Member Avatar for danysabin

Hey,

I'm looking for some help on setting up a win2k3 server. I'll be living in a frat. house next year and me and friend wanna hook up wireless and a server for files to share over the internal network in the house. I have an old windows box with a AMD Athlon 3200 processor and such. I also have a valid copy of win2k3. Does anyone know a good place where i can look and learn about setting up the server.

I was also wondering anyone had any ideas on a good secure wireless network. I can maybe run authentication on the server and so on so that would make it quite secure.

Thanks

Dan

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Dani AI

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As indicated that all clients are XP Pro, a small WS2003 domain is a practical way to centralize authentication and shares. was right to flag domains as useful; the following expands into a compact, safe plan and highlights pitfalls that matter in a dorm/house environment.

  1. Prepare hardware and OS: give the server a static IP, a reliable disk (mirror/RAID or frequent backups), and at least 1GB RAM for acceptable performance. Apply the latest WS2003 service pack and patches before connecting to the network.
  2. Minimal role set: install DNS, promote the server to an Active Directory domain controller (dcpromo), create domain users/groups, and create file shares with NTFS permissions. Use groups to control access rather than per-user share rules.
  3. Networking: avoid running a DHCP server on the campus switch or advertising services that conflict with school infrastructure. If direct connection to the school network is needed, place the server and house clients behind a consumer router (NAT) so the campus network is not affected and the server is isolated.
  4. Wireless/authentication: for a simple house setup, WPA2-Personal (AES) with a strong passphrase is the easiest secure option. For per-user credentials, use WPA2-Enterprise backed by a RADIUS server (WS2003 provides IAS), but that is more complex to set up. Domain-joined XP Pro machines can use domain credentials for shares and logins.
  5. Maintenance and safety: schedule regular backups (NTBackup or external device), run AV on clients/server, use a UPS, and do not expose WS2003 to the Internet—Windows Server 2003 reached end of support in 2015 and no longer receives security patches. For long-term use or internet-facing services, consider a modern, supported OS or a purpose-built NAS to reduce risk.

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Member Avatar for DaveB

Hey

If you wanted to buy a book on the subject (it's a bit Old Skool I know), but Microsofts "Pocket Administrator's Consultant" are great OS guides. The WS2003 version ISBN is 0-7356-1354-0. Cost $29.99 according to the back of my copy, but maybe cheaper these days.

For a Web Link, I would head over to MS Technet.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/default.aspx

Setting up a Domain on WS2003 is a really good idea, to make network access easy, using the server to provide authentication to all PC's on your network. But it doesn't work with XP Home (not sure about Vista versions), which maybe a problem in your Frat House.

I'm not too sure if Broadband is the same in other countries as UK, but I imagine your standard Broadband Wireless Router would be perfectly sufficient for your requirements.

The NSA have some great security guides at

http://www.nsa.gov/snac/downloads_all.cfm

but probably over the top for your requirements. But useful if you have an interest in the subject.

Regards, David

Member Avatar for danysabin

Yea, all our laptops/computers are ghosted by the school so we all run XP Pro. Authentication should work with all of them. I think there is a switch that we get our internet from the school on and so i can hook up the server there. Or set up an independent wireless network for pulling music and files off whenever it's needed.

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