Day 8. Working with Users

Today we’re going to look at user management. The entire purpose of creating a network is to make users more efficient, in order to enable them to do more than they could in the past. The network has to answer the needs of users, yet protect them from themselves. Many network administrators consider users the toughest part of the networking picture because users are unpredictable, and you can’t lock them in a closet like you can a server.

It’s important to have good tools when managing a network and the users it serves. Good management tools help you see the big picture. They also help you monitor the network for problem areas and perform configuration tasks quickly. The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is an application that can help you do all this and more. You’ll learn how MMC works today. We’ll begin by looking at the issue of computer management. One tool allows you to manage both local and remote computers, so the process is essentially the same for either task.