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Need a little advise from you Network Administrator type people.

JoLLyRoGer

JoLLyRoGer

Diamond Member
Here is the situation, I'm not an official networks person, but I know a little bit on the matter. However I have recently been given admin responsibilities of a network that includes approx. 43 machines. I don't normally do this job, but I've been asked to assist our one and only lonely REAL network guy, since he doesn't have time to get to everything and he also maintains more than one site. My problem is about 1/3 of the machines are running Win 95/98. The rest are NT. Now the NT machines are great, but I am having problems with people installing a bunch of garbage on the 95/98 boxes, (yahoo messenger, real player, winamp, msn messenger, iwon, and on & on & on.) and then deleting program files, NOT uninstalling them, just deleting stuff they are not really sure about. It's driving me mad! I've had to reinstall video drivers on 2 different machines last week, twice on one of them, and do a complete rebuild of another one. (NT this time, unfortunatelly not all of the machines are powerful enough to run NT:|, we're talking about some real dinosaurs here, but they are slowly being phased out.)

OK, an hour later, and I'm back to finish up my post. I had to go fix some sound drivers. Looks like it's shaping up to be another typical work week.

This is BS. There has to be a way to restrict priv's in 95/98, something, anything... I'm about to pull my hair out and shoot someone. This is a PLEA for help. Is there anything I can do barring removing peoples profiles, (which wouldn't stop them frmo installing sh!t on the 95/98 boxes anyway.) or just removing the machines that can't run NT completely.

JEEEEZZZZ, why can't people leave sh!t alone!!!!!!! It's not like this is their own personal machine to go f@cking around with here!
I'm sick of this crap!AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:|

...sorry about that, just had to vent a little.

Oh well, more than likely I'll just have to deal with it untill a, all of the 95/98 boxes are gone, or b, they hire another network guy.
 
OK, before you go completely mental (or maybe it's too late), you can use a little program that comes with Windows 9x to define policies on each machine according to their user name. It is called Policy Editor and you should be able to find it on a Win 9x CD. Look for a file called poledit.exe. If you have access to the Win 9x resource kit (I think that may also be on the CD) there are detailed instructions for setting up restrictions on what people can do to their machines. There's a fairly steep learning curve - I would test it out on a spare computer before going hog-wild on your users' machines - but once you get the hang of it it's not so bad.
 
No, I've not gone mental, yet. I'm just kinda new to all of this and I'm still learning about all of the in's and out's of newtorks, mostly the hard way, and it just get's frustrating at times when people who don't respect what's not theirs make my job that much more difficult. Thanks though, I'm going to look for that program and give it a shot.😎 hehehe.
 
I agree with Workin'

There is a policy editor that shipped with Win98, called poledit.exe. Play around with the policies and see what can be implemented on your network.

You can also look for a third party solution like foolproof for win9x

I wish you good luck with your admin role

Err
 
In the long term, try to convince whoever needs be convinced that you should use NT/2K for all your boxes, unless there's some specific program you use that doesnt work under NT.

Aside from the fact that NT is worlds better than 9x in a corp envoirment, you'll also be relieved of the pains of a mixed envoirment.

Just my oppinion.
 
I highly recommend you create a company policy(signed by the boss/owner) regarding the use of the company computers. Outline- how and why systems will be locked down, and listing company approved programs, and restricted programs...

Get that policy in-place before taking drastic actions or the company may get sued for discrimination. Make sure you really know how to use that Windows-policy programs also, some people see it is a challenge...

Ohhhh, make sure the BIOS is password protected and does NOT boot to the floppy, or all your work can be undone...

 
Think I will draw up a policy letter as a matter of fact. Thanks, like I mentioned, I'm still pretty new to this and am only helping out our main Admin until more help is hired.
 
Switch to NT.

Running a network with Win9x PC's is retarded, a waste of time and regardless of what your users say, it's the only way to go.

Win9x is fine for home and it should stay there.
 
Running the network with Win 9x machines is not my idea, it's a matter of funding to get newer machines that are capable of running NT. We're working on that, but for now, there are still a few 9x machines that aren't going anywhere for a little while at least. However, I am in agreement that NT is the only way to go, I only wish the complete switch overv was already made.
 
NT machines will decently run off a P2-266 with 128MB RAM. That's a pretty cheap configuration. Your users won't be boweled over with speed but it clears headaches for you.
 
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