If they do, the PDC will create accounts for them, too, increasing its database to include both machines and people. When any workstation attempts to access a share on any server in the domain, the server will stop and check with the PDC first before releasing any data. If the simple workgroup function provides server and share names, making it a name server, the domain function adds a central machine as clearinghouse for security information, making it a security server. In a few places, this situation becomes confusing. First, logging on to a domain is different from joining a domain.
Users log on to domains from any kind of workstation.
They can explicitly log on to a domain, in which case, their login script runs. Or they implicitly log on to a domain the first time they try to access a resource whose access the domain controls. Either way, the PDC checks them out before they get to any domain resources. But every domain is also a workgroup, and domain controllers also act as browse masters. This situation leads to another source of confusion.