I have:

4 Office locations.
100 Employees at each building.
25 Other network devices at each building (Printers, Access Points, etc).


I need to:

Run all (500) users & devices through a windows 2003 server that is based in one location.

How to I get the 3 other locations connect to the domain?
After 192.168.1.255 then how do I get the 256 device and so on?
Does it go like this: 192.168.1.255 then 192.168.2.1? How do I do that?
How do I get all the network devices on an ip scheme that makes sense?


I really would love it if someone could point me in the right direction in figuring out the basics
for my scenario. For the past few days I have been reading but it all seem to get really intense or not simple enough.
I need good detail on the exact basics for this.

Ok, do it like this. Your main building w/ the server, etc. will be 192.168.1.x. (x = .2-.255 for clients. Make .1 for the gateway)
Building 2: 192.168.2.x (" " )
Building 3: 192.168.3.x (" " )
Building 4: 192.168.4.x (" " )

Now you just set all the routers / bridges in buildings 2-4 to use Building 1 as their gateway / public IP. That should get you working, and it's easier to organize than having some people from building 2 and 3 on the same addressing scheme of building 1.

*edit* You'll also want to isolate any Voice applications (IP Phones) onto a separate 172.16.x.x network. This is, again, for organization purposes. Ignore this if you don't have any IP phones.

That will work, but since you have constant traffic towards the central server you'll need good routers in the branch offices and a very good router at the central office. You'll be looking at over 200 TCP connections and/or UDP streams per location, more if you use IP telephones (likely over 1000 at the central office). I'll assume you have at least a Cisco 800-series router (or similar Juniper device) in the branch offices and a 2600 or better in the central office. As 192.168.x.x networks are not allowed over public networks, you either have to NAT everything (and NATing 200+ connections is very CPU intensive) or set up tunnels between each location and the central office.

Basically you set up each class C network on the Cisco 800 as DHCP server for it's own LAN, set up a tunnel to the central office and start routing. Dynamic routing is recommended as you can easily renumber each office when you use it, EIGRP or RIP v2 will do fine for your purposes. The central office will have to work with multiple tunnels and especially there dynamic routing will pay off in terms of maintenance and troubleshooting.

So the centra office will have one tunnel to each branch office and each branch one back to the central office. Each office has it's own local DHCP server, and the routers echange routes with RIP or EIGRP routing protocols over their respective tunnel facilitating traffic between locations.

Good luck with setting things up.