Pro/Server – 2/11/2008

Monday’s class covered Chapters 9-11.  We covered some relatively crazy topics today.

Chapter 9 covered Windows Installer which, as we discovered, is really great in that it allows us (among other things) to do mass installs across the network.  The example that I talked about today was how I installed Office 2007 to ~20 computers inside of 5 minutes.  Obviously, the stakes can get much higher, and therefore the payoff is much higher too.  Group Policy got a brief introduction this period, and believe me, GP is major-cool.

Chapter 10 switched gears into connecting Windows to a network.  TCP/IP is nowadays the protocol of choice (and why wouldn’t it be, it’s used to connect to the Internet).  We looked at configuring static and dynamic (via DHCP) IP addresses and also looked at “alternate” APIPA address which are configured when DHCP fails.

Chapter 11 covered the configuration of IP addresses and security.  Subnetting and Supernetting were introduced in this chapter (remember, use Windows Calculator to help you convert binary to decimal!).  We also looked at Windows Firewall, which is a low-cost (free!) addition to help you secure your computers using Windows XP SP2.  Keep in mind, if you want real security, get a hardware firewall.  Software firewalls (like XP’s) require that the packet actually arrive at the computer before it’s dealt with — hardware firewalls kill the packet in the server rack before it hits client machines.

Next week, we’ll forgo our quiz and jump straight into Chapter 12.  We have a LOT to cover next week, and so it will be a marathon class.  Make sure you get lots of rest and come ready to learn!!

Homework:

• Chapter 9 – Review Questions
• Chapter 10 – Review Questions, Scenario 10.1
• Chapter 11 – Review Questions