Ezbuddie,
I'm with Sahir's suggestion - a windows 2000 Active Directory installation will surely help you keep most aspects of the network under control, while allowing you to apply the credentials you require on the file system level.
The setup isn't as difficult as it sounds, "Domain controller, Active directory, Access rights, users, groups ..... etc " so don't be frightened if this is the first time you will go through such a setup - it will definitely be a good stepping stone and learning experience.
The key to a successful deployment of an Intranet is planning. You should know what you want before you start implementing. This will help you overcome any obstacles you might encounter during the setup process.
Things you need to consider:
1) How many users will my intranet have?
2) Future growth - How many additional users can I expect in the
near future ?
3) What type of data will the users save/use in this network? Is the data Internet oriented or local client/file server type of data?
4) Security / Access rights - Do we have a "map" of our users/groups/departments ? Obviously, some of the users can be grouped up as they require the same access rights to their data. These type of users should be put into groups and then assign rights per group- rather than per-user because it can get very quickly out of hand!
5) Do we require any special services running in the network? DNS, DHCP, Email e.t.c We should note these down so we can find a solution for them once the basic part of the network is up and running. Services like DNS will be installed with Active Directory so you don't need to worry about it.
So, sit down, make your plan, if you can provide us with some of the above information, we can then help you the correct way in planning your first Intranet!
Good luck!
