1. Lecture 10: The User
Experience
Network Design & Administration

2. What aspects affect the user
most?
• Disk space
• Local
• Shared
Network Design & Administration
• Printing
• Logging in/Access to resources
• Using applications
• Email
2
• Overall speed of task completion

3. Disk Space
• User machines may have comparatively
large disks
• Temptation for users to store files locally
Network Design & Administration
• Unlikely in ‘hot-desking’ situation
• Problems?
• Better to use servers for storing user files
• Better control of backup/restore
• Can apply disk quotas 3

4. Windows Disk Quotas
Three stages:
1. Enabling disk quotas on a
volume.
2. Configuring quota defaults.
Network Design & Administration
3. Creating quota entries.
Step 1:
• Select NTFS volume for quota
application using Explorer
and open Properties dialog.
• Or use disk management
4
snap-in to MMC.

5. Windows Disk Quotas – Step 2
– Enable Management
• Enable
management – has
to be done volume
Network Design & Administration
by volume
• Note that in this
case, the system
has been set to
deny users disk
space when Quota 5
exceeded

6. Windows Disk Quotas – Step 3
- Configuring
• You must select an
appropriate default
size
• You may also set a
Network Design & Administration
size that generates a
warning to the user
• You can also
configure the system
to log these events
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7. Windows Disk Quotas –
Creating quota entries[2]
• These are exceptions to the default rule
• Allow a user to be given more or less than
the default
Network Design & Administration
• Can create new entries, or modify existing
ones (by double clicking the entry)
• (Ensure you select appropriate units!)
• New quota entries can be generated by
selecting a number of users at once, but 7
the quotas are applied individually

8. Windows Disk Quotas –
Creating quota entries[1]
Network Design & Administration
8

9. Linux Disk Quotas[3][4][5]
• Enable quotas by adding fields into etc/fstab file to allow
usr/grp quotas e.g.
/dev/hda2 /home ext3 defaults,usrquota,grpquota 1 1
• Remount the volume (umount, then mount – or simply
Network Design & Administration
reboot)
• Run quotacheck –avug to set up the quota files and check the
volume for current usage (should re-run regularly to keep stats
accurate)
• Assign quotas for users or groups using edquota
• Use repquota to generate reports on current quota usage
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10. Disk Quotas – impact on users
and administrators
• Users can find it frustrating if sizes set too low
for typical usage
• Investigate how users function before setting
level
Network Design & Administration
• Users can be given a warning – so need
education as to how to act in response
• Administrators may get a lot of user complaints if
set too low – but if not set, space may run out
arbitrarily
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• Managing and monitoring is time consuming
(see in later session)

11. File Server Resource Manager[6]
• Provides finer grain control of quotas
• Provides more means to warn users
• Not covered here!
Network Design & Administration
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12. Printing and the user
• As before, assume that we do not have
individual printers for users
• Must balance need for users to have access to
printing with costs of paper, ink, printers
Network Design & Administration
• Printer properties define default behaviour for
all users of the printer
• For high throughput, may use printer pooling
• For more control, may use multiple logical
printers for a single printer
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13. Shared Printers
• Remember - that after
installing the printer on
the print server, have
to share it, then
Network Design & Administration
connect clients
• Printer properties has
tab for sharing
• Additional drivers must
be specified if clients
running older O/S
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14. Other Useful Information in Properties
• Printer location can be specified
• Users can check printer capabilities
• Paper of different sizes can be assigned to specific trays
Network Design & Administration
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15. Client Access to Printers
• Make available via:
• Add Printer Wizard (where Search can be specified)
• Browsing via Windows Explorer
• Searching Active Directory
Network Design & Administration
• Can search with a range of criteria e.g. location, double-sided
capable, stapling etc. – key to efficiency in a business
• However, users need to know that they can do this – must be
trained.
• Must ensure (via printer permissions) that users cannot
change default behaviour – though they may choose to set
behaviour for a specific print job.
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16. Client Access to Printers using VB.Script
• Can use a “logon” and “logoff” script.
• Script associated to user account – put on a shared drive to
allow all users access.
• As soon as user logs in/out, script is executed.
Logon script:
Network Design & Administration
sub loadprinters()
set network = createobject("wscript.network")
network.AddWindowsPrinterConnection printerservercolourlaser
network.AddWindowsPrinterConnection printerserverbwlaser
end sub
Logoff script:
sub unloadprinters()
set network = createobject("wscript.network")
network.RemovePrinterConnection ("printerservercolourlaser", true, true) 16
network.RemovePrinterConnection ("printerserverbwlaser", true, true)
end sub

17. Printer Pooling
• Multiple physical printers
used as a single logical
printer – so job appears
on whichever printer
Network Design & Administration
available
• All printers must be able
to use same driver, since
only 1 logical printer
• Should be physically close
together since user will
not know which one it
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prints to

18. Multiple Logical to Single
Physical Printer
• Used to allow different conditions to be set for different
groups of users to a single physical printer
• Can set different priorities (99 highest, 1 lowest) to the
logical printers
Network Design & Administration
• Can set different times for access
• Can also set different defaults e.g. trays/paper, double
sided
• Need to ensure the different logical printers have their
ACLs set appropriately (e.g. to allow Executives access to
all, but Clerks access only to certain logical printers)
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19. Advanced Printer Properties
Limits when
will print
Network Design & Administration
Lowest priority
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20. User Profiles
• Allow user to have customised
environment, independent of other users
• Contains:
• User-stored documents and files
Network Design & Administration
• Application configurations and settings
• Desktop and environment settings
• Control Panel settings and configurations
• Can be Local, Roaming or Mandatory
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21. User Profiles[7]
• Local
• Retained in Documents & Settings for that PC
• Roaming
• Held on some server (if domain controller, always available,
Network Design & Administration
but if on member server, traffic less likely to delay domain
authentications)
• Local version in ntuser.dat compared with remote, and
differences sent from server
• Can get big and slow
• If app stores info in Local Settings rather than Registry, that is
not kept in Roaming Profile, so app can fail on other clients
• Mandatory 21
• Change ntuser.dat to ntuser.man – makes it read only

22. References
1. http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/windows/0,39044904
,61956452,00.htm
2. MOAC 290, Ch12
3. http://computingtech.blogspot.com/2008/09/ubuntu-linux-
Network Design & Administration
disk-quotas.html
4. http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialQuotas.ht
ml
5. http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-
Manual/admin-primer/s1-storage-quotas.html
6. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754810.aspx
7. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314478
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