Exam Objectives Fast Track | MCSE Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Exam 70-293 Study Guide and DVD Training System

Windows Server 2003 supports multiple protocols at the same time using NDIS, allowing better integration and flexibility for network operations.
Considerations for choosing the best protocol also help define why TCP/IP is best suited to enterprise environments.
TCP/IP is a suite of protocols that includes applications and network protocols that can be used to access and share information with the world or to use the Internet as a means for implementing WANs.
There are many enhancements to the TCP/IP protocol suite included in Windows Server 2003 that will improve your overall experience and reduce network load.

The number of hosts and the number of networks required define the basis for your addressing strategy.
Planning for growth is critical for your networking address structure, but it is also beneficial to implement the addressing scheme in an efficient manner.
CIDR can reduce the number of static routes and simplify your network implementation.

Servers should be placed close to the clients that will be using the resources provided.
DHCP provides automatic addressing and other IP address configuration settings to network machines, which prevents errors typically encountered when manually configuring IP address settings.
DHCP servers must have an interface on the same segment as the DHCP clients, or you must implement a DHCP relay.
DNS is used for host name resolution.
You should have one DNS server for each LAN and define which DNS servers are forwarders and perform iterative queries over the Internet.
WINS is used for NetBIOS name resolution, and it is not necessary if you do not use NetBIOS to access network resources and have only Windows 2000/XP/2003 machines on the network.
You should minimize the number of WINS servers on your network. WINS replication uses a lot of network bandwidth.

Network Monitor can be used to examine data transmissions sent over the network. It provides a means for tracking down network issues.
System Monitor is a local or remote performance utility that you can use to identify bottlenecks and issue alerts when undesirable situations occur.
Bandwidth requirements vary, but by using the tools provided, you can allocate resources appropriately and optimize your system’s performance by reducing and perfecting data delivery.