Topic: Newbie questions about using SME Server as a server for Windows desktops

[johna]

I know someone is going to tell me to read the manual but I have read them all and the answers aren't in there or I am too dumb to understand.

I have never used Linux before but stumbled across SME Server as an alternative to Windows SBS 2003 in a small office and am very impressed with it's ease of installation and operation.

I have set up a test SME Server system (Server only mode) as a Windows domain server and have a few questions:

1) I want to tone down the password strength and found the command to run in the manual. However I have no idea where to type this command into? (Never used Linux before)

2) Regarding the primary domain (eg. company.local), should I be able to access features of the server using this domain name (eg. mail.company.local, www.company.local, etc). At present these are not recognised on client computers. I can access the server by its name ("server") and IP address however. Do I need to enable DNS server and if so how?

3) We have several domain names but they all point to an external web hosting company for web hosting. I have however setup mail hosting on SME Server for some of the domains and added the relavant MX DNS entries and they work fine when accessing email through Outlook. However, If I try and send mail via webmail (server/webmail) it doesn't send mail externally and I suspect I need to access webmail through a domain name instead? I did set the email address in webmail to one of the domain names but that didn't help. Can I setup a subdomain for webmail, and will that solve the problem?

4) Can I use workgroups instead of domains? I have tried but when I access files on the server through network neighbourhood it asks for username/password even though I signed on to Windows with these. I expect this is normal and domains is a better system???

Thanks in advance.

[cactus]

I know someone is going to tell me to read the manual but I have read them all and the answers aren't in there or I am too dumb to understand.

I have never used Linux before but stumbled across SME Server as an alternative to Windows SBS 2003 in a small office and am very impressed with it's ease of installation and operation.

I have set up a test SME Server system (Server only mode) as a Windows domain server and have a few questions:

1) I want to tone down the password strength and found the command to run in the manual. However I have no idea where to type this command into? (Never used Linux before)

Login as root on a SME Server shell (consider installing PuTTy so you can copy paste commands) or at the terminal.

2) Regarding the primary domain (eg. company.local), should I be able to access features of the server using this domain name (eg. mail.company.local, www.company.local, etc). At present these are not recognised on client computers. I can access the server by its name ("server") and IP address however. Do I need to enable DNS server and if so how?

Yes, and if you want to have access from the internet you will have to modify the external DNS of your provider as well.

3) We have several domain names but they all point to an external web hosting company for web hosting. I have however setup mail hosting on SME Server for some of the domains and added the relavant MX DNS entries and they work fine when accessing email through Outlook.

MX DNS records are irrelevant for the behavior of your clients, they are used fopr mail servers to locate each other.

However, If I try and send mail via webmail (server/webmail) it doesn't send mail externally and I suspect I need to access webmail through a domain name instead? I did set the email address in webmail to one of the domain names but that didn't help. Can I setup a subdomain for webmail, and will that solve the problem?

Did you add a virtual domain for every domain you are hosting?

4) Can I use workgroups instead of domains? I have tried but when I access files on the server through network neighbourhood it asks for username/password even though I signed on to Windows with these. I expect this is normal and domains is a better system???

Yes that is normal behavior for workgroups, if you configure your server to be a domain controller and add the PC's as client this problem should be solved.

[johna]

Thanks very much for responding. Can I ask for a little more information?:

Login as root on a SME Server shell (consider installing PuTTy so you can copy paste commands) or at the terminal.

How do I login as root and how do I get to a SME Server shell?

Yes, and if you want to have access from the internet you will have to modify the external DNS of your provider as well.

How do I install or configure a DNS server?

Did you add a virtual domain for every domain you are hosting?

Yes, domains are set up in SME server server manager. When I send external mail through webmail it doesn't arrive. Internal mail works fine.

Thanks again!

[steve1084]

A realy good place for general Linux Howto's and general linux info is the www.howtoforge.com website

There is even a setup howto on there website  http://www.howtoforge.com/fileserver_with_sme_server7.1

Most of the Howto's also show how to use putty and do general maintenance etc so its a great source of information about linux for noobs in general.

Hope this helps

Steve

[johna]

Still hoping somebody can help me with some of these questions:

How can I access the SME Server shell so that I can issue the command to change the password strength.

I gather from reading manuals, forums, etc that Tiny DNS is installed. Does this need to be enabled and do the Windows clients need any configuration so they can access server resources by the internal domain name?

Thanks!

[thomasch]

johna,

on your computer server login as root .. don't login as admin as this will bring you to SME server console menu
from there you can issue the command to change anything

thomas

[johna]

Thanks very much Thomas.