This document will help you host your own nonprofit technology roundtable.  Please post your questions, comments and experiences here!

The attached document is a set of step-by-step directions for attaching a Windows computer to a VPN using the tools built-in to Windows. These documents may need to be tailored to fit your organizations needs.

The attached document is a review of different Virtual Private Networking (VPN) technologies. This document is intended to provide guidance to organizations considering or planning to implement a VPN.

This review focuses on solutions appropriate to small or medium sized organizations.

Remote administration using terminal services in Windows Server.

Requirements:

- permission from the client to implement this service
- high speed Internet connection
- Windows 2000/2003 Server (or Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Services edition)
- router capable of port forwarding

1. Enable terminal services in remote admin mode.
- Click start, settings, control panels, add/remove programs.
- Click Add/Remove Windows Components, install Terminal Services.

2. In Active Directory Users and Groups, disable permission to log in
via terminal services for all users except those authorized to do so.
Right click on the user, choose Terminal Services Profile tab, uncheck
Allow log on to terminal server.

Step 1: Open Notepad.

Step 2: Paste the following block of text into Notepad and replace the values with the information for your printers. If you don't wish to set a default printer, remove that line.

Set WshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\server\printer1"
WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\server\printer2"
WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "\\server\printer1"

Step 3: Save your new VBScript as "addprinters.vbs".

This comprehensive network information record template is attached.

Let’s say that a computer cannot access the Internet. Here are a series of steps to discover where the problem lies.

 Does the computer have an IP address?

In Windows 2000 or XP, click Start, then Run. Type cmd and click OK to open a command window. At the command prompt, type ipconfig and press enter. If the TCP/IP address that appears starts with 169.xxx.xxx.xxx, the computer does not have a routable IP address. In Mac OS X, check the network control panel in System Preferences.

Laptop - Personal laptop (with local dial-up setup, VPN access, firewall and virus defs) - so we can use our computer if need to be research (w/ dial-up) but also make sure it's protected if we need to plug it into the network.)

Tools

Megapro 15-in-one screwdriver (bits for phillips, slot head, torx, etc.)

Pliers

Flashlight

External firewire boot drive (Mac OS X) - with Disk Utility (Mac OS X) - ?

Network Information

Type

1.      Does the main client site have a network?

2.      Is it a client/server or a peer-to-peer network?

This guide was designed to help minimize the challenges faced after implementation of a Windows 2000 Server based network. This guide is devoted to describing the tasks that a network administrator is most likely to face working day to day with the Local Area Network (LAN).

This guide is by no means an exhaustive list of the responsibilities of a network administrator. However, the intent of this guide is to provide assistance to those who are not trained in network administration but are faced with the responsibility of managing a Windows 2000 domain.