Log onto notebook when at home.

[Julian]

I have two notebooks, both the same setup (WinXP). With both, I can log onto
the corporate network where we are authenticated by the Win2003 domain
controller. With one (NB1) I can take home and log in using the same
username, password & domain and work as usual but of course without the
network connection. With the other (NB2), it will not allow me to log in at
home and tells me that I can't log in because the domain controller can't be
found.

How can I setup NB2 so that I can log in while not connected to the network?

 

[beb]

Are you local admin? What is the value of this key?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CachedLogonsCount?
Should not be 0. Could be a profile corruption. Maybe CachedLogonCount key
has the wrong value. Call your company support.

 

[Malke]

I have two notebooks, both the same setup (WinXP). With both, I can
log onto the corporate network where we are authenticated by the
Win2003 domain controller. With one (NB1) I can take home and log in
using the same username, password & domain and work as usual but of
course without the network connection. With the other (NB2), it will
not allow me to log in at home and tells me that I can't log in
because the domain controller can't be found.

How can I setup NB2 so that I can log in while not connected to the
network?

Per MVP Lanwench:

Note - 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>

Also see:

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

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

 

[Jack Ryan]

Ok, you need to understand a couple things about user profiles to know why
you cannot logon to the domain when you are not connected to the network.

To logon without the domain you need to have logged onto the domain and
logged off successfully whilst on your corporate network at least once.
Also, there are polices settings that might prohibit the laptop from
allowing you to logon with a "cached" profile. They include settings that:
1. Do not allow profiles to be cached locally.
2. Do not store more than a certain number of cached profiles

I would take the NB2 back to the office, logon successfully, and then logoff
in the normal way. I would then unplug from the network and test whether
you can logon without the domain. If you cannot, there is probably a local
policy or group policy stopping you from doing so. If you have permissions,
you can run Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy and
check what has been set there. If eveyrthing is Ok there, then it has been
set in Active Directory by your administrators.

 

[Julian]

Guys,

I AM the domain administrator! Thanks.....) Looks like it might be
something to do with "Cached Profiles" so I'll check it out further. Note
that all the other notebooks in the domain can be logged into while not
connected to the network.