Creating a User Account

A computer network has to be managed. Some aspects can be done

manually and some others electronically. In order to do anything, you must
have a user account that can perform the necessary tasks. Such an
account must have appropriate rights on the network.

To create the primary account to manage the network, on the server:

a. Click Start -> Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and
Computers (if a message box comes up, click Continue)
b. If necessary, in the left frame, expand the name of the domain.
Click Users
c. In the left frame, right-click Users -> New -> User
d. Type the first name of the user and press Tab. If you have a middle
initial, type it and press Tab
e. Type the last name
f. Click the User Logon Name text box and type a user name. Here is an
example:

g. Click Next
h. In the next page of the wizard, type the password as Password1
i. Press Tab and type the same password. Here is an example:

j. Click Next

k. Click Finish
Making a User Account an Administrator

Some of the operations you will perform on the network require that the
account have the appropriate rights (also called permissions). An
administrator's account is one that can do anything on the network, such
as creating users accounts or adding computers to the network.

To make a user account become an administrator, on the server:

a. Click Start -> Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and
Computers
b. In the left frame, expand the domain's node
c. Click Users
d. Double-click the user name whose rights you want to manage (or right-
click that user name and click Properties)
e. Click Member Of
f. Click Add...
g. In the bottom text box (where the caret is blinking), type admin.
h. Click Check Names
 i. Make sure Administrators is selected and underlined.

j. Click OK

Logging In to the Network

To use the network, a user must log in. This is done by providing a user
name and a password. If this is the first time you are logging in, you may
be asked to change your password.

If you are logged but you want to use another account, you can switch to
another account. To do this:

a. Click Start -> Switch User

b. Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE
c. Click Other User
 d. Type the user name (such as the one you created earlier) and press
Tab
e. Type the password (such as Password1 if you are continuing from the
account created earlier) and press Enter
i. If this is the first time you are logging in, a message will tell you
that you must change the password. Click OK
ii. Type a good password for the account and press Tab
iii. Type the password again and press Enter.
A message will inform you that your password has been changed
iv. Click OK

Optionally Creating a Computer Account

After creating a domain, you can add client computers to it. In our
examples, we will add workstations that run Microsoft Windows 7
Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise. There are two actions to adding a
client to a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 domain but only one is required.

Before physically or electronically adding a client to a domain, you can first

create a computer account for it. To create a computer account, you can
also click Start -> Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users And
Computers. This would open the Active Directory Users and Computers
window. In the left frame, expand the name of the domain. Right-click the
name of the domain -> New -> Computer. This would open the New Object
- Computer dialog box. In the Computer Name text box, enter the name of
the computer. The operating systems before Windows 2000 don't use very
long names. Therefore, when naming a computer, keep this in mind and
give a name made of fewer than 15 characters. After naming the
computer, click Next twice and click Finish.

Instead of right-clicking the name of the domain, in the Active Directory

Users And Computers, you can expand the name of the domain, right-click
the Computers node -> New -> Computer. As mentioned already, in the
first page of the New Object - Computer wizard, you can type a name for
the computer. Here is an example:
Then click OK. After creating an account for a computer, you can add it to
the domain. Actually, primarily creating an account for a computer is not
required.

Checking the Computer Name and Domain

Always make sure you know the name of each computer on your network
and the name of the domain it belongs to.

To check the name of the computer and its domain on a workstation:

a. Click Start
b. Right-click Computer and click Properties
To check the name of the server, in the Initial Configuration Tasks, look on
the right side of Full Computer Name

To check the name of the document of the server, look on the right side of
Domain
Preparing a Workstation

There are two primary ways you prepare a computer to join the domain:

 Do Nothing: In this case, you would let the various wizards take care of
everything. You would simply follow the instructions on the screen,
click Next, OK, Finish when prompted to do so
 Take care of things as much as possible: the disadvantage of this
technique is that you should know what you are doing. The advantage
is that you would know as much as possible, what you did where.
If you use the second option, you would for example assign an IP address
to the server instead of the letting the DHCP server take care of that (Do
Nothing option). In this case also, you must prepare the workstations to join
the network. For example, you must assign an IP address to it. If you are
working on a small network, TCP/IP is not the most difficult thing you will
deal with (in fact you don't need to know that much about TCP/IP; you can
follow other people's instructions and you will be fine).

To prepare a workstation to join the domain, on the workstation:

a. Click Start -> Control Panel

b. Click View Network Status and Tasks (or click Network and Internet,
then Network and Sharing Center)
c. Click Local Area Connection
d. Click Properties
e. In the Networking tab of the Local Area Connection Properties, in the
checked list box, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

f. Click Properties
g. Click Use the Following IP Address
h. Type the IP address you want the server to use. For example, add 2
(bits) to the last byte of the IP address you gave to the server and
press Tab
i. Type the subnet mask (it should be added automatically when you
press Tab from the previous text box)
j. Type the default gateway address (use the first and the second bytes
of the IP address you had provided (such as 192.168) and use 001.001
for the other two bytes)
 k. For the Preferred DNS Server, type the same IP address as the server

l. Click OK
m. Click Close

Joining the Domain

To participate to a network, a workstation must be added to it. This is

referred to as joining a domain. When joining a domain, if the computer
you are adding doesn't have an account already, one would be created for
it.

To join a domain using Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or

Enterprise:

a. On the Taskbar, click Start, right-click My Computer and click

Properties...
b. Click Change Settings
c. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Computer Name tab and
click the Change... button.
If the computer is running Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, the
Domain radio button would be disabled, indicating that the computer
cannot join a domain:

d. In the Computer Name text box, enter the desired name of the
computer. If you had already created an account in the domain for this
computer, type that name
e. In the Member Of section, click the Domain radio button
f. Click the Domain text box and enter the name of the domain

g. After specifying the name of the computer and the domain to join, click
OK
h. You would then be asked to provide a user name and a password for a
user who has the permissions to let a computer join a domain.
Type the name of the domain, followed by \ and followed by the user
name of an account that can allow a computer to join a domain and
press Tab
i. Type the account's password
j. After entering a user and a password, click OK. If you have the right to
add computers to the domain, you would receive a Welcome message:

Click OK
k. You will be asked to restart the computer

Click OK
l. In the System Properties dialog box, click Close
m. When asked to restart the computer, click Restart Now
n. After the computer has restarted, press CTRL + ALT + DELETE to Log
On
o. Click Switch User
p. Click Other User
q. Type the user of a user who has an account in the network's domain
and press Tab
r. Type the password
s. Click the green button with the right pointing arrow