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XP Pro domain?

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Petzl

Technical User
Jul 10, 2002
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Is it possible to setup XP Pro as a domain? If only set as a workgroup, how do you allow trust of other machines to save entering passwords all the time?
 
No - you need a server version of windows (NT/2k/2k3) to create a domain. If you use a workgroup, the adminstration of it can become overwhelming as you increase numbers of users/machines. When you say trust of other machines - what do you mean (how extensive?). To use network security 'similar' to a domain, you really need all workgroup machines to have all users set up locally on them (same on each machine) & simplified sharing disabled. And you obviously have no Active Directory to enable global policies - you'd need to set local policies on each machine, if using those....
 
Ok...thx for the reply. I have a desktop connected to the internet with XPPro. I also have a laptop and I connect to the desktop via crossover cable. Internet sharing and email works fine. I have several folders shared but it asks me for passwords regularly. The printer occasionally drops out as well and I have to connect to the desktop again sometimes by network wizard or restart. Is there an easier solution or am I just screwing up?

Thanks,

Nicho
 
If both machines are XP - then they should be defaulting to simplified sharing - which doesn't need passwords. If this is disabled, you need both machines to have the user id/password used to log on to other machine set up as a user on them (ie, both machines have same users set up). If the network connection is dropping, there may be something wrong with one of its components (you should not need to run the network wizard, once network has been set up). With ICS running, internet connected machine is acting as DHCP server - so laptop should be set to pick up IP address automatically. I think there is a policy which can be enabled which will drop a network connection after its been idle for so long - but unless you've been playing with policies (run gpedit.msc), this shouldn't be set.

What you've got sounds basically ok - but if you can give examples of when network connection gets dropped (unless its entirely random) - eg, after so much time, often when running this app, connecting to this site etc, you may get some better advice (there are many members here with extensive - better than mine! - networking experience).
 
wolluf - Thx for the responses. I guess my biggest issue is that every time I reboot the desktop due to an issue, the laptop does not seem to re-connect and I have to reboot it as well.

bcastner - Broadband Router...how will this help my situation? I can have the laptop connect directly to it I guess which is good for Internet but does it help with other issues? Thanks for the link..I will check it out...
 
You can do a decent job with only ICS, as you have now.

You can do a more flexible and reliable job with a hardware broadband router.

. It simplifies and makes more reliable your ISP connection by being an always on device;
. The switching side improves your Local LAN;
. The port forwarding side is much more flexible than possible through ICS;
. Your expansion to wireless is possible for your notebook;
. The expense is modest



 
Petzl - so what issues are you having on the desktop? And how frequent (because generally the only reason I need to reboot 2k/XP machines is after installing a windows update or new software which require it).
 
Wolf....I reboot the machine each night rather than turning it off. Ok...here are a couple of issues. When I start my laptop up, I have to go \\deskop to connect to the desktop because that is where the printer is connected.

Working the other way....I have a mapped drive on the desktop that is mapped to the laptop. Each time I go to the mapped drive it asks for a username and password for the laptop.

Annoying little things but I just want one machine to trust the other each time I start one or the other up.

Possible?

Thanks for all your help!
 
On our XP Pro clients, on boot up we run a batch job to map network drives, and then we register some Active X exe’s. (ex. C:\Windows>\\Jupiter\Pgmexe\DeLogin /Regserver).

This routine works fine for the first user that gets set up on the computer. For any other user who attempts to sign on, the mapping of the network drives is fine, but when we try to register the exe’s, we get the message:
‘\\Jupiter\PgmExe’
CMD.EXE was started with the above path as the current directory.
UNC paths are not supported. Defaulting to Windows directory.

Thanks for any help.

Jim
 
A wild and hairy guess: you need to disable the asynchronous processing of the logon.

This speeds up the login process in a stand-alone workstation by allowing the user to log in with cached logon credentials before the network is fully ready, but can cause issues for logon scripting where the assumption is made that network resources are available.

To disable this "feature" and restore your logons to their normal behavior, Start, Run, gpedit.msc Under Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->System-->Logon, change "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" to ENABLED.

 
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