Peer-to-Peer

Peer-to-Peer

Some networks do not require dedicated servers—every computer can perform

both server and client functions. A peer-to-peer network enables any or

all of the machines on the network to act as a server. Peer-to-peer networks are

much cheaper than client/server networks, because the software costs less and

does not require that you purchase a high-end machine to act as the dedicated

server. The most popular peer-to-peer NOSs today are Windows 2000/XP and

Macintosh OS X.

The biggest limiting factor to peer-to-peer networking is that it’s simply not

designed for a large number of computers.Windows has a built-in limit (10) to

the number of users who can concurrently access a shared file or folder.Microsoft

recommends that peer-to-peer workgroups not exceed 15 PCs. Beyond that,

creating a domain-based network makes more sense.

Security is the other bigweakness of peer-to-peer networks. Each systemon a

peer-to-peer network maintains its own security.

Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional enable you to

tighten security by setting NTFS permissions locally, but you are still required

to place a local account on every system for any user who’s going to access resources.

So, even though you get decent security in aWindows 2000 Professional

orWindows XP Professional peer-to-peer network, systemadministration entails

a lot of running around to individual systems to create and delete local users every

time someone joins or leaves the network.

Peer-to-peer workgroups are little more than a pretty way to organize systems

to make navigating throughMyNetwork Places a little easier .

In reality,workgroups have no security value. Still, if your networking needs are

limited—such as a small home network—peer-to-peer networking is an easy

and cheap solution.