Domain (AD) Users

[cw4u]

For those of you that run Active Directory setups...do you get licensing for all of your computers that are connected to the network? Or only select ones?

We tie all computers that use our information management software into our AD setup but everything else is not joined. I was thinking about getting another couple licenses and put all (public access, child check-in, etc) of our computers on the domain.

I like the flexibility and control you can have through GPO's but the additional licensing costs along with upgrading those computers to Windows 7 Pro can get a bit costly.

[Tekguy]

We run Small Business Server 2008 and license all workstations to be able to handle pushing antivirus, email ,calendar SharePoint. We have XP and Win7 on the domain.

[Gracetech]

I've got all staff and AV computers joined to the Domain. All public access computers and access points are on their own VLan segmented away from our Domain.

You can always lock down those public access computers. The problem i had was when i was first brought in we had a computer lab and all of the computers staid logged in all the time and you could go on those computers and pull up any network resources you wanted to. So be sure to lock down all angles or go the simple route and segment the public access computer to their own network.

BTW my firewall allows segmented connections to the internet so that will be a complication if you segment your network.

Also it helps if you either use windows 7 or XP with DeepFreeze or SteadyState on your public computers.

crt

[cw4u]

Yeah I thought about steady state. I can lock them down enough through GPO's. I already have all public access computers in their own Organizational Unit so that helps out too.

But, I agree about vlan'ing. Our access point are on the staff network but broadcast two different SSID's in two different VLANs.

[EricE]

Originally Posted by cw4u

I like the flexibility and control you can have through GPO's but the additional licensing costs along with upgrading those computers to Windows 7 Pro can get a bit costly.

First, if you don't have a Microsoft Open Charity license through a reseller like Software One, get one!

Second, for your kiosk and registration machines, check out Windows Multipoint Server - a complete terminal server solution in a box. The premium version provides +1 licensing so you can use it for a Hyper-V Host - I have our SBS 2011 and MutliPoint Server running in guest VM's on Hyper-V and am very pleased with it.