Dialup BEFORE Logon

[MIXIT]

Hi all,

XP Pro systems, (SP3+ latest), trying to get them to establish their dialup
connections before a user logs on. This is basically so that if a system
gets restarted remotely, it'll power up and re-connect via dialup so I can
remote back in. Don't ask why it's dialup, I wish it were't

I've set up a dialup connection icon in Windows that autodials and connects
without prompts once run, so if I stick it in the Startup group it'll
effectively connect to the Internet without interaction.

However this needs to be done before logon, so I tried the Scheduled Tasks
thing and specified it run When My Computer Starts but that doesn't happen,
no sound from the modem or anything.

Unfortunately, I don't have the option of having Windows auto-login with a
default username/pw or this would be my workaround using the dialup icon in
the Startup group.

Any suggestions? I had tried putting the path to the Dialup icon in the Run
keys (HKLM) but nothing happened - I'm not very well versed on manipulating
loadpoints in XP.

Thanks anybody.

 

[James Egan]

Any suggestions? I had tried putting the path to the Dialup icon in the Run
keys (HKLM) but nothing happened - I'm not very well versed on manipulating
loadpoints in XP.

The old way of doing it (prior to xp) was simply to use the
RunServices key instead of Run which would then load it before logon
but I don't think you can do that with xp or later. However, there are
other ways to start services running so you might look into those. Try
googling for RunServices xp or something like that. That should point
you to some alternatives.


Jim.

 

[John John - MVP]

Hi all,

XP Pro systems, (SP3+ latest), trying to get them to establish their dialup
connections before a user logs on. This is basically so that if a system
gets restarted remotely, it'll power up and re-connect via dialup so I can
remote back in. Don't ask why it's dialup, I wish it were't

But if you do this all the internet traffic will route through the
slower dial-up connection! Do the users disconnect the connection once
they are logged on to the computer?

In any case... run the dial-up in a Machine Script and it will execute
before anyone logs on.

Other than a fail over I can't really see why you need to do this, you
can remote desktop into Windows XP without anyone being logged on (via
the high speed connection) and with a good modem you can wake up the
computer with Wake on Ring, providing that the Computer/BIOS has Wake on
Ring capability. The only time that I would see a need for this setup
is if the high speed connection (ISP) is down or experiencing outages.
If you have good modems on both ends you can even do a modem to modem
RAS/VPN connection over regular POTS lines... slow as all hell but good
enough to do basic stuff... like getting the unknown ISP assigned IP
address of a machine or like logging on and turning on the dial-up
connection then logging back off!

What's the background for this setup? How many remote users do you have?

John

 

[Anteaus]

You could take a look at MyLogon and see if it will do what you need. The VPN
option, although not intended for that purpose, can be made to launch a
dialup connection before logon.

http://mylogon.net

This may not be a suitable route if you have multiple userprofiles, but then
I don't imaging you're using roaming profiles with such a setup anyway.

 

[James Egan]

The old way of doing it (prior to xp) was simply to use the
RunServices key instead of Run which would then load it before logon
but I don't think you can do that with xp or later. However, there are
other ways to start services running so you might look into those. Try
googling for RunServices xp or something like that. That should point
you to some alternatives.

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1578294.php

I had a quick search myself about this and this user found a RunOnce
key which starts up before logon. Logic suggests a Run key will do
similar but I haven't tried it.

key
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runonce


I'd appreciate some feedback if anyone's had any success with it.


Jim.