Chapter Summary

This chapter focuses on the protocols and procedures involved in establishing and configuring network connectivity. Each of the major operating systems has to be correctly configured before remote users can log on to a network. Although the information needed to access these networks is the same, the methods for configuring the information is different across operating system platforms.

Configuring remote access involves a number of different software configurations. To access a remote network, a user must have a valid protocol, a means of accessing the remote network (such as a dial-up account), and a valid user account. Accessing a remote network requires considerable configuration on both the client and server computer systems.

To log on to a network, a number of settings have to be configured on the client system. These settings include DNS, DHCP, WINS, NetBIOS names, and protocols. If you do not correctly configure these settings, the client system might be unable to access the network. Although the need to configure these, or similar, settings is the same for all operating systems, the method of configuring these settings in each of the operating systems varies. Network administration requires a knowledge of how each of the different client-based operating systems is configured.