Win 2k server & Win NT4 server on same network

I know that this may seen like a newbie question so please bear with me. We have a single Win NT4 server (Small buisness) right now and we are looking at adding a second server that would most likely be a Win 2k server. We would like to leave exchange and proxy on the old server as well as add a firewall to it, and use the new server as a primary server. Does anyone have information or know where to get information on the feasibility and tips on doing this? Thanks.

 

Small business server is a special type of server running on NT4. Win2k can participate in a Small Business Server domain, but can't be a domain controller. You can make it a file / print server, terminal server.
If you want to upgrade your domain, consider purchasing Win2k SBS. That will allow your Win2k server to be a domain controller in your network if you want that.

 

Thanks Eric. That was what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

 

On a similar vein, I've been using my Win2k laptop on an NT4 network for the past year. A new adminstrator has asked me to replace Win2k with NT4 as (he claims) Win2k causes problems when accessing NT4 servers.

I don't want to get into a lengthy discussion with him about it but I'm curious to find out what problems there could be. I've never come across this problem in any Microsoft bulletins I've read, nor have I been aware of any related network problems over the past year (and I was the one looking after the network - two NT4 servers, a dozen NT4 workstations plus my Win2k laptop).

Any ideas what he could be worried about - legitimately or otherwise?

Meanwhile, I'm just running my laptop in stand-alone and copying files over to my desktop (for printing, mailing, etc,) by floppy or CD - a pain as my specialist software is on my laptop (and installing it onto my office desktop would be an even graeter hassle)!

Steve @ Aberdeen

 

I have been running Win2k workstation on our NT4 network for about 6 months without any significant problems as far as the network itself is concerned. There is one curiosity though. Often my PC and the server will have a fight over who should be the 'master browser'. However, this does not appear to be limited to Win 2K as if my PC is powered down one of our Win98 machines will initiate a similar conflict. Anybody have any ideas?

 

The browser fight is quite common - I had it on our network when I inherited it a year or so back. Both servers and all the workstations had their computer browser services on. The easy fix was to switch it off (and out of auto start-up) on all the workstations and one of the servers. When I handed the system over, only the PDC browsed.

I'm sure there must be a lot of NT4 networks with Win2k workstations attached so I'm amazed our new administrator (who, I should add, is in an office 400 miles away and manages everything via the WAN/LAN) has this fear. I'd like to know what the problem is...

Steve @ Aberdeen

 

To put it very simply, he is wrong.

My system (which is running quite well this week BTW)

NT4 DCs - PDC and 2 BDCs

Servers - about 70 of them and a mix of NT4 & 2K but moving toward all 2K (getting ready for a move to AD and for that we will need to replace the NT4 DCs). Just put up a 2K cluster last week. All the servers are multi-homed and live at least on 2 of the 3 LANs here.

Network -
- Local LANs total 2000 or so client machines. Lots and lots of Win95, couple hundred NTWS, 30+ 2KPro machines.
- Local is 3 LANs; business (the largest), process (mostly PCs that control machines or report on machine production), backup.
- A dozen or so servers that reside here but live on another WAN segment. Exchange servers, DNS, SMS, and such. All 2K at this point.
- 165 networked printers at last count. Migrating the print server from NT4 to 2K next week and both print servers are doing fine.

I do absolutely agree with an earlier post to this thread though. Only the DCs should have browser service enabled.

If he sees specific problems he can't solve, you might suggest he post about them here as he could probably get the odd suggestion or two.

 

Newt,

Thanks for confirming there should be no problem. He's not been specific about his concern but it wouldn't be constructive to challenge him about it at the moment (office politics)

 

Steve - Been there and still got the Tee shirt with the "Don't Make Waves Just Now" logo on it.

 

I've just been told why our (MSCE ticketed) administrator is so worried about my Win2k laptop.

Apparently, because Win2k is higher up in the hierarchy than NT4, a Win2k workstation attached to an NT4 server will try to take control.

 

The only two possible areas where I can see he might worry are browser and time server. You should have browser service on yours disabled in any case so it does not make any attempt to become the domain master browser. In fact, I'd also recommend you make the following registry tweaks

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\
Name: MaintainServerList
Type: REG_SZ
Value: No

Name: IsDomainMaster
Type: REG_SZ
Value: FALSE

This will simply stop your PC from trying to take things over. No effect whatever on your ability to browse the network.

And you should have w32time service running on yours and should NOT have TimeServ running. Also, given that you are on an NT4 network, you may need to do a thing to make the w32time update properly. In any case, it won't hurt anything.

At a command prompt (assuming your domain PDC is the time server and is named MYPDC) and logged on with an admin account for the domain or the PC

Net Time /SETSNTP:mypdc

Which will make a permanent change for you.

 

Newt, can those registry entrys be used on a Win9x PC as well? (for disabling the browser etc)

 

Newt,

One of the first things I did before connecting my laptop to the network was to turn off browsing - it's something I'd already fixed on the NT4 workstations connected!

The timeserver part is something I haven't considered. AFAIK, the PDC isn't providing the service. I'll make sure it's off on my laptop (and I'll check out your registry edit as well) tomorrow.

Thanks again,

 

eisenerg - for Windows 95 and 98 machines, go to the Network control panel, select File and printer sharing and Properties. Change Browse Master from Auto to Disabled. It will do the same thing. I'm honestly not sure if 9x even has a browser section in that part of the registry. I don't think so.

Steve - you should have some server acting as the master time server for the network. Open a DOS window and put in net Time with no parameters. It should return the name of the server as well as current time information.

And I would strongly suggest making the registry tweaks. I have seen a couple of systems that would compete for master browser/time server duties even with the Browser and TimeServservice turned off. I'm not sure exactly how and one of them wouldn't stop until we formatted it and reinstalled the OS. It was NT4 though.

 

Thanks newt! I could not for the life of me figure out how to disable the browser in the win 9x.

 

eisenerg,
Im not sure if this was addressed in your origional question but SBS (Small Business Server) can only be used as a stand alone server.
If you use it you will either have to upgrade your NT4 box or replace it.
Because of the bargain of the services you get on SBS (fax sharing, exchange,IAS,modem sharing) SBS has to be a stand alone machine and has a limit of 50 clients.
Hope this helps,

Scott

 

ssmith10pn - Thank you for your reply. Your answer, as I read it, seems to be in conflict with the answer that Bursley gave (the first reply to my query). I understood from his answer that if the Win2k server was running SBS I could have both of them on the same network as servers.

As a side question, the reason I want the second server is to run exchange and proxy. Can these be run on a WinNT computer (without SBS)? THat would solve the problem all together.