Laptop Workgroup / Domain dual use question?

[Pheasant Plucker®]

Hi there,

I visited a friend last night who has been waiting @2 years for his IT
Department to configure his laptop to use his ADSL line at home for working
remotely!

I installed and configured a wireless router on his home PC & setup his
daughters PC to access the Internet wirelessly from their bedroom - all went
as expected and worked great.

He asked me to setup his works laptop to do the same but I was loathe to do
so as I did not want to disturb the settings for his Company's internal
network but he insisted that having waited so long he didn't care about
anything work related on his laptop but just wanted to access the Internet
and print using the new Wi-Fi system on his home PC.

I installed & configured a 3Com 802.11g card but I suppose what I should
have done was add & setup another hardware profile for use at home...

Anyway I changed the network identification from Domain to Workgroup to
match his home peer-to-peer network so the printer could be shared and he
could access the Internet and print as he had waited so long to do.

In doing so W2K had configured a completely new desktop and was using the
Administrator account and I was wondering if - when the laptop was once
again hard-wired to the network at his place of work and the network
identification changed back from Workgroup to the original Domain and he
went back to his original user account - all would be as before or whether
changing the network identification & user would effectively change the SID
and his original desktop would never return?

He is not bothered in the least as he says his IT department can reconfigure
it from scratch as far as he is concerned but I am wondering if, when the
details are changed back it will be as before?

I have since setup a second hardware profile so he now has a choice of Work
or Home at boot and hopefully his IT Department can reconfigure under the
Work profile but obviously because I didn't do this at the beginning both
profiles are identical and configured only for Home.

Thoughts?

 

[Jerold Schulman]

See tips 2240 and 4631 in the 'Tips & Tricks' at http://www.jsiinc.com

Hi there,

I visited a friend last night who has been waiting @2 years for his IT
Department to configure his laptop to use his ADSL line at home for working
remotely!

I installed and configured a wireless router on his home PC & setup his
daughters PC to access the Internet wirelessly from their bedroom - all went
as expected and worked great.

He asked me to setup his works laptop to do the same but I was loathe to do
so as I did not want to disturb the settings for his Company's internal
network but he insisted that having waited so long he didn't care about
anything work related on his laptop but just wanted to access the Internet
and print using the new Wi-Fi system on his home PC.

I installed & configured a 3Com 802.11g card but I suppose what I should
have done was add & setup another hardware profile for use at home...

Anyway I changed the network identification from Domain to Workgroup to
match his home peer-to-peer network so the printer could be shared and he
could access the Internet and print as he had waited so long to do.

In doing so W2K had configured a completely new desktop and was using the
Administrator account and I was wondering if - when the laptop was once
again hard-wired to the network at his place of work and the network
identification changed back from Workgroup to the original Domain and he
went back to his original user account - all would be as before or whether
changing the network identification & user would effectively change the SID
and his original desktop would never return?

He is not bothered in the least as he says his IT department can reconfigure
it from scratch as far as he is concerned but I am wondering if, when the
details are changed back it will be as before?

I have since setup a second hardware profile so he now has a choice of Work
or Home at boot and hopefully his IT Department can reconfigure under the
Work profile but obviously because I didn't do this at the beginning both
profiles are identical and configured only for Home.

Thoughts?

Jerold Schulman
Windows: General MVP
JSI, Inc.
http://www.jsiinc.com

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hi there,

I visited a friend last night who has been waiting @2 years for his IT
Department to configure his laptop to use his ADSL line at home for
working remotely!

I installed and configured a wireless router on his home PC & setup
his daughters PC to access the Internet wirelessly from their bedroom
- all went as expected and worked great.

He asked me to setup his works laptop to do the same but I was loathe
to do so as I did not want to disturb the settings for his Company's
internal network

You were quite right to object.

but he insisted that having waited so long he didn't
care about anything work related on his laptop but just wanted to
access the Internet and print using the new Wi-Fi system on his home
PC.

I installed & configured a 3Com 802.11g card but I suppose what I
should have done was add & setup another hardware profile for use at
home...

No, not relevant or necessary

Anyway I changed the network identification from Domain to Workgroup
to match his home peer-to-peer network

That's where you went wrong.

so the printer could be shared
and he could access the Internet and print as he had waited so long
to do.

You didn't need to do this, nor should you - if the printer is shared on a
workgroup computer, he can access it - all he needs to do is provide
credentials when he maps a drive -

net use x: \\computer\share /user:computer\username

You could put this in a batch file on his desktop.

In doing so W2K had configured a completely new desktop and was using
the Administrator account and I was wondering if - when the laptop
was once again hard-wired to the network at his place of work and the
network identification changed back from Workgroup to the original
Domain and he went back to his original user account - all would be
as before or whether changing the network identification & user would
effectively change the SID and his original desktop would never
return?

They will have to rejoin the computer to the domain. His profile may or may
not be recoverable....depends on many factors.

He is not bothered in the least as he says his IT department can
reconfigure it from scratch as far as he is concerned but I am
wondering if, when the details are changed back it will be as before?

I have since setup a second hardware profile so he now has a choice
of Work or Home at boot and hopefully his IT Department can
reconfigure under the Work profile but obviously because I didn't do
this at the beginning both profiles are identical and configured only
for Home.

Why do you need a separate hardware profile? He can just take out his
wireless card before bringing his laptop to the office.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi there,

I visited a friend last night who has been waiting @2 years for his IT
Department to configure his laptop to use his ADSL line at home for working
remotely!

I installed and configured a wireless router on his home PC & setup his
daughters PC to access the Internet wirelessly from their bedroom - all went
as expected and worked great.

He asked me to setup his works laptop to do the same but I was loathe to do
so as I did not want to disturb the settings for his Company's internal
network but he insisted that having waited so long he didn't care about
anything work related on his laptop but just wanted to access the Internet
and print using the new Wi-Fi system on his home PC.

I installed & configured a 3Com 802.11g card but I suppose what I should
have done was add & setup another hardware profile for use at home...

Anyway I changed the network identification from Domain to Workgroup to
match his home peer-to-peer network so the printer could be shared and he
could access the Internet and print as he had waited so long to do.

In doing so W2K had configured a completely new desktop and was using the
Administrator account and I was wondering if - when the laptop was once
again hard-wired to the network at his place of work and the network
identification changed back from Workgroup to the original Domain and he
went back to his original user account - all would be as before or whether
changing the network identification & user would effectively change the SID
and his original desktop would never return?

He is not bothered in the least as he says his IT department can reconfigure
it from scratch as far as he is concerned but I am wondering if, when the
details are changed back it will be as before?

I have since setup a second hardware profile so he now has a choice of Work
or Home at boot and hopefully his IT Department can reconfigure under the
Work profile but obviously because I didn't do this at the beginning both
profiles are identical and configured only for Home.

Thoughts?

By changing the computer from the domain to a workgroup, you have
destroyed the trust between the domain and the machine. In doing so,
you have also rendered any domain login credentials as invalid. You
need to be physically connected to the domain network, you need to
have administrative privileges to the workstation, and you need to
have administrative privileges on the domain. Then you can add the
machine back on to the domain, after having first deleted the
computer's old domain account (unless you've also renamed the
computer).

Additionally, your friend should remember that the laptop is not his
property to do with as he likes, but rather that of his employer.
Instead of simply reconfiguring the laptop when he returns to work, his
IT department may escort him to the HR department, which may then
explain to him that he is being terminated for cause - thus probably
being ineligible for unemployment benefits. A great many companies take
a dim view of employees tampering with and misusing company property for
personal use.

--

Bruce Chambers

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