Windows 10 LAN Setup

10 Newbie · 06 May 2016

I have a small business with a data server and 7 workstations. Till now I have avoided the upgrade as xp has worked so problem free but a recent decision to upgrade server meant I could not avoid it any longer.

We have purchased the new workstations and now looking at the network side of things but have hit a bit of a snag.

Looking online I see most of the windows 10 networking steps relate to windows 7 and the general suggestion from what I can see is to use homegroup. In xp we were using workgroup and things were very easily set up and maintained but it seems the win 10 is not so easy to set up or maybe I am just not up to speed.

Any suggestions on a small business win 10 network setup and links to walkthrough's would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

CADesertRat · 07 May 2016

Looking online I see most of the windows 10 networking steps relate to windows 7

I have 3 Win 7 computers and 1 Win 10 and Win 10 is setup the same as Win 7 on my "Workgroup" LAN. Personally I don't use "Homegroup", I find there are less problems with "Workgroup" once setup.
Make sure "File and Printing sharing" is turned on in Windows firewall and check/change settings in "Networking and Sharing center" to allow sharing.

10 Newbie · 11 May 2016

Yes you were right. The workgroup is definitely the better way to go.

Unfortunately Microsoft seem to be making matters harder and harder and I think os have gone downhill since xp.

CADesertRat · 11 May 2016

Going from XP to W10 is quite a jump but workgroup setup is similar all the way through. The difference is where to look for all the settings since W10 interface and even terminology is a bit different in some cases.

bro67 · 12 May 2016

It all depends on how you want to do this. You really need a decent NAS for handling file storage for the machines, along with a way to not blow the bank on more hardware to run the file serving between all. Any office or even home with that many can benefit from one of the Linux Based Domain Controllers that allows you to also handle email, etc..

The other plus about the domain is that you can keep better eyes on what your employees are doing and have a better way of protecting your investment. Zentyal is still one of the better ones out there, with Clark Connect/ClearOS.

If you decide to go with one of the alternative Linux based solutions. Make sure that it is going to be compatible with the software that you are using. Especially if it is something that uses a SQL database.