What is EARTHNET?
EARTHNET is simply the name of the Windows NT/2000/XP domain we have in the Dept. of Earth Science. Simply put, a Windows domain is a collection of users and computers, for the purpose of controlling access to Windows networking resources. It is separate from "the Internet". It is possible to be "on the Internet" and not be "on EARTHNET".
Who needs to be on EARTHNET?
How do you access EARTHNET?
Step 1: Obtain an EARTHNET account (username and password) by stopping by room 301 and asking Alex, or Mary in an emergency. Anybody who is in the department, working for a department member, or in a class that requires use of the PC lab may obtain an account. This account is separate from your email account (Owlnet or RUF) and is also separate from your GEONET Unix account if you have one. However, we recommend you use the same username as your e-mail username. We do not recommend that you use the same password.
Step 2: If you are only using public machines, you may skip this step and go on to step 3. If you want to use EARTHNET from your desktop machine (personal or Rice-owned), contact Alex to get it added to the domain. NB: If you have a personal computer that is running Windows XP home edition, there is no way to join the EARTHNET domain. If you are considering an operating system purchase or a new computer purchase, make sure to choose Windows XP Professional if you want to make your life easier.
Step 3: Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional have a confusing approach to handling network vs. non-network logins. When you log in, you will see a dialog box with three fields: username, password and domain. Any computer which is a part of a domain will actually have two "domains" available: one that is the actual domain it is in, and one for the local machine itself. For example, if your PC was named ALICE, in the EARTHNET domain, when you logged in you would have two choices for a domain: "EARTHNET" and "ALICE (this computer)". This is confusing to newcomers because their natural tendency is to log in with the option labeled "this computer". However, for the most part you will not have a local login, only a network login, so attempting to log into the local domain would fail. Also, even if it did work (e.g. if it was your own personal computer and you had set up a local account with the same username and password) you would have problems accessing your network resources because as far as the Windows system is concerned, ALICE\username and EARTHNET\username are completely different users, and ALICE\username would not be in the list of users allowed to access things like printers and shared network folders. So, to make a long explanation short, make sure you are logging into EARTHNET.
What are the advantages to being in EARTHNET?
Windows domains, particularly after Windows 2000 Server and Active Directory came long, can provide a whole host of services, from home directories and organizational units to workload delegation and integration with LDAP and beyond (don't worry if you don't understand any of that). For the most part, these features are designed for large to enormous muti-site organizations. We are not taking advantage of the majority of the advanced features. We are a small organization with a high rate of user turnover and the amount of effort and training that would be required does not make sense given the theoretical return. There are basically only two major purposes to the domain that users are aware of: access control and resource sharing.
- Access control: obviously we have to have a way to control who gets to use the public PCs. It is also nice, in the case of Windows NT/2k/XP, that each user has their own separate set of customizable local settings, so that you may feel free to change your wallpaper etc. without interfering with other users' sense of usability/good taste.
- Shared resources: the big thing here is printing. There are a limited number of public printrs. We need to be able to account for their usage, for one thing, but it is also much easier for users to just add a network printer off of the print server, rather than having to download drivers themselves and add network ports, etc. The other shared resource is storage (i.e. hard-disk space). For users logged into the domain, it is very easy to access files that are physically stored on a machine that is not the one you are seated at. This is an invaluable resource because almost all users find that they need to work on multiple machines, due to the fact that not all machines have the same hardware and software. The days of the "sneaker network" (i.e. carrying files back and forth between machines on diskettes or ZIP disks) are over. Another advantage to using shared network storage is that for certain locations, your files will be kept backed up, so that they may be recovered in the event of a hard disk failure or accidental deletion (caveat: tapes aren't as reliable as CD-ROMs, so for truly critical data (like your thesis!), you should keep your own backups on CD-Rs. Alex provides CD-Rs free to anyone who needs them, and most of the lab PCs have CD burners).
- Seamlessness: for the most part, it is possible for users who are on non-EARTHNET machines to access these shared resources, but you will be required to enter your username and password every time you want to access a shared network folder for the first time in a given logon session, and will need to delete and re-add your printers every time you log on as well. You also will need to know how to specify the exact path to the resource because it will not let you browse through them, and you will need to know how to specify a different username and password than the one you are currently using. In otherwords it's an all-around pain.
How do I (add a printer, access files on a different computer)?
How to add a network printer
How to map network drives/access remote files
2003 Alex Hemsath