Chapter 4 - Desktop Scenarios

Internet technology offers new ways to communicate and do business. However, you do not need a connection to the public Internet to benefit from technology developed for the Internet. Peer Web Services (Windows NT Workstation) or Internet Information Server (Windows NT Server) and Internet Explorer (an Internet client) can bring the ease of use and rich content of the Internet to your intranet.

The scenarios in this chapter demonstrate single-computer implementations on a corporate desktop computer or small department server. In the first scenario, a desktop computer running Windows NT Workstation and Peer Web Services provides employees timely information about the corporation's recent network merge. The second scenario demonstrates a departmental production server running Windows NT Server and Internet Information Server (IIS). The departmental IIS server provides employees access to Human Resources information.

The scenarios are based on Terra Flora, a fictitious international floral company described in this chapter's first section, "Terra Flora—A Case History." The scenarios show you how to use Windows NT Server Internet Information Server to solve business needs from team communication to global enterprise networking. In Chapter 5, "Enterprise Scenarios," you will find additional scenarios that use or simulate multiple servers. The chapters use scenarios that are presented as if an administrator were implementing a staged rollout of Internet Information Server in a corporation.

You can find more information about Terra Flora, including how this fictitious company used Windows NT Server to achieve networking interoperability, in the Microsoft Windows NT Server Resource Kit: Windows NT Server Networking Guide.