Network Install

[zach]

How do you do a network install of the Office Suite 2000? Rather than install the suite on individual machines we would like to install on a NT4 box and have users access Word, Excel, etc. Is this possible? What do we need to do? TIA.

 

[Ric Brennan]

Zach,

There are two ways to do this, and you can find details in the Office 200
Resource Kit online at the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/default.htm

Way #1 - Create and administrative share on a file server, and install users
from there selecting the "Run from Network" option for the apps. You STILL
have to run the install on each machine because there are some key files
along with registry setting that the program must set. (And, you need a
software license for each user of course.) But in this scenario, major
files are left on the server, which makes it a good solution if you have
network bandwidth to spare, but have limited space on users' hard drives.
Detailed instructions can be found below:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/two/45ct_3.htm

Way #2 - Install Windows NT Terminal Server on a big server with several
processors and gobs of RAM. Then follow the instructions for installing
Office on a Terminal Server (link below). Users then need NO Office files
installed on their computer - they just open a Terminal session on the
server and run the app there. License requirements, however, are the same.
You need a software license per user. This is a good solution if you have
the budget for big server hardware, you have Terminal Server expertise, and
it would be very costly to actually visit each user computer to do an
install. (Another advantage to the Terminal Server solution is that you
only have to maintain patches on ONE server.)
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/two/30t3.htm

// Ric Brennan
Abacus Technology

How do you do a network install of the Office Suite 2000? Rather than

install the suite on individual machines we would like to install on a NT4
box and have users access Word, Excel, etc. Is this possible? What do we
need to do? TIA.

 

[zach]

Ric,

Thanks for the quick and very detailed response. Will check into the links you provided. We only have five licenses. Is there a way to restrict the number of concurrent users to just 5? Thanks again.

 

[Ric Brennan]

Zach,

If you were managing hundreds of licenses, I would say, "Sure, Systems
Management Server can manage those licensed applications." But with five
clients that is clearly overkill, so we won't go there.

How about this: You could use the NTFS or share level permissions to
restrict access to the five legitimate users.


// Ric Brennan
Abacus Technology

Ric,

Thanks for the quick and very detailed response. Will check into the

links you provided. We only have five licenses. Is there a way to restrict
the number of concurrent users to just 5? Thanks again.