VideoSpider Installation Guide
19
3.1.2 Adding Spider stations to the Windows network domain
Whenever any computer network grows in excess of just one or two servers, the task of managing user
accounts, groups and access rights may become very complicated and tedious. The same is also true for
Spider security networks. Fortunately, the existence of Windows
network domain
can greatly simplify
this matter. With the Windows network domain, user accounts, groups and permissions are created only
once and stored at a central location called
primary domain controller
. Other computers may share the
same user accounts, permissions by
joining the domain
. Finally, in large networks, the
primary domain
controller
may be supported by one or more
backup domain controllers
, which have replicas of the entire
domain configuration and can support the network if the primary domain controller fails or becomes
inaccessible.
While this book is
not
trying to describe the concept or the installation procedure of Windows network
domains in general, it may be beneficial to the
Spider Operator
to know how to make computers running
different versions of Windows OS part of the domain. This applies to
Spider Server
and
Storage Server
configurations as well as all kinds of
Spider Clients
. If all Spider stations join the same network domain,
the procedure of user account and group creation described in section 3.1.1 would need to be performed
only once, at the machine acting as a
primary domain controller
.
Computers running
Windows XP Professional
can become full members of the network domain and have
access to all of its shared resources as well as share their own. Each Windows XP machine that wants to
join the domain must have a special
computer account
for it created by the
domain manager
or an
authorized person with access to a privileged user account.
To have the Windows XP computer
join
an existing network domain, launch Windows
Control Panel
and
click the
System
icon. Alternatively, you may right-click on the
My Computer
icon on your desktop and
select the
Properties
command from the pop-up menu.
Then, choose the
Computer Name
in Windows
XP to see a dialog similar to the example shown in Figure 5.
