Domain vs. Workgroup

[Brad]

I have a home network with two pc's that share files and a
printer between them just fine. They are both members of
the 'Home' workgroup. (One Win XP Pro and one Win 2000 Pro)

I'd like to add a third computer - my portable from the
office (Win XP Pro) however this portable is a member of
the domain at the office. When it boots at the office
though it logs into it's own machine and not the domain
and maps drives to servers and shared folders on the
network.

Is it possible, when at home, to access the resources on
my home network without removing the machine as a member
of the domain and joining the workgroup?

I would think with XP Pro that there has to be a way to
make accommodations for multiple network configurations.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[Terry]

The network ID in XP on your laptop is set for a domain
logon. Therefore your logon name is for a domain only.
You could simply reset the netowrk ID before you leave
work for a work goup and reverse the process.

 

[Brad]

Thanks Terry for your suggestion. That is the method which
I've used but at times when I remove the machine from the
domain and later try to re-join, it loses the DNS settings
and can not find the office network and is sometimes a
major pain to re-join the domain.

I was hoping to find a more seamless way to switch between
network environments.

Brad

 

[Brad]

Try MultiNetwork Manager 7. from www.globesoft.ccom
ideal when moving between networks and domains

Brad

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

The network ID in XP on your laptop is set for a domain
logon. Therefore your logon name is for a domain only.
You could simply reset the netowrk ID before you leave
work for a work goup and reverse the process.

Must respectfully say "ugh" to that one. Profiles will get screwed up & this
is a real pain. It also presumes that the OP is a domain admin or otherwise
has rights to add the computer to the domain. There's a third party app
(netswitcher?) I've heard of, but I don't think it's necessary....

The OP can log into the domain w/cached credentials while at home, and still
access workgroup resources on other computers....there are a couple of
options - here's what I usually do-

Make sure you can ping the other computer by name, and then from a command
line:
net use x: \\othercomputername\sharename
/userthercomputername\accountnameonthatcomputer <enter>

This will prompt the user to enter the correct password. Once cached, he/she
will have access to any shared resources on that computer. Repeat as
necessary for other home computer. Can even put these commands in a batch
file so it isn't so tedious to remember.

 

[Brad]

Thanks, I'll give your suggestion a whirl tonight.

Brad