Hacks 36-47

Hacks #36-47

Under the hood of Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 are the core networking services and components that enable systems to communicate across a network. This includes services such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System (DNS), Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), and other services that run on top of TCP/IP. Configuring these services can be complex, and it can be hard to pinpoint the problem when things go wrong.

This chapter is about managing key services and other networking components. You'll learn how to use a script to manage services on remote computers, how to ensure DHCP server availability so your clients can communicate, how DNS aging and scavenging work and can be configured, how to troubleshoot common DNS problems when Active Directory is deployed, how to perform complicated network configuration tasks using scripts and from the command line, and several other important tasks .

When running VB scripts for system administration, remember to ensure that you have the latest scripting engines on the workstation from which you run the scripts. Download the latest scripting engines from the Microsoft Scripting home page (http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/). Also, when working with the Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI), you must have the same applicable rights you need to use the built-in administrative tools. In other words, you should use an administrator account to run these scripts.