A+ Certification / Beginners

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Services

One of the most forgotten networking components is the service. A service is a piece of software running on the computer that provides certain functionality. An example of a service that runs on the computer is file and printer sharing - which is the service that provides files, folders, and printers to other systems on the network.

Going back to the tailor shop example, before you can have clients, you must have first made the decision to offer the service. If you don't offer the service, then there would be no reason for customers to want to communicate with you.

On the network, someone has to offer the service, but not everyone needs to. For example, a small company with five Windows machines may have only the machine with the printer connected to it providing the file and printer sharing service. The other four Windows computers connect to it by installing Client for Microsoft Networks and ensuring that they are using the same protocol - there is no reason for them to have the service installed because they are offering nothing to the network.

Windows and Novell servers usually run at least two services by default: File sharing services and printer sharing services. File sharing services allow the server to share files with other users on the network. Printer sharing services allow a printer to be used by multiple users on the network - you don't need to purchase a separate printer for each user on the network, which is a real cost cutter!

File and printer sharing services were the original purpose in life for servers and networks, but the number of services that can be added to these systems has grown over the years to include mail services, Web services, FTP services, name resolution services, and many more.

Planning network components

You are responsible for determining what networking components are required in order to build the scenario below. The answer follows the scenario.

Scenario: You are in charge of implementing the network infrastructure for your organization. There are two Windows 2003 servers and three Novell servers servicing 200 Windows XP clients. The word processing department will be sending print jobs to one Windows XP computer in the manager's office. What networking components would you load to allow the clients to access both the Novell servers and the Windows 2003 servers?

Answer: The Windows XP computer in the manager's office will have File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks loaded so that the Windows XP client in the word processing department may connect to it.

You will have to load a Novell client so that the Windows XP clients can connect to the Novell servers. If the Novell servers are using IPX/SPX, you will also have to make sure that the IPX/SPX protocol is loaded and the proper frame type is configured.

To allow the Windows XP clients to connect to the Windows 2003 servers, you will have to load the Client for Microsoft Networks if it isn't already loaded.