users. Then set up file sharing on the server. :)

May be of use?
Setting up users and groups in Win server 2k3
Click to expand...
However, I want most of the computer's files to be stored locally. So actually they still logon to their local computer just their user details are stored within a central sever. Surely by setting up an active directory, they logon to the 2003 server and then don't have any of their personal files/settings?
 
Use a program called profwiz to migrate their local account profile to their domain profile and they don't lose anything :)
 
However, I want most of the computer's files to be stored locally. So actually they still logon to their local computer just their user details are stored within a central sever. Surely by setting up an active directory, they logon to the 2003 server and then don't have any of their personal files/settings?
Click to expand...

They authenticate with the server, yes. But you can still store files locally. :)
 
Windows Home Server does pretty much what you want, too. You could try out Windows Home Server 2011 for free, as it's a Release Candidate atm.
 
OK so set up Windows 2003 Server, and have all of this working. Next thing is next:

If the domain controller isn't on/has crashed for some reason I want the users to still be able to access their profile. That means that I want to sync their profiles on the local computer as well as the network. Should I just make all the profiles roaming profiles? Or is there another, and better way?

Cheers
 
I'd have said the opposite, leaving them as they are out of the box they are local profiles.

If you enabled roaming profiles or redirected profile folders then if the server hosting these files is unavailable you'll have issues/warning messages.

Whereas a local profile does not look to pull the files down from the server each time they logon, it's all kept locally.
 
Ev0 said:
I'd have said the opposite, leaving them as they are out of the box they are local profiles.

If you enabled roaming profiles or redirected profile folders then if the server hosting these files is unavailable you'll have issues/warning messages.

Whereas a local profile does not look to pull the files down from the server each time they logon, it's all kept locally.
Click to expand...
Aren't all the profiles stored on the server? I'm confused now! I used ProfWiz to copy from my local machine to the domain. So is my profile still stored on my local machine or on the domain?

Also, if I select "log onto this computer" I don't get the original profile that I had. Bit confused now!
 
Profiles are stored where ever you've set them to be :)

If you've set them as roaming, then they will be held wherever you've specified under that account within active directory.

Open up AD users and computers on your domain, open up a user account, and see if there's anything in the profile path section.

If you've left them as is then they will be local profiles.

I've not used profwiz, but guessing all that's done is move the local account profile you had on the machine over to the domain account profile folder on that machine, maybe.

If you log on locally to the computer rather than selecting to logon to the domain then you are logging on to a different account altogether and thus will have a different profile on the machine.
 
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