New to Networking, Please help

I was given seven XP Professional Desktops. They are equipped with Pentium 4, 3 GHz processors and 128 Mb RAM. They all have 160 GB hard drives with Ethernet ports. We have two servers in the administrative office. One is for business operations and the other is for monitoring around the building. There was 10-port switch connected to a communications device that doubled as a 6-port wireless router, DSL modem and PABX.

I was asked to do two things:
1. Add a desktop to their network
2. Improve the performance of an office clerk’s PC

I was instructed to “set it up” so that the” F” drive could be accessed, add a local printer as the default printer and provide access to a network printer. The area that the PC was going to be located was near the communications equipment but running an Ethernet cable would interfere with moving around the office area.

1. What would you do to install the desktop? Please be specific

 

Some questions first:
Are the systems that are already in place running in a DOMAIN? If so, do you have DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR privileges?

 

yes, there is a Domain

 

Do you have DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR rights? I ask this because the machine you are trying to add will NOT be able to share any DOMAIN resources (like Drive F and printers) unless you can JOIN the DOMAIN. To join the DOMAIN you need DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR rights on your userid, or access to one that does.

 

Yes, I do have administrator rights.

 

Please be more specific. Do you have DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR rights?


Follow these instructions to join a DOMAIN

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295017

 

I have rights over all the Desktops, connected to our local server here and to the server. Is that the same as the Domain. I am the appointed "system admin" here but I am learning through trial by error, new to networking.

 

Follow this to join the machine to the DOMAIN. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295017

Once the machine has joined the domain, likely someone has created a login script to map the F: drive to the machine. Verify that is the case.

Then go to printers and devices from START and select "add a network printer". XP will present to you all the network printers it finds and select the one you want to use and set it as the default printer.

There is lots to know about networking and being a DOMAIN ADMINISTRATOR. If this is something you are going to continue to do then some training is in order. If this is a business, I would suggest that they contract for some network administrator services for a period of time until you get up to speed. You would even be able to get some OJT.