[owDAWG]

I have a mix of PCs on my local churchs network, including 6 NT 4 workstations, 2 Windows 2000 Pro, and 1 Windows XP Home PC. They all connect to a NT 4.0 Server which I considering replacing with windows 2003 server. I am able to obtain a copy of Windows 2003 Server for free from a business that never ended up using their copy and would be willing to donate it so it is in my best interest to take advantage of the offer. The 6 PCs running windows NT 4.0 workstation are old/slow as dirt so i cant really upgrade them without upgrading the hardware. My question is can Windows NT 4.0 Workstation join a 2003 Server AD domain and can I use NT 4.0 workstation policies on those PCs through the 2003 server to prevent people from messing up those machines.

[DosFreak]

In that configuration,no. You'll have to have an NT4 BDC for your old NT4 workstations and you'd have to run in 2003 mixed mode. Seeing as you only have 1 NT4 server and your probably short on servers it's best to just go with straight 2000 across the board or XP if you can.

How old are the PC's with NT4? Any machine with NT4 should be able to use Windows 2000. Unless your talking 486DX4100/P100 here (It'll be pretty slow, but arguably as fast as NT4 with tweaking).

Best way to test it to ghost a backup of one NT4 machine, Install Windows 2000 and see if it works well, if it doesn't then reghost your configuration back, if it does then your set!

[zen69x]

The 2003 server will act as a PDCe. I believe that you will need to ensure that the NT4 workstations are at SP6a though. (Actually above SP3 due to some security settings on 2003.)

Windows 2003 interim mode would seem to be what he is after, if he has any plans on leaving any NT 4 BDC's connected.

Also, this MSKB article suggests that he can copy the poledit.exe from the NT server to the 2k3 server and continue to use the policies he sets up through that.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;814598

[peterh]

1. First, upgrade NT4 Workstations to SP6a and install the ADSI Client (see http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/news/bulletins/adextension.asp for them)

2. The domain policy can be created using the NT Policy Editor and create a Ntconfig.pol which can apply to NT4 machines

3. Make sure communication signing it turned off on the 2003 domain as that does not work on NT4 machines.

4. Upgrade the XP Home machine to XP Pro as XP Home cannot be used in Domains.

[clutch]

What peterh said, for the most part. Just note that it is the AD Client for NT, and not "ADSI" in case you are looking for that. Also, I thought that the clients were on the Server 2003 CD, but I can't remember right now.

[kokfei]

hi , read about the 'PDC Emulator'. this PDC emulator will help u on the pre-window 2000 machines.