Connecting to both corporate LAN and home workgroup

[Bill Pierce]

We have a small home Windows XP network. Occasionally my wife brings her
notebook computer home from the office and connects to the corporate LAN
using VPN software and our router and cable modem. She has no problem
connecting to work, but she would also like to use the printer attached to
one of the home computers as well as access files in the shared folders on
them. Is it possible for her to connect both to the corporate LAN and a
home workgroup at the same time? It seems difficult because Windows XP
appears to allow for attachment to either a network domain or a local
workgroup but not both.

 

[Malke]

We have a small home Windows XP network. Occasionally my wife brings
her notebook computer home from the office and connects to the
corporate LAN
using VPN software and our router and cable modem. She has no problem
connecting to work, but she would also like to use the printer
attached to one of the home computers as well as access files in the
shared folders on
them. Is it possible for her to connect both to the corporate LAN and
a
home workgroup at the same time? It seems difficult because Windows
XP appears to allow for attachment to either a network domain or a
local workgroup but not both.

From MVP Lanwench - You don't need to change to a workgroup just to
access resources on it. You shouldn't play with your laptop's network
settings at all. Once you've logged in using your domain account (using
cached credentials), and have an IP address on the home network, you
can map drives, use printers, whatnot, very easily - one way, in a
command line:

net use x: \\computername\sharename /user:computername\username <enter>

MS KB article about the Net Use command - http://tinyurl.com/3bpnj

Also see:

Managing One Windows XP-based Laptop for the Office and Home by MVP
Charlie Russel
http://tinyurl.com/cpy9q

http://winhlp.com/wxdomainworkgroup.htm - MVP Hans-Georg Michna

Malke

 

[GTS]

We have a small home Windows XP network. Occasionally my wife brings her
notebook computer home from the office and connects to the corporate LAN
using VPN software and our router and cable modem. She has no problem
connecting to work, but she would also like to use the printer attached to
one of the home computers as well as access files in the shared folders on
them. Is it possible for her to connect both to the corporate LAN and a
home workgroup at the same time? It seems difficult because Windows XP
appears to allow for attachment to either a network domain or a local
workgroup but not both.

--

No. You generally cannot connect to both the office domain and home network
at the same time. Malke's advice will work only when not logged in to the
VPN. When you establish a VPN connection, all network traffic is normally
rerouted though the remote network making your home network inaccessible.
There is sometimes a way to work around this (split tunneling), but most
company laptops are locked down such that this isn't feasible. I have
frequently had questions from clients who want to be able to print at home
while on the company domain. The only practical solution in most cases is
to buy a cheap printer to use for this purpose if the company IT people are
willing to install the printer driver for you (which system policies usually
prevent you from doing yourself.)

 

[Bill Pierce]

--

No. You generally cannot connect to both the office domain and home network
at the same time. Malke's advice will work only when not logged in to the
VPN. When you establish a VPN connection, all network traffic is normally
rerouted though the remote network making your home network inaccessible.
There is sometimes a way to work around this (split tunneling), but most
company laptops are locked down such that this isn't feasible. I have
frequently had questions from clients who want to be able to print at home
while on the company domain. The only practical solution in most cases is
to buy a cheap printer to use for this purpose if the company IT people are
willing to install the printer driver for you (which system policies usually
prevent you from doing yourself.)

Thanks for the heads-up. That more or less confirms what I thought. We're
victims of corporate policies that encourage people to work more and harder
from home as well as the office, but fail to see that someone might actually
want to make their computer useful. Anyway, enough of my ranting. My
wife's IT department has not locked the computer down quite to the extent
that you can't install another printer driver, and her notebook has an IR
port, as does our home printer, so perhaps I can do something that way.
Either that or she may be able to hide a cheap printer on her expense
account.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the heads-up. That more or less confirms what I thought.
We're victims of corporate policies that encourage people to work more
and harder from home as well as the office, but fail to see that
someone might actually
want to make their computer useful. Anyway, enough of my ranting. My
wife's IT department has not locked the computer down quite to the
extent that you can't install another printer driver, and her notebook
has an IR port, as does our home printer, so perhaps I can do
something that way. Either that or she may be able to hide a cheap
printer on her expense account.

Thanks to GTS for the great explanation. I think the easiest thing for
Mrs. Pierce to do is to use a thumb drive to transfer files and/or buy
a cheap printer. Here in the US, you can buy a 512MB thumb drive for
about $15USD. I just bought a 2GB one for $70.

Mr. Pierce - I understand that you feel that you are a "victim of
corporate policies", however consider this from IT's point of view.
Here is an extremely common scenario which IT is trying to prevent:

One of the company's users connects his/her computer to his/her home
network which has infected computers on it because his/her kid is busy
downloading pirated music with Limewire. The company laptop is now
infected. Said laptop travels back to the company, connects to the
corporate network, and now the virus/malware rapidly spreads to all the
corporate computers. A huge mess ensues, possibly with data loss and
definitely at a high cost of repair.

I hope that helps you to understand why Mrs. Pierce is being
inconvenienced and why a small workaround like using a thumb drive is A
Good Thing.

Malke

 

[Bill Pierce]

Thanks to GTS for the great explanation. I think the easiest thing for
Mrs. Pierce to do is to use a thumb drive to transfer files and/or buy
a cheap printer. Here in the US, you can buy a 512MB thumb drive for
about $15USD. I just bought a 2GB one for $70.

Mr. Pierce - I understand that you feel that you are a "victim of
corporate policies", however consider this from IT's point of view.
Here is an extremely common scenario which IT is trying to prevent:

One of the company's users connects his/her computer to his/her home
network which has infected computers on it because his/her kid is busy
downloading pirated music with Limewire. The company laptop is now
infected. Said laptop travels back to the company, connects to the
corporate network, and now the virus/malware rapidly spreads to all the
corporate computers. A huge mess ensues, possibly with data loss and
definitely at a high cost of repair.

I hope that helps you to understand why Mrs. Pierce is being
inconvenienced and why a small workaround like using a thumb drive is A
Good Thing.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

I understand the need for protecting against viruses and other threats,
which of course is why her corporate notebook has up-to-date antivirus and
antispyware software installed, as do our home computers. If her IT
department is so concerned that it cannot tolerate any risk whatsoever, then
they should not allow the computer to leave the office nor should she have
the expectation of doing work at home. After all, infected files can just
as easily be introduced via the solution you suggest, a USB flash drive or
other memory device (a reasonable idea, by the way), as by connecting to a
home network to access a local printer.

The personal computer is just that, a device to enhance personal
productivity. Shortsighted and other misguided measures for making it less
so are only counterproductive.