by: John D. Ruley
Microsoft's Windows NT Resource Kit has always been a gold mine of tricks, tips and utility software for Windows NT users. The second edition, for version 3.5 of NT, continues this tradition, while adding even more utility software and information.
The resource kit consists of a four-volume set of books, a CD and several diskettes. The programs and other information on the CD alone are easily worth its price. Among the goodies are help files that document all variables set using the configuration registry editor, give technical specs of all NT-compatible network cards, list all Windows NT-compatible hardware and provide troubleshooting help. The CD includes graphical monitors for domain servers and domain browser activity, along with a graphical interface for the command-line batch scheduler.
Some of the other offerings on the CD include the Server Manager for Domains, User Manager for Domains and User Profile Editor tools from NT Server--along with administrative tools for Services for Macintosh NT Server. A complete suite of POSIX 1.0-compatible command-line utilities is part of the package too, including ar, cat, cc, rmdir, sh, touch, vi, wc and many others. There's even an editor for creating your own animated cursors among the many other utilities.
The kit's Computer and Network Administrative Tools will impress network managers. With these tools, you can get user input in batch files, dump the event logs as a text file and disable floppy disk drives as a security precaution. Other management tools include an SNMP MIB compiler, software for operating a network modem pool, a command-line interface to services, a per-user file permissions command-line utility and a secure remote command-line.
The long list of utilities continues with Computer Profile Setup (for installing a standard NT configuration throughout an organization), a 32-bit Uuencode/Uudecode application, a uni-to-multiprocessor kernel converter and a graphical TCP/IP configuration utility.
The resource kit is a powerful bag of tricks for NT system administrators. It's now possible, for instance, to set up a locked-closet server and control it from a remote system using a combination of NT's built-in Remote Access Service (RAS), the NT Server tools and the remote command-line utility. The kit significantly augments NT's command-line script files.
This edition also includes Internet services, such as World Wide Web (WWW), WAIS, gopher and ftp servers, a command-line utility to create new-user accounts, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) management tools, tools to compact and manage the "Jet" database used by the message database, a service application that allows any command-line program to be executed as a background NT "service" task, and a new screen saver that logs a user off after a period of inactivity.
Three of the four manuals in the kit have been updated since the previous version. The Resource Guide has updated information on NT setup, printing, configuration (registry) management, and migrating Windows, OS/2 and POSIX applications to NT. Windows NT Messages documents error and warning messages generated by NT and its subsystems. Optimizing Windows NT is the least changed, but it provides vital new information on NT 3.5 Performance Monitor objects, disk cache tuning and high-performance graphics programming, as well as documenting changes to the NT registry.
The new Windows NT Networking Guide contains information formerly found in various supplemental NT documents--with some additions. It covers NT 3.5's revised PPP-based RAS architecture, describes how to write and debug RAS scripts and how to write log-on scripts. It also has implementation details for NT's NetBios Frame (NBF) core network protocol and other supported protocols, including TCP/IP, Data Link Control (DLC), IPX/SPX, IBM SNA, and the net-library and DB-library protocols used by NT databases.
Support professionals will find the information on NT's NetLogon service and the chapter on NT's network browser invaluable.
But the real jewel is the 270-page discussion on NT's TCP/IP implementation. If you're attempting to implement an NT-based Internet server, this information is essential. It completely documents NT's TCP/IP implementation, how it relates to standard IP models, and how it's used with NBF and Internet-related services.
Although the four volumes have some weaknesses--like limited information on Internet security and third-party routers, poor e-mail coverage and limited troubleshooting information--they are still invaluable additions to any advanced NT user's library.
In my tests, I found the resource kit utilities to be extremely useful. While they're not always as well executed as conventional shrink-wrapped applications, the kit remains a bargain.
--Info File--
Windows NT Resource Kit, 2nd Edition
Price: $149.95
In Brief: This resource kit includes everything Microsoft left out of NT 3.5.
Disk Space: 10MB RAM: 12MB (minimum)
Microsoft Press
800-MS-PRESS, 615-793-5090