Setting Up Remote Administration

This section provides details about how to set up remote administration after Windows 98 has been installed.

To take advantage of the remote administration capabilities of Windows 98, you should do the following:

Enable remote administration and user-level security on every computer that you will administer remotely. If you want to administer a remote computer using System Policy Editor, Registry Editor, or System Monitor, the Microsoft Remote Registry service must be installed on both your computer and the remote computer. Although the remote computer requires user-level security, it does not also require file and printer sharing services.
Optionally, install the SNMP agent or the Microsoft Network Monitor agent if required for your administrative tools. For information, see "Monitoring Your Network" later in this chapter.
Run a common network protocol, such as the Microsoft version of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) – compatible protocol, or NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI).
Train help desk personnel on System Monitor if they will use it. They should understand what each measurement provided by System Monitor means and what course of action is required in response to these measurements. For information, see Chapter 26, "Performance Tuning."
Train help desk personnel on what problems can be identified and repaired by using System Policy Editor or Registry Editor.

Table 23.2 describes what you need to set up on the remote computer to complete an administrative task.

Table 23.2 Remote computer setup requirements

Remote administration task	Requirement on the remote computer

Browse and manage shared resources on a remote computer by using Net Watcher.	Enable user-level security, remote administration, and file and printer sharing services; grant remote administration privileges to the network administrator.
Manage the file system of a remote computer by using Net Watcher.	Enable user-level security and remote administration; grant remote administration privilege to the network administrator.
Edit a remote computer’s registry by using Registry Editor or System Policy Editor.	Enable user-level security and remote administration, and install Microsoft Remote Registry service.
Monitor performance of a remote computer by using System Monitor.	Enable user-level security and remote administration, and install Microsoft Remote Registry service.

Granting remote administration privilege gives a person full access to all shared resources on the system (including the ability to add and remove other remote administrators). Granting or removing access to remote administration capabilities for a user does not take effect until the next time the user connects to the computer running Windows 98.

When remote administration is enabled on a computer, two special shared directories are created:

Admin$ gives administrators access to the file system on the remote computer.
Ipc$ provides an interprocess communication (IPC) channel between the two computers.

Important

If you enable user-level security by using the Network option in Control Panel or in a setup script, remote administration is enabled automatically for the Domain Administrator group on a Windows NT domain. On a Novell NetWare network, the Supervisor account (for version 3.x) or the Admin account (for version 4.0) is enabled automatically. For more information, see Chapter 9, "Security."

If you want to enable user-level security without automatically enabling remote administration, you can use system policies to enable the User-level access control option. In this case, you must enable remote administration manually by using the Passwords option in Control Panel on each individual computer.

To enable remote administration manually

In Control Panel, double-click Passwords, and then click the Remote Administration tab.
Make sure the Enable remote administration of this server check box is selected.
If the computer is configured for share-level access control and you have configured file and printer sharing, the following dialog box appears. Specify the password for remote administration.

If the computer is configured for user-level access control, the following dialog box appears. Click Add, and add the appropriate administrators. Then click OK.

To install the Microsoft Remote Registry service

In Control Panel, double-click Network, and then click Add.
In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, double-click Service.
In the Select Network Service dialog box, click Have Disk.
In the Install From Disk dialog box, type the path to the Tools\Reskit\ Netadmin\Remotereg directory on the Windows 98 compact disc, and then click OK.
In the Install From Disk dialog box, click OK.
In the Select Network Service dialog box, click Microsoft Remote Registry, and then click OK.
If you are prompted to specify the location of additional files, specify the path to the Windows 98 source files on a shared network directory or on the Windows 98 compact disc.

For more information about installing the Microsoft Remote Registry service and enabling remote administration by using setup scripts, see Appendix D, "Msbatch.inf Parameters for Setup Scripts."

Technical Notes on the Microsoft Remote Registry Service

You must also install the Remote Registry service on the administrator’s computer to ensure that the Winreg.dll file is in the Windows System directory on that computer.

Make sure that both the administrator’s and the user’s computers have at least one protocol in common. That can be Microsoft NetBEUI, Microsoft TCP/IP, or the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol (with or without the network basic input/output system [NetBIOS]).