Username & Computer name duplication

[Guest]

I was upgrading to WinXP pro from Win2k Pro and have come up against a problem that is going to potntially cause a lot of problems and work
Historically, in our company, computer names are contructed from lastname and first initial i.e. my name is Robert Noble and my computer name is 'nobler' and my username is the same
My problem is that when installing WinXP on a test system, the installation process will not allow me to have the same name for both Username & Computer Name.
Several thousand users and many applications and authentication techniques are geared around having the username the same as the computername, and as you can imagine, this will either be a show stopper re rolling out XP or create a huge amount of work at great cost
Can anyone advise how to overcome this problem
Thanks in advanc
Robert

 

[Pavel]

It was a real dumb idea in the first place to use the same user name as the
computer name but can you give us some example of ways that you use this. It
seems to me that someone was just trying to oversimplify things and now it's
going to backfire.

--
Pavel

I was upgrading to WinXP pro from Win2k Pro and have come up against a

problem that is going to potntially cause a lot of problems and work.

Historically, in our company, computer names are contructed from lastname

and first initial i.e. my name is Robert Noble and my computer name is
'nobler' and my username is the same.

My problem is that when installing WinXP on a test system, the

installation process will not allow me to have the same name for both
Username & Computer Name.

Several thousand users and many applications and authentication techniques

are geared around having the username the same as the computername, and as
you can imagine, this will either be a show stopper re rolling out XP or
create a huge amount of work at great cost.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

I'm afraid you'll have to come up with a different naming
convention, either for the users or the computers, if you want to
upgrade the operating system. Renaming the users would probably be
simpler, as you won't have to visit each workstation to make the
changes.

Why on earth, though, would such a naming convention have been
adopted in the first place? Obvious security considerations aside,
just the thought of renaming workstations every time someone was
hired, fired, retired, or changed departments gives me chills.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

I was upgrading to WinXP pro from Win2k Pro and have come up against

a problem that is going to potntially cause a lot of problems and
work.

Historically, in our company, computer names are contructed from

lastname and first initial i.e. my name is Robert Noble and my
computer name is 'nobler' and my username is the same.

My problem is that when installing WinXP on a test system, the

installation process will not allow me to have the same name for both
Username & Computer Name.

Several thousand users and many applications and authentication

techniques are geared around having the username the same as the
computername, and as you can imagine, this will either be a show
stopper re rolling out XP or create a huge amount of work at great
cost.

 

[Guest]

I believe the naming convention goes back to the days of Windows for Worgroups. From a security aspect, very few have access through firewalls to the Internet. When a pc becomes free i.e someone leaves and the pc is passed on to another user, all disks are formatted, the pc is then rebult from a standard build using Ghost. There are no issues regarding changing departments, the pc remains with the user until it is deemed to be beyond economical repair or the spec is to old
So, all that aside, can it be done
Cheer
Rober

 

[Peter Hutchison]

I believe the naming convention goes back to the days of Windows for Worgroups. From a security aspect, very few have access through firewalls to the Internet. When a pc becomes free i.e someone leaves and the pc is passed on to another user, all disks are formatted, the pc is then rebult from a standard build using Ghost. There are no issues regarding changing departments, the pc remains with the user until it is deemed to be beyond economical repair or the spec is to old.
So, all that aside, can it be done?

You will have to rename the computer names when joining the domain.
Domains will not allow duplicate object names in the directory (its a
X500/LDAP directory so duplicate names are not allowed), so you have
some work on your hands...

Peter Hutchison
Windows FAQ
http://www.pcguru.plus.com/