Workgroups within Domains

[CvdWalt]

We wish differentiate our Windows XP machines by placing
them into workgroups within our overall domain structure.

With Windows 98 this is easily accomplished by defining
the workgroup to which the computer belongs and having the
computer logon to the Domain.

With XP we seem to be forced to have the computers within
the primary Domain (which then becomes their defacto
workgroup). This makes for a massive list of computers in
a single long list.

Any thoughts?

 

[Alex.h]

I'm afraid this another payload that comes with XP, besides all the other
network issues. I hope MS will release a SP with a solution for this, as
well as the interoperability with the Win98/95 older PCs (shares and so on),
which is now becoming one of the main problems of the network admins.
Anyway, should you find a workaround, please let us know!

Alex

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I'm afraid this another payload that comes with XP, besides all the other
network issues. I hope MS will release a SP with a solution for this, as
well as the interoperability with the Win98/95 older PCs (shares and so on),
which is now becoming one of the main problems of the network admins.
Anyway, should you find a workaround, please let us know!

Alex

What interoperability problems have you found between XP and Win98/95,
Alex?
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Alex.h]

I found several inconsistencies regarding the accesses to the user level
shared resources of the LAN (NT Server 4.0 sp6a domain).
Yes, if I had a W2k server with Active Directory I could perhaps overcome
them, but with NT it seems that permissions are sometimes given, some other
times denied (as usual, everything worked fine until I added the XP
workstations).

In detail: from the WXP Pro desktops I cannot access shared folders on
W95/98 unless I map them using different credentials than the ones
authenticated during logon or, in the best case, with the user name in the
<username> format instead of the default <domain>\<username>. And even in
this case, the connection can be dropped after an attempt to open or modify
a file (I suspect this happens only with W95 machines), providing with an
error message ("access denied....", "the file is read only...", "cannot
open/find the file..."). On the other hand, when I access to an XP or NT
machine, whatever the OS on my PC, I get correctly connected only to the
resources I've been given permission to. The OS's are kept aligned with the
last patches from MS (hoping in some miracle). I can't however upgrade all
the OS's to XP, especially on the older PC's!

I have already followed all the instructions for the setup of mixed
networks, but without success. Posted to this and other newsgroups, but
without answers. I'm strongly tempted to install the IPX/SPX protocol, as I
saw someone happily doing this disregarding MS prescriptions.

Alex

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I found several inconsistencies regarding the accesses to the user level
shared resources of the LAN (NT Server 4.0 sp6a domain).
Yes, if I had a W2k server with Active Directory I could perhaps overcome
them, but with NT it seems that permissions are sometimes given, some other
times denied (as usual, everything worked fine until I added the XP
workstations).

In detail: from the WXP Pro desktops I cannot access shared folders on
W95/98 unless I map them using different credentials than the ones
authenticated during logon or, in the best case, with the user name in the
<username> format instead of the default <domain>\<username>. And even in
this case, the connection can be dropped after an attempt to open or modify
a file (I suspect this happens only with W95 machines), providing with an
error message ("access denied....", "the file is read only...", "cannot
open/find the file..."). On the other hand, when I access to an XP or NT
machine, whatever the OS on my PC, I get correctly connected only to the
resources I've been given permission to. The OS's are kept aligned with the
last patches from MS (hoping in some miracle). I can't however upgrade all
the OS's to XP, especially on the older PC's!

I have already followed all the instructions for the setup of mixed
networks, but without success. Posted to this and other newsgroups, but
without answers. I'm strongly tempted to install the IPX/SPX protocol, as I
saw someone happily doing this disregarding MS prescriptions.

Alex

Thanks for your reply. I haven't used XP on an NT domain, so I can't
comment on the issues that you raise.

I doubt that installing IPX/SPX will help, since (in my experience)
using more than one protocol for file and printer sharing is likely to
cause additional network browsing problems when XP is involved.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Alex.h]

Steve,

if you hear about problems similar to ours, and possible solutions, please
update your web pages.

Thank you

Alex

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Steve,

if you hear about problems similar to ours, and possible solutions, please
update your web pages.

Thank you

Alex

Will do, Alex.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com