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Free Solarwinds
VM Console

Find out which of your VMs are a waste of space and which VMs need more resources.

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Solarwinds' free monitor makes it easy to check the performance and health of a router or firewall.

Download your free Network Device Monitor

1) FreePing
2) Engineer's Toolset
3) Xobni
4) PuTTY
5) WMI Monitor
6) BgInfo
7) Net-SNMP
8) IP Address Tracker
9) DNS Stuff
10) WinDiff Compare

Windows Server 2003 - Install

Installing Windows Server 2003

The purpose of this section is to help you with the practicalities of a physical installation of Windows Server 2003. However, I strongly recommend detailed planning of Active Directory before you roll out Windows 2003 Server on a production network.

Part 1 - Installing Windows Server 2003 - Member Server

A straight forward section on building your member server server. Remember to plan which 'flavour' of Windows Server 2003 you need.

Check where Windows Server 2003 comes in Guy's index for installing Microsoft products.

Part 2 - Installing Active Directory

This is the trickiest section, you really do need to practice running DCPROMO on a test network. Pay close attention to your DNS settings. Spend time designing the whole Active Directory forest not just one domain controller.

What's new with Installs for Server 2003

New command line tool ADPREP, also extra switches for DCPROMO. Perhaps the easiest way to install is from a backup of an existing domain controller.

Guy Recommends 3 Free Active Directory Tools

Solarwinds have produced three Active Directory add-ons. These free utilities have been approved by Microsoft, and will help to manage your domain by:

Seeking and zapping unwanted user accounts.
Finding inactive computers.
Bulk-importing new users. Give it a try.

Download your FREE Active Directory administration tools.

Installing XP or Vista

Ghost is still a popular method for installing clients, but I prefer to use RIS (Remote Installation Service). The time spent in configuring RIS pays back handsomely when you want Group Policies to apply from day one. RIS is more tolerant of variations in hardware than ghost images.

Guy Recommends:
Orion's NPM - Network Performance Monitor

Orion's performance monitor is designed for detecting network outages. NPM makes it easy to see what's working, and what needs your attention.

This utility guides you through creating network maps. It also helps troubleshooting by indicating whether the root cause is faulty equipment, or resource overload.

Download a free trial of Network Performance Monitor

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