Hi everyone,
I work at a small company - we have 15-20 devices connected to the network.
At this time, we have 2 networks. The physical connections look like this:
Modem --> Router --> Switch --> {all PCs connected to switch}
The two networks are:
192.168.0.X is the company network for local sharing only. No internet connection.
192.168.1.X provides internet access.
On the 192.168.0.X network, we have 2 computers that are referred to as 'servers' (though they aren't running server OS). Essentially, one is a W7 computer that is 'hosting' a custom program, and the other computer is running a custom OS. Both of these computers have software that is needed for day-to-day operation. In both cases, a shortcut is copy-pasted to the client machine that needs to run this program. So as you can see, the software is really only installed on 1 computer in both cases, but can be run from all computers that are in the same subnet, via the shortcut.
The user machines that need access to this software have a static ip set via windows in the 192.168.0.X subnet, and are all on the same workgroup. These computers do not have internet access.
The router address is 192.168.1.1. Therefore, as you can see, the 192.168.0.X network is just a peer-to-peer network connected thru the switch.
I am planning the deployment of Server Essentials 2012. In doing so, I would like to join everything under a single network.
I plan on upgrading all XP client machines with W7 OS, which really works well with Server Essentials.
My questions are:
1) With all client machines running W7 joined to the domain, as well as the W7 'server' that is hosting the company software, will all client machines still be able to access that software?
Essentially, can one PC share directly with another PC when both are part of a domain?
2) The one machine with the custom OS is really, really old, and I am certain is it not able to join a domain. If this machine does not join the domain, but is on the same network, would it still be accessible so that al W7 client machine can access the software on that computer?
Thank you for your help!