Need Help Setting Up Network for ~30 Systems

[Alessandro]

I have just been assigned to supervise the school computer lab as a graduate assistant. They obviously need software updates (antivirus, spyware, etc.), but the way it has been assigned to me, you have to go to each computer individually and update the software, which obviously would be really time consuming, and obviously a network where I could update every computer from one administrator computer would be far easier and more effective.

So, I am soliciting info on just the basics. I can look up stuff on google, but I need other people to tell me what is good and what isn't - it can be hard to decipher that. Here are my needs:

Cost-free networking situation, where I can find all the computers in the lab, and update them from an administrative machine. Preferably a Windows environment for the administration tool also.

Any advice is appreciated, and will save me dozens of hours. I have plenty of computer experience (build my own, overclock, a little programming, etc.) but not any networking experience, so I can probably figure stuff out if you can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

 

[InlineFive]

Since you are a school I presume that all of the computers are Windows 2000 or XP based. All of this info is based on that assumption.

First, I presume you guys are using corporate antivirus software. In that case there should be a management utility which you can install on a server. It will allow you to easily manage, enforce and update the antivirus software on your computers with little hassle.

Second, as far as Windows updates, there isn't a whole lot you can do beyond AU unless you have a WSUS server. And the same goes for Microsoft Defender, if that is what you are using for Antispyware. The neat thing is that WSUS is a free download, provided that you have a Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows Server 2003 system to install it on.

As for the systems management I don't have a whole lot of experience or ideas. You could take a look into SMS and see if it will work for you.

Unfortunately, if you do go with some of these options the school will lose greenbacks for the server(s) and OS'. But the practical upshot is that you can get academic pricing and it will lower your payroll hours. (If that is what you want. )

 

[Genx87]

Running AD?

If you are, run WSUS. It is free and works pretty good for updating client machines on the network. Not hard to setup either on the server or clients. Simply point the clients to the server via group policy.

For AV I have been using Symantec Corp v10. It seems to work fine and has a central console you can use to remote install and keep machines updated.

 

[InlineFive]

 

[Alessandro]

Thanks for the initial input: It looks as if I would use WSUS and AD.

I have a follow up question: these computers all have internet, but are not on a network. Would I use a VPN to link them together, and if so, what would be the best way to do that for free? I saw there is an OpenVPN program that works with OpenSSL, I didn't know if anyone had experience with it or if it's good enough for a network of this size. Or, what would other networking options be for free. Thanks again!

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Alessandro
Thanks for the initial input: It looks as if I would use WSUS and AD.

I have a follow up question: these computers all have internet, but are not on a network. Would I use a VPN to link them together, and if so, what would be the best way to do that for free?

Ah... no. Wrong ballpark, really. You would use a VPN to make computers connected over the Internet appear to be connected over a LAN. Since these machines are apparently all in one lab room, they're already on a LAN, though it's apparently not doing much for you at the moment. If you want to create a Windows domain, you're going to do that on top of the local TCP/IP network using the networking capabilities built into Windows.

Unless this a really, really small school there should be some kind of tech department that you're going to want to speak with. You can't really just plop down a Windows domain in the middle of a network - things like mail and (especially) DNS need to be properly set up so there's no disruption to other machines on the LAN. While this is not rocket science, there are some significant things that you really do need to understand before you set up a domain.