So the other day I had the bright idea to try this for grins:

1. Delete all the files on the Toshiba IDE hard drive (the one that came with my laptop, but I removed in favor of a 100 gig Samsung replacement).
2. Copy all important files to a folder on the C drive of the borrowed Compaq PrettySorryO, and then replace the Samsung laptop hard drive with the Toshiba listed in number one.
3. Install the newest evaluation copy of Server 2003. Update the drivers if necessary: web cam, headphones, network card, and possibly the removable storage device. In fact, I probably shouldn’t erase the Samsung hard disk until I’m sure I can find and install all the necessary drivers.
4. The idea is that the drivers necessary for the equipment that’s on that laptop are already loaded in the memory of the Toshiba hard drive, so I shouldn’t have trouble with my sound card any longer.
5. Also, it might be a good idea to buy a cheap desktop from someone on craigslist. Then I could install another Server computer to screw around with. Or I could just download and use VMWare.

OK, so I tried this. I deleted and formatted the Toshiba IDE hard drive. Then I installed the R2 version of Server 2003 that came with the book. I found a CD with the driver of the network card. I also upgraded a related driver for the network card listed in the device manager. I still should try and find the newest firmware for both the card and router. Although, I should check to see which version of the router I have. I was reading earlier on the Linksys forums that I could have some potential problems if I want to screw around with VPN routing through the Linksys router. Apparently the version 5 & 6 releases of the router had serious limitations to VPN routing, but a guy on the site recommended ‘flashing’ the router with some open source UNIX software, and that seemed to fix the problem.

I haven’t bothered with trying to search for and/or install the drivers for the headphones, web cam, or storage device, but I get the same problem when it comes to the sound card and the PCI card, the drivers for these devices just don’t seem to be supported with Server 2003. Once I get that new computer I’ll once again wipe the notebook hard drive and install XP on it, and hopefully that will have the necessary sound card drivers on it. It makes sense if you think about it. Why should you need to have a sound device on a server? That’s not its purpose. There were also a couple of other devices (consistent with the last install) that failed to load, but I don’t think any of them are necessary for server functionality.

As for the drivers that DO work with the Operating System, namely the Device Driver for the Logitech USB headphones and the web cam (even though it’s not digitally signed), I suppose I can find and copy them to CD from the entries I have in the WINDOWS folder on the Samsung IDE hard disk, which has now become the external drive. When I finally make that laptop my functional production XP computer, I’ll wipe that external drive and use it just for storage: unless, of course I find a cheap laptop that will support it. Then perhaps I can load another operating system on it and have another working networked computer. Maybe I’ll load the version of Puppy Linux I saw available for download. That’s pretty sweet to be able to have a functional operating system for FREE!

Also, I found a lot of really good general information about computing from some PC World articles.

But even after the installation of said OS, the installation of Active Directory, and a brief check of the DNS utility to make sure all of the necessary resource records were there, I was unable to ping client to server / server to client. I suspect firewall problems. How else would I not be able to receive the necessary ICMP packets. What was more perplexing was the fact that I didn’t receive a helpful reply when I ran the nslookup utility on the server.

What’s up wit dat? I think I’m gonna play a game to see how long I can go without getting frustrated or giving up. Also, I think I got rid of File and Print sharing services for the workstation’s NIC based on bad advice when seeking help at an MCSA forum.

Try putting that back on, then make sure the firewall is turned off, then make sure that you’ve got static IP addresses on the client and server and the client is set up to use the server’s IP address for DNS name resolution. Also check the router configuration to make sure that nothing is preventing it from routing packets between machines, though I don’t know what could be doing this, and have never seen the router interfere with traffic on the local network, but I suppose it’s worth a try. Also, give the workstation a reboot and then try to join it. You might even pre-stage the computer account in Active Directory Users and Computers, and then try to join it.