Recommend a book or resource about system administration of networks with a fleet of PCs on different operating systems

Question

System administration

I inherited a network of machines with a zoo, here you have both Windows XP and Windows 7, both 32x and 64x bit and widely used in this Mac OS X network. All farms are on the same subnet. How it works. But this "something" does not suit me. I encounter a number of inexplicable problems - for some reason, a Windows machine stops responding from a Mac by name, while it pings remarkably by IP, with a nearby Windows machine it responds both by name and by IP. There is no server on the network. There is a desire to do something good: and so that poppies would see machines in a networked environment (to raise a WINS server for this, or can it drive everyone into a domain? needed).

Answer 1

>Recommend a book or a resource about system administration of networks with a PC fleet on different operating systems
There are no such books, you can not look for them.
> Faced with a number of inexplicable problems
Problems are understandable.
To get started, read information on Wikipedia.org about how the mechanism for determining the ip address by computer name works in Windows networks (hint, Browser service / Network Computer Browser).
Read books on administering Windows networks and books on networking.
For example: Todd Lammle CCNA Fast Pass, Microsoft.Press.MCITP.Self.Paced.Training.Kit.Exam.70-642 and Microsoft.Press.MCITP.Self.Paced.Training.Kit.Exam.70-641.

Answer 2

It seems logical to me to use AD, since no specific settings, software installations, or cutting down on account rights are needed).

If nothing of the kind is needed, then it's not worth messing with AD. Maybe it's better to just raise the dns server.