ServiceLink Manual

Chapter 8. Conﬁguring the Computers on Your Network

8.1. What Order to do Things

For efﬁciency, we recommend you conﬁgure your desktop computers in the following order:

Step 1: First, conﬁgure one of your desktop computers to work with TCP/IP (using the information in this chapter).

Step 2: With TCP/IP up and running on one of your computers, you can now access the server manager over the web and create your

employees’ user accounts. The next chapter, On-going Administration Using the e-smith Manager, explains this simple process.

Step 3: Once e-mail accounts are created, you can ensure that all the computers on your network are conﬁgured for TCP/IP, e-mail,

web browsing and LDAP (using the information in this chapter).

Note: If you already have e-mail accounts set up with your ISP, you will need to do things in a different order to ensure continuous

e-mail service to your site. See our online HOWTO document titled Transitioning From a Prior E-mail System available at

http://www.e-smith.org/docs/howto/emailtransition-howto.html

This chapter helps you conﬁgure software and hardware supplied by other companies and for that reason is not as speciﬁc as the rest

of this guide. Given the wide range of computers, operating systems and software applications, we cannot accurately explain the

process of conﬁguring each of them. If your computers and applications came with manuals, they might be useful supplements to

this chapter. Technical problems encountered in networking your desktop computers and applications are best resolved with the

vendors who support them for you.

8.2. Conﬁguring Your Desktop Operating System

The dialog box where you conﬁgure your desktop differs from operating system to operating system and version to version. In

Microsoft systems, desktop conﬁguration occurs in the "Properties" dialog box associated with the TCP/IP protocol for your ethernet

adapter. To get there, go to the "Control Panel" and select "Network". If a TCP/IP protocol is not yet associated with your ethernet

adapter, you may need to add one before you can conﬁgure its properties with the following information. On Apple computers, open

the TCP/IP Control Panel under the Apple Menu.

Note: For a more complete example of conﬁguring a Windows 95 client, see our HOWTO document online at

http://www.e-smith.org/docs/howto/wintcpip-howto.html

Item Description What to enter

enable TCP/IP protocol All your computers must communicate on the

network using the TCP/IP protocol.

In Windows you add a TCP/IP protocol. In

Apple, open TCP/IP Control Panel.

disable non-TCP/IP

protocols

Unless an application relies on a non- TCP/IP

protocol, disable all other protocols.

Turn "off" other networking protocols (e.g.

NetBeui, etc.)