Windows network domains
Last revision July 28, 2004
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Shared disks and printers are organized in the Windows networking system using "domains" and "workgroups". These are concepts similar to zones in AppleTalk. Domains can only be setup using a special "domain server" computer; services within that domain are only visible and available to client computers that authenticate themselves to the domain server. Workgroups can be used by individual computers in a peer-to-peer relationship. They can assign themselves to any workgroup and must individually authenticate to each other workgroup computer to use its services.
In the School of Earth Sciences, the Energy Resources Engineering department has set up an organizational unit within the university's central Windows domain. This allows them to apply consistent policies to all Windows computers in their department. Any other group that wants to setup their own organization unit should talk to the Computer Manager Individual Windows computer users should configure their system to use a sensible workgroup name. All workgroup names in the School should start with the prefix ES-. This way, when campus-wide routing is available, all our groups will appear together in the Network Neighborhood window. If you have multiple machines in a research group, you can create your own appropriate research workgroup name, such as ES-Hydro or ES-Crustal. Otherwise, use the plain workgroup names ES-GES or ES-GP, depending upon your department.