[48] in winnt
Windows NT at MIT continues...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Smyser)
Wed Oct 1 09:06:22 1997
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:05:38 -0400
To: winnt@MIT.EDU
From: Rob Smyser <smyser@MIT.EDU>
Cc: whishmeh@MIT.EDU
Notes from the NT Working Group, September 30, 1997.
1. There was some confusion that I generated about what room we were to
meet in and when. I apologize for that and thank the folks who found their
way to where I was.
2. our next Meeting: October 14, 11-401 at 4:05 pm.
The pattern will be to meet in the hour after OCMG, every other Tuesday
afternoon. This is a time that people tend to have open. If there's a
better time, let's define it.
3. our Motto: give a good answer early.
4. our Method:
The work we're already doing for specific groups -- setting up NT
workstations and servers -- can be generalized into a current best practice
recommendation for segments of the community. We keep everyone honest and
involved by sharing the evolving standard with the community, who then
inform us with their own answers and help us as we help them. This
constructive give and take is the practical meaning of "partnership".
5. Background:
Office Practice sponsored a Discovery effort aimed at establishing a base
of NT support, which you can see in visible form at http://web/winnt/
Topics covered in the web pages so far include:
- basic procurement of winnt
- getting NT onto MITnet
- installing standard network components, like Netscape and Eudora
- graphical FTP Client and FTP Server recommendations
- getting NT onto Tether
- connecting to MIT printers over various protocols
- basic security tips
6. our Mission, should we choose to accept it:
Many IT Partners and others in the community have articulated a need for
help with managing NT workstations and servers, now that they've been
installed. Many users have significant Macintosh or Unix experience, but
little NT awareness so far. The issues of running a server of whatever
flavor are not new to them, but they do need some translation and guidance
in doing the same sort of work in NT. For this group, a set of "Based on
our experience and the recommendation of experts, Do These Things and Be
Very Sure Not To Do These" sort of document would be very helpful.
Developing this work is largely a matter of writing down what we already
routinely are doing in various IS servers, in SLA work for other
departments, and in projects for the SAP Deploy community.
Some of the areas in which we need to develop a shared understanding and a
set of good answers might include the following:
- what about that pesky Administrator account?
- establishing a Domain vs creating a workgroup
- usernames and passwords recommendations
- groups and default privileges
- roaming profiles so your home directory follows you (95 vs NT)
- automatic server backups to ADSM
- sharing printers
- what to avoid when dealing with Appletalk in NT
- sharing files to Macs
- ways to avoid system catastrophes
- routine maintenance techniques
- xeroxing a standard machine image onto multiple new PCs
The list is long and doesn't begin to cover how NT 5 is likely to change
our lives. Nor does it synchronize with whatever emerges from the Intel
grant project of jjv's. I feel we have a one-year window in which NT
server 4 will have to be supported before NT 5 even arrives. And outcomes
from the Intel grant are likely to be 18 months away. So there's plenty of
useful work to do in the meantime.
Our agenda at the next meeting can include consideration of this list, and
a review of our default answers to one or more of the items. I'd also like
to find someone who can give a twenty-minute walk-through at the next NT
Partners mt (Oct 27 in e40-302) on server admin techniques. Volunteers?
Any thoughts? If anyone has a standing conflict with the alternate
Tuesdays at 4:00 pm time, let me know. I'll send a reminder on the Monday
before the meeting.
Thanks!
Rob
