In over my head ... need help with network design & cisco routers

[shesteasing]

Law firm in So. Ca with 4 offices. Each office runs peer to peer network with Win 98 currently. Pacific Bell came in and installed a Frame Relay with Cisco 1700 at all locations and a Cisco 2600 plus Firewall at one location. We bought Windows 2000 server and 100 licenses but don't understand the "domain" setup. All we want to do is run a case management software at the main office and have all other offices access it and work from there. Other programs will run locally in each office. Can someone help me by telling me the basics of setting up the software side of this frame relay with the Cisco routers and Windows 2000? I can't get the servers to see the computers in the other offices and don't know what I am doing wrong. I can get all of the pc's on the internet through tcp/ip addresses. Thanks.

[dgoodwin]

So the only software that needs to work across the network is the case management system? If so, how does it work? Is it web-based? Does it use some sort of Micrsoft file sharing or something to communicate between systems?

You haven't mentioned anything that convinces me that you actually need to have the computers part of a domain but maybe that is the case. Are you using DHCP for the PCs at the remote locations or is it a static IP configuration? Is the Windows 2000 Server in the main office setup as an Active Directory controller? Or is it a standalone server? More info please. :-)

[shesteasing]

The IPs are static. I haven't completely set up the win2000 server in the main office or the others for that matter because I am just not sure which options to choose when it asks for domains. I've fdisked them a couple of time and done different installations because I am flustered with my lack of knowledge of win2000 server.

The program we will run is just a windows-based program that will have all of the case information on it and all offices will work from it as if it is located on the server in their office - so I supposed that I just needed to map them to the main server the program is running on. I thought all of the computers could just use it that way. But, I can't see the computers in the other offices?

The reason we are having a server at each location is because there are smaller programs that will be run in the respective offices that do not need to be shared and we didn't want to slow down the main server using it for those.

I know dos, windows 3.1, 95, 98, me - inside and out but since I have never set up windows nt I am lost with the domain questions or active directory controller questions.

I could really use some direction. Thanks for your time.

[mlonnqvist]

Can u ping the pc's at the remote office at all?

The Domain concept from MS is just a way of grouping machines and user accounts. You cna create a domain, add the machines to the domain, as you install them, and the user accounts as well. You should be able to ping the machines regardless... Did you set up any WINS Server on the main site? That's how you connect from any NT/W2K machines to any MS service resource, by means of a Netbios name, by default. Are the remote machines in a separate Domain or in the same domain? Regarding any router issues, you may have to allow ports 135, 137, 138, 139 udp, (and tcp 139) to be able to use the MS services.

Hope this helps a little. Please provide som more info,, if you want more info.

Best Regards

/Mikael

[globalonline]

i would guess your subnetting the three locations. I would setup a domain controller ( active directory) at your primary location. Doing so will also install DNS. Use DNS to map your subnets using A records. Then setup your other Win2000 servers DNS info. to point to the Primary DNS server for name resolution. Also, better yet, setup DHCP on the Domain Controller and list the subnets in DHCP (then you don't need to lable this info. on each server). This should allow you to see the other computers.

[shesteasing]

Yes, we are able to ping the pcs at the other locations. I will try this setup according to the information you have given. Thanks very much.