The Dattelkabel entertainment network consists of single domain using two bandwidths: 100 megabits per second and 10 megabits per second. With Microsoft® Windows NT® 4.0 Server on the server side and Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation on the client side, Dattelkabel looks to Microsoft Windows for its unified platform. In addition, all employees use Microsoft Exchange 5.5, Microsoft Proxy 2.0, and the Microsoft Office products. Overall, Dattelkabel relies on Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft software for security, efficiency, and compatibility with television network NSC administration and other software.
Customer Profile
Dattelkabel, a.s. is a telecommunications company based in Prague, Czech Republic that was founded in 1997. The company operates regional multifunctional networks that support more than 60,000 active users. Dattelkabel offers 35 television channels, including the information channel Metropol, and it recently introduced Mistral—a high-speed (10 megabits per second) cable Internet connection. The company plans to expand Mistral with another data and voice service in the near future.
Reliable Partner Saves Dattelkabel Time and Money ...
Dattelkabel uses Prague-based CSc Computer Services (CSc CS) for its IT installation and maintenance services. Providing strong engineering and technical solutions tailored to customers’ specific IT needs, the CSc CS staff ensures reliable ongoing services. CSc CS uses Microsoft technologies, as well as those of Hewlett-Packard, 3COM, Novell, CISCO, Panduit, AT&T, Compaq, and IBM in developing solutions. The solution provider cooperates with five other specialized companies.
... And Provides a Solution
CSc CS provided Dattelkabel with a solution that preserves the company’s single domain configuration. Two out of four servers will be upgraded: the primary and backup domain controllers. For the project’s first phase, Proxy and Exchange servers will stay on Windows NT 4.0, and the network services will be moved from the Proxy server to Windows 2000, enabling extensive use of the Active DirectoryTM service. The hardware will stay unchanged, but the servers’ RAM will be expanded to 256 megabytes.
Step-by-Step Installation
The first step of Windows 2000 deployment has already begun. This involved installing the Active Desktop and the Active Directory service on workstations running Windows 95. Windows 2000 was installed on 10 stations, and application settings were adopted from the legacy system. Complete installation, including that of MS Office Premium 2000, took approximately three hours per station.
The next phase of deployment involved reinstallation of the domain servers. Dattelkabel and CSc CS engineers saved the servers’ content on the tape, then created a new disk structure using separate parts for different system components. After restoring the operating system, the engineers restored DNS and DHCP services as well as the data structure and the access rights. Referring to scheduled tasks, they adjusted triggering of the regularly repeated processes such as backup and data transfers to the data warehouse. After creating the Active Directory service and running network services on Windows 2000, Active Directory and the Exchange Directory connections were set.
Following completion of these two steps, and thanks to Windows 2000, Dattelkabel found that its IT system could handle heavy traffic reliably.
