Networking / Beginners

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Windows 2000 file and print services

Like Windows NT, Windows 2000 provides file and print services. Similarly to Windows NT, Windows 2000 uses shares to make areas of the disk available to clients. And as in Windows NT, in Windows 2000 these shares can be secured by file permissions if they are resident on NTFS partitions. In addition to these features, which are common in Windows NT, Windows 2000 also includes some new features, such as the following:

• Disk quotas-The amount of disk space available to a user can be restricted and managed through disk quotas. This is a useful element of control over disk usage.
• Encrypting File System (EFS)-EFS allows files to be encrypted while on the disk, preventing unauthorized access. The main advantage of EFS is that it keeps the files encrypted even if the user or organization loses physical control of the drives, such as with a laptop computer.
• Distributed File System (DFS)-DFS allows multiple directories on distributed servers to be represented through a single share point, simplifying access for users and administration.

Another difference between Windows NT and Windows 2000 has to do with the file systems they support. Windows 2000 supports the FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems, whereas Windows NT 4 offers only FAT and NTFS.

In addition to its support for FAT32, Windows 2000 introduces a newer version of NTFS, which provides more options and capabilities, including support for Active Directory and increased security options. Remember that Active Directory and other security-related features are available only on NTFS partitions. To convert from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS in Windows 2000, you use the same command, convert.exe, at a command prompt as you do in Windows NT 4. This command has the same considerations in both operating systems in that it cannot be converted back again.

Note It is recommended that, whenever possible, you format a drive as NTFS when you are creating partitions rather than convert from FAT to NTFS at a later date. Drives originally formatted with NTFS have less fragmentation and better performance than those converted from FAT.

All these features combine to make Windows 2000 a very solid choice as a file and print server.