Workgroup vs Domain

[Jerry Fortenberry]

We have a Windows NT 4.0 domain consisting of about 250 workstations. Our
WAN stretches over 8 states. There is a specific situation at each location
in which we have 4 to 8 pc's in what we call a "workgroup". This worked
fine in the Windows 98 days. Now we are adding a W2000 Pro or XP Pro machine
to each laocation as the "host". In other words, this is the pc that shares
it's resources. The other pc's may be W2000 Pro or W98 or a combination. If
I add all the pc's to the domain and each user is authenticated by the
domain and I share my resources to certain users of the domain, everything
is great.......until the WAN goes down and they cannot be authenticated by
the domain. Is there a better way ? Would I be better of not joining these
pc's to the domain ?

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi, Jerry -

The bestest solution would be to have a domain controller
at each site. Second best would probably be redundant
WAN links to the PDC.

I don't know how funding ties into your network solution
but my advice would be to take a step back and look at
your entire network's architecture.

I work on a distributed network where we have ~1800 users
in about 90 locations worldwide. What we do is set up a
DC at any site with more than ten or so users and the
smaller offices communicate through WAN links to the
closest site with a domain controller.

If additional DCs aren't in the cards then maybe
workgroups would be the way to go - until someone needed
to access domain resources. If it were me I'd start
adding domain controllers to the network. This would aid
with configuration management and allow you to implement
domain policies as required. In the end it'd be a lot
easier - and a lot less expensive - to manage.

Hope this helps -