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Computers connected on a network can be part of a workgroup or a domain.  The main difference between the two is how resources are managed.

Administrators should basically know the appropriate grouping of computers when implementing an infrastructure plan in order to effectively setup a working network environment.

Workgroup is the logical way to group computers on a network wherein members of the group are considered “peers”, and each computer maintains its own security policies and resources like printers and shared folders.  It is used on home network or small businesses that have more or less 25 computers.

Advantages of using a workgroup are:

• Design and implementation is simple
• Works well for a small number of computers and does not require a Windows server
• No computer has control over another computer
• Each computer has a set of local user accounts

Disadvantages of using a workgroup are:

• Difficult to manage because resource administration is not centralized
• Administrative tasks are redundant because security policies and user accounts need to be created on each computer
• No global grouping of resources
• Computers must be on the same local network in order to communicate with each other.

Domain is a group of networked computers that share the same a common security policy and database.  It is usually used on medium and enterprise businesses that have a hundred or even a thousand number of computers.

Domain is also referred to as client/server environment, wherein, clients are the workstations that are connected to a server.  This server controls the security and permissions for all the clients on a domain.

Advantages of using a domain are:

• Centralized account administration, security policies and permissions
• Users can logon to any computer on a domain without needing an account on that particular computer.  With this, access to resources can be done by just a single log-on.
• Computers can be connected to each other on different local networks.

Disadvantages of using a domain are:

• Requires at least one Windows server that serves as the domain controller.
• Some applications require a domain environment
• Requires more planning and configurations

Workgroup works well on small networked computers because it has no server and need a little planning.

With this, the small network can be up and running to share resources among the members of the workgroup.

But as the network grows in size, workgroup setup may not be suitable and it means more workload on the administrative tasks.

For example, there is a new user added to the network.  A user account must be created on each computer that the new user will access.

If the network has 25 computers, with 2 printers and 3 file servers, then each of the 25 users would need at least 5 accounts just to print to the 2 printers and access to the 3 file servers.

Domain is more suitable to a network that grows in size.  This is because there is at least one server that acts as the domain controller, where user accounts, security policies, permissions and other resources reside.  With this, administrators can take advantage of less administrative tasks.

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