Networking question: moving from a workgroup to a domain

Johnny Versace

Hello,

I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with this.

I have a network with a few laptops on it.

I've changed the network from being a workgroup to a domain based network.

The problem is this:

Each machine now has two profiles. A local profile and the profile for the domain. This means that when someone logs into the network using their domain username/password they cannot see their local desktop, and vice versa etc.

I would like a situation where someone logs into their local profile but has access to the network.

Is this possible if I make the username/password the same for the local profile and for the domain profile????

Any help appreciated!!

Thanks.

ressem

Why not just use the domain profile everywhere?
The password hash is usually cached by default on laptops for offline login.

Unless you have a short password expiry setup on your domain, or domain login scripts for backup etc, there shouldn't be much of an issue.

You're aware that the desktop of each user is just a folder with restricted permissions under documents and settings, so I would suggest logging in as admin and copying the desktop/mydocs/start menu from the local profile to the domain profile.
Only issue is if some badly written / overly OS intertwined apps (like office XP) demand admin privilege, or to install on the new profile using the CD/network share. Run 'em once as the user to make sure each works.

As for using domain resources as a non domain user, without a kerberos ticket having been granted at login, you'll have to manually login to the different resources, stuff like file shares and printers will work ok though. Outlook through exchange/MAPI may throw a wobbler.

Have I missed something? Importing and exporting locally held mailboxes. Don't think there's anything else.

Johnny Versace

Thanks for your reply.

But I can only use the domain profile when I'm logged into the domain, correct? Unfortunately, these laptops are brought out of office a lot.

Copying the local desktop etc. to the domain isn't really an option for us unfortunately (long story.)

So... making both the local and domain password the same will make file sharing and printing OK? This is all I actually need.

Thanks.

jim_bob

Log on to the laptop as an administrator then go to c:\documents and settings
Say the username is Joe you will see

C:\

---

Documents and settings

---

joe.localcomputername

---

joe.domainname

---

administrator

I find the easy way is just backup all this data then copy the contents of joe.localcomputer to joe.domainname overwriting everything

The proper way to do it is right click my computer select properties the advanced and click settings under profiles the reason I don't do it this way is cause I fecked up with a couple of times and I feel more comfortable the other way

please make sure you backup cause data is easly lost playing with profiles

if the user had mail in joe.localcomputername and then you copy it over joe.domain all the mail in joe.domain will be lost that way you just import it back in from the backup copy

seamus

Johnny Versace wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

But I can only use the domain profile when I'm logged into the domain, correct? Unfortunately, these laptops are brought out of office a lot.

Copying the local desktop etc. to the domain isn't really an option for us unfortunately (long story.)

So... making both the local and domain password the same will make file sharing and printing OK? This is all I actually need.

Thanks.

Generally in domain use, if a domain user logs into one machine, their profile (including their password hash & ACL) are stored locally on that machine, meaning that they can then log into that machine locally with their domain profile, when the machine is removed from the network.

Any changes to their domain profile (password, logon script) won't be reflected until they reconnect to the domain.

We have upwards of 500 users here who take their laptops off site constantly, and it presents no major headaches.

ressem

Johnny Versace wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

But I can only use the domain profile when I'm logged into the domain, correct? Unfortunately, these laptops are brought out of office a lot.

Copying the local desktop etc. to the domain isn't really an option for us unfortunately (long story.)

So... making both the local and domain password the same will make file sharing and printing OK? This is all I actually need.

Thanks.

Sorry, that was rambling gobbledygook from me.

As Seamus clarified, you usually can use the laptops when disconnected from the domain, unless your admin forbids it. My own laptop always logs on to domain, except for local admin tasks.

Making the local and domain password will probably not work, because they are different users. (It used to in the old windows days)

If you've tried it out, you'll see that you can connect to the resources by name or ip, but at that point you'll be asked to provide the domain username and password, on each server.