I consider myself a desktop support specialist but I?m presently supporting a small network with 22 clients a PDC and a BDC. My PDC is also my DHCP server and my WINS server but it?s offline, HDD failure. This is the first time I?ll be configuring, or should I say reconfiguring, a network which is why I need your opinions and advice.
My BDC, which I will promote to PDC if necessary, is using WINNT 4 with SP5 and most clients are WS NT 4 with SP5 and three WS are WIN 2000 SP1. We are using a3COM switch and a CISCO router with NAT installed on it. At the present time we are using only TCP/IP as our protocol. My sub net mask is 255.255.255.224 which does not give me too many free IP addresses left once everyone is logged in. My network IP address pool is 209.104.86.224 to 209.104.86.255 and default gateway is 209.104.86.225
So these are the questions I?m asking myself and the questions I need your advice on :
Should I change my sub net mask to 255.255.255.0 and if I do what are the reserved IP addresses when using this sub net? ( Are the only excluded addresses 255.255.255.0 and 255.255.255.255)
Can I use any IP address as my default gateway, can I stay with the present address 209.104.86.225?
What are the advantages of using NetBIOS over TCP/IP with this size network and should I set it up this way?
Should I use static IP addressing or DHCP? ( Each client is used by one person only)
If I use static IP addressing should I install a WINS server or use a LMHOST file or do I really need either one?
And the most important question I?m asking myself is : are there any other questions I should be asking myself?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Andy
