Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services [AD CS] provides a platform for issuing and managing public key infrastructure [PKI] certificates. On top of securing application and HTTP traffic the certificates that AD CS provides can be used for authentication of computer, user, or device accounts on a network.
In the series of posts this month we’ve been looking at network ports relevant to security administrators. This note explores the ports used for Active Directory (AD) communications, which is a topic particularly relevant for allowing AD traffic across a firewall. For instance, you may be wondering which ports to open to allow AD replication…
Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a really interesting tool from Microsoft. It allows an administrator to remotely deploy Windows operating systems to machines booting from a network adapter. In environments with a high number of clients WDS can be very useful, a new computer can be formatted just plugging the Ethernet, without any physical support like Windows DVDs or USB drives.