Can I have multiple domains on one machine?

[Jim]

I ahve two questions that are somewhat unrelated... One
of general curiosity and the other of immediate practical
use, but I'll go ahead and post them both here.

#1 - I am hosting several small websites on my server
(2000 Advanced Server). When deploying the webs, many
peopl ehave said that I should simply create new virtual
directories beneath the root web for each site. The
problem with this approach is that I need the sites to be
unique by their web addresses, so I need different webs in
order for them to distinguish the requests from each other
based on the host headers (so that erquests for "ABC.COM"
go to a different web than requests to "XYZ.COM".) I do
not have any trouble setting this up. However, some of
the applications I'd like to use (such as SMTP, POP3,
etc.) want for users to authenticate to do various
things. Again, I can work around these issues, but what
I'd really like to do is to simply give Joe with XYZ.COM a
Windows account that he can authenticate with for things
like sending and retreiving his email. Otherwise, without
that then I have to explain to Joe that even though
he's "XYZ.COM" he has to enter his username
as "(e-mail address removed)" in order to authenticate beacuse my
system is not "really" XYZ.COM... Phew... anyway...
Hopefully ou can see what I mean here. It seems like
active directory could support more tha none domain, and
the server could act as the PDC for more than one.. Or is
this not corret? Could anyone give me a suggestion as to
how to make this work better? Surely there must be a good
way to do this and look professional without having to go
out and physically buy a separate box for each and every
site we deploy! LOL

#2 - This is more of general curiosity, but when I was a
user of a workstation on NT 4.0, I remember that the
system logon screen would allow you to choose from a list
of several different NT domains to authenticate on. I hear
that now in Windows 2000, it is not possible to register
on more than one domain, plus your local system. Is this
correct? If not, then how do I tell my local computer
that it belongs to more than one domain, so the domains
come up in the dropdown at sign on?

Thanks for any help!

JIM

 

[David Brandt [MSFT]]

I'm not sure about the first question, but with regards to the second;
This really hasn't changed much and you should see available in the drop
down window the domain that the machine belongs too, along with any other
domains that have trusts with that domain, plus the local box for non-dc's.
So provided that you have a valid account in any of those other domains, you
should be able to logon to domainA from a machine that belongs in domainB
with an account from domainA, etc.
A machine account though can only belong to one domain at a time.

--
David Brandt
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send e-mail directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.

 

[Michael O]

I'm not sure about the first question, but with regards to the second;
This really hasn't changed much and you should see available in the drop
down window the domain that the machine belongs too, along with any other
domains that have trusts with that domain, plus the local box for non-dc's.
So provided that you have a valid account in any of those other domains, you
should be able to logon to domainA from a machine that belongs in domainB
with an account from domainA, etc.
A machine account though can only belong to one domain at a time.

--
David Brandt
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send e-mail directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.

You are correct in saying that only other domains that have trusts will
appear in the drop down list, but if a trust exists, why would you have/need
accounts in the other domains?

There is a third party tool called Multinetwork Manager that works well.
It's not free, but will allow you to join and sign onto several domains.

http://www.globesoft.com/Common/frm_products.html

http://www.btsoftware.com/products/multinet.htm

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194049.html

 

[Jeff Cochran]

#1 - I am hosting several small websites on my server
(2000 Advanced Server). When deploying the webs, many
peopl ehave said that I should simply create new virtual
directories beneath the root web for each site. The
problem with this approach is that I need the sites to be
unique by their web addresses, so I need different webs in
order for them to distinguish the requests from each other
based on the host headers (so that erquests for "ABC.COM"
go to a different web than requests to "XYZ.COM".) I do
not have any trouble setting this up. However, some of
the applications I'd like to use (such as SMTP, POP3,
etc.) want for users to authenticate to do various
things. Again, I can work around these issues, but what
I'd really like to do is to simply give Joe with XYZ.COM a
Windows account that he can authenticate with for things
like sending and retreiving his email. Otherwise, without
that then I have to explain to Joe that even though
he's "XYZ.COM" he has to enter his username
as "(e-mail address removed)" in order to authenticate beacuse my
system is not "really" XYZ.COM... Phew... anyway...
Hopefully ou can see what I mean here. It seems like
active directory could support more tha none domain, and
the server could act as the PDC for more than one.. Or is
this not corret? Could anyone give me a suggestion as to
how to make this work better? Surely there must be a good
way to do this and look professional without having to go
out and physically buy a separate box for each and every
site we deploy! LOL

Don't use AD, and don't make the system a member of a domain, just a
workgroup. Use local accounts.

#2 - This is more of general curiosity, but when I was a
user of a workstation on NT 4.0, I remember that the
system logon screen would allow you to choose from a list
of several different NT domains to authenticate on. I hear
that now in Windows 2000, it is not possible to register
on more than one domain, plus your local system. Is this
correct? If not, then how do I tell my local computer
that it belongs to more than one domain, so the domains
come up in the dropdown at sign on?

You have a real basic misunderstanding of the Windows domain,
especially versus DNS domains. That drop down populated with a list
of domains available on the netwrok via RPC and NetBIOS. The system
can only have an account in a single domain, and a server can only
belong to one domain, but there may be multiple domains on the
network. Windows NT, 2000 or 2003 included.

None of this is IIS related, stick to a Windows networking or server
group.

Jeff