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February 1st, 2007

From its first release back in 1993, Windows NT Server was, arguably, the first networking operating system whose main focus was ease of use. When it was released as a partner product with Windows 3.1, Windows was the standard operating system for the vast majority of PC users and the new NT setup requirements were not considered too difficult. Because of that, it was easy for many users and companies to take the next step to a more powerful, more robust operating system. NT is easier to administer than a UNIX based OS and allowed for a lower level of technical expertise. Unfortunately, as Microsoft aims NT at the same market segment now occupied by UNIX, it becomes more complex and correspondingly more difficult to administer.

Setup
Microsoft’s Windows NT provides a full GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the bulk of its setup configurations. Unlike many OS (except perhaps for the Windows 9x series) Windows NT setup comes in twos. The first pass, copies the bulk of files needed for installation to the hard drive. The second run through, the actual installation is performed. Windows NT, unlike its Windows 9x predecessors, does not support plug and play applications, but it does support auto-detection. On the other hand, Windows 2000, the latest NT version, supports Plug and Play with even more hardware support than Windows 98 second edition.

Windows NT is compatible with Intel and RISC processors, thus allowing for expanded platform support. However, just because NT works with RISCs doesn’t necessarily mean its applications do. When buying a dedicated server that happens to have a RISC platform, make sure that all pertinent applications work with it.

Core OS
The foundation of Windows NT is a 32-bit operating system. Even though this causes backwards compatibility problems with programs written for the 16/32-bit DOS based OS of the Win 95/98 genre, it allows for a more stable working kernel. Also, to its credit, NT is both a multitasking and a multithreaded OS.

Remote Access
Unfortunately, NT lacks true remote-control features right out of the box. Upgrades to handle the problem can be found at Microsoft’s web-page, but these only take care of a few features. In order to achieve maximum remote access through NT, one must buy a third-party software package such as PCAnywhere from Symantic.

Memory Usage and Allocation
As an additional feature, NT supports virtual memory. Virtual memory is a feature that uses swap files on the local or network hard drive to replace the need for having a large amount of physical memory (or RAM) on your local PC. It provides a cheap solution to the problem of never having enough RAM to handle memory hungry programs. On the downside, virtual memory is slower than physical memory by a wide margin.

Another drawback is NT memory usage is higher than any other operating system. NT’s minimum memory requirement is almost four times more than Novell’s IntraNetWare.

Compared to UNIX, NT’s memory allocation is inferior in many ways. UNIX allows for multiple programs running off the same memory block, saving memory allocation space. UNIX/LINUX uses demand loading for all compatible applications. In other words, if an application is loaded into memory and requires 5 MB, but only needs 90 KB of code is needed to monitor for incoming connections/usage of that program, UNIX will only use 90 KB during program idling times.

Security
While NT has not suffered from the takeover attacks afflicting UNIX, it has proven vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks. A denial-of-service attack is when a program sends a TCP/IP SYN packet with the same source and destination address. The result is an infinite loop sequence, which causes a system lockup and shutdown. Fortunately, Microsoft has put out fixes for these attacks in the form of NT Service Packs which resolve the problem by running the loop for 60 seconds and trying to resolve the loop. When the loop fails to resolve, Windows cancels the loop and continues on. Windows 2000 has this feature standard.

The most significant NT security failures have been related to weaknesses in the Net BIOS service running on TCP. Services such as file and print sharing, normally used only on the LAN, can be accessed from the Internet by binding Net BIOS to TCP. To prevent this disable Net BIOS usage for all computers which are visible to the Internet.

Because NT is completely proprietary, relatively new, and still evolving rapidly, there is less certainty about what is required to make it truly secure. Source code is not available, and university students spend little time hacking it, so knowledge of NT internals is much less widespread than knowledge of UNIX.

Few NT security experts are available. The saving grace is that NT is no fun to hack, so casual hackers tend to avoid it. It just doesn’t attract the attention that UNIX systems do. Though NT has become more widely used

NT is a great operating system, is getting better, and is easier for most casual users. It is a security quagmire if Net BIOS is allowed over TCP, but that service is easy to disable, and there are no noteworthy examples of it being used to compromise a Web server. NT has no history of hijacking attacks and does not offer the capabilities that such system hackers are looking for.

Networking Ability
NT server includes such protocols as NetBEUI IP, IPX, AppleTalk, DLC and has support for Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, FDDI, PPP, ISDN, and Frame Relay. When more than one networking card is installed, NT Serve has the ability to act as a router.

For all inbound dial-up connections, NT uses the Remote Access Service (RAS). With RAS users are able to dial in to the network over the Internet through PPP or ISDN using their LAN password and logon name. Once the user is authenticated, s/he has access to all IPX, NetBEUI, and IP services on the whole network, not just the server they connected to. For small business this is a cost-effective way of avoiding the additional costs of buying a modem pool.

NT only has one major drawback. When changes need to take place, no matter how minor, NT must be restarted. Adding a new protocol, restart. What a new DNS server, restart. In smaller working environments were the system can be shutdown after everyone goes home, this is acceptable. When running a major web hosting service or a large e-commerce service when 24-hour access is not only recommended, but nearly required, this is unacceptable.

Conclusion
Windows NT is a good OS with a lot of well thought out features. Many of its downsides can be easily fixed. Microsoft usually posts service packs in the case of known security problems. When adding protocols to a NT server, make sure a backup server is up and running to carry the slack of the down computer when restarting is required.

When choosing NT for your web site, make sure your vendor understands the ins and outs of the OS and are competent in their job to administer the inner workings. When choosing a dedicated server OS, Windows NT makes sense if you have a great deal of Windows compatible applications, documents, and forms and changing over to another system would not only waste money, but waste time in learning new applications.

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