Hi, I am setting up a test bed for some of my students. I would like the users to log onto the terminals via passwords stored on win server 2003. unless the password are entered correctly they will be unable to logon to terminals. Also, the logon 'group' or 'type' should indicate access levels and restrictions (admin, guest, limited etc). Any ideas how I can go about this? Or maybe some book or web refferences i can look up. ANy help is much appretiated. Thanks Mat

What you are trying to accomplish is implemented in Microsoft's Active Directory technology which is resident on your Windows Server 2003 box. Active Directory may or may not be installed. Confirm its installation by locating "Active Directory Users & Trusts" in the Administrative Tools section of the box. If it is not installed, try clicking on Start->Run and typing in "dcpromo.exe". This will run the installation and setup for Active Directory. You may want to do some research and locate some tutorials on the Internet before hand. Once installed, you will have the ability to create user accounts and passwords for all network users, as well as assigning these users appropriate permissions to directories on your server box. I prefer to use the "Organizational Unit" approach when structuring users and groups. For example, in a business setting you may have Clerical, Administrative, Billing, and Sales groups. Each one of these groups would be created as an Organizational Unit. Then you would create a user name, e.g. Joe Smith, and assign him to the appropriate OU. That OU would then be assigned permissions to directories and files on the server. I hope this information was helpful.

Or, if you want to avoid OUs, just create Security Groups. Life's more painless for the brainless.