Q: I will a user who uses a laptop computer between the two offices. The transition should be as simple as possible, so I have a docking station on every desk. The problem I have is that I need her to be on the network at any location. IE – Its IP 192.168.3 .* on an office and I should be 192.168.5 .* on the other. We can not use DHCP, because of the nature of our business software. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Best Answer: Under the "Internet Options" click on the "Connections" tab, then "LAN Settings". Under the "Advanced" button, it will allow you to set your proxy IP's, which your work would require for getting out through their network. Once you have them set up, you should only need to toggle between your manual "Use a Proxy server….." configuration and "automatically detect settings."
You will have to go between these two configurations depending on where you are trying to connect from. There is no mechanism for doing that automatically. Your settings are one or the other.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Garry, one more thought, are all 3 of your profiles set up on a workgroup or have you mixed workgroup and domain without any issue? Thanks.
There's no "profiles", just 3 different DNS servers attached to the TCP/IP settings of the network card.
And it's all on workgroups, we use Novell at work so no domains.
Garry
Re:Originally posted by: guy
I have no control over the way DHCP is handled here at work. This was their solution for not letting some people on the net, so I have to live with it. At home he uses a netgear DSL router so he is set there. I am starting to feel that because of the DHCP/DNS issue here at work thing might not be possible.
Security through obscurity != security. I plug in a laptop, sniff port 53, and I have your DNS server in 5 seconds. We've considered doing similar things at work many times in the past and it rightfully gets shot down every time. Not saying you should leave the front door open and let everyone off the street wander around but, IMHO, your security efforts are better applied elsewhere.
That being said hardware profiles will work, alternatively you could put two scripts on the desktop of the user:
echo Modifying your network settings to allow access at site a
netsh.exe interface ip set dns "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.w.x primary
& the other
echo Modifying your network settings to allow access at site b
netsh.exe interface ip set dns "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.y.z primary
I'm too lazy to test but I think netsh will work without giving the user local admin rights but you'll have to test. If not, use regini and give the user write permissions to the key.
Re:Garry, one more thought, are all 3 of your profiles set up on a workgroup or have you mixed workgroup and domain without any issue? Thanks.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Thanks Garry, I assume you are using one nic for this?
Yep, just the single wireless NIC 
Garry
Re:Thanks Garry, I assume you are using one nic for this?
Re:guy,
In XP, you can set up different DNS servers for the connection. I have DNS servers listed for 3 different locations (work, home, GF's) and I use DHCP at work/home, and static addresses at my GF's (using alternate configuration)
Garry
Re:Hmm… I never thought of that. So setting up the profiles like that, would it allow for domain or workgroup depending on what profile you choose? I have never thought to play with profiles so please pardon my ignorance.
Re:Originally posted by: MogulMonster
I will have a user that will be using a laptop between 2 offices. The transition needs to be as simple as possible, so I have a docking station on each desk. The problem I have, is that I need her to be able to be on the network at each location. I.E – Her IP at one office is 192.168.3.* and I need it to be 192.168.5.* at the other. We can't use DHCP, because of the nature of our business software. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Why don't you just do this? (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/sysdm_hardware_profile_create.asp) edit: like most every IT department does for thier laptop users who go between thier home/office/airport?
Re:I have no control over the way DHCP is handled here at work. This was their solution for not letting some people on the net, so I have to live with it. At home he uses a netgear DSL router so he is set there. I am starting to feel that because of the DHCP/DNS issue here at work thing might not be possible.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
If you have DHCP at work and at home, you'll get an IP address without an issue. However, there could be other issues, like a domain login for work, and a workgroup login for home that you'll still have to address. We really need to know specifics about the two environments.
I'm still curious, why can't you use DHCP? Any decent DHCP server can lock an IP address to a MAC address, so the value of a static IP address is moot I would think.
He is logging into a Domain here at work and is on DHCP, however the DNS is not given out by DHCP, we have to put that in manually. He then has a lan at home set up as a workgroup and everything there is DHCP. I was under the asumption that since the DNS is not being handed out by DHCP at work that this would cause and issue. So I am still kinda confused by all this really. He can set up the alternate with a static IP and set all that up for his LAN, but will the domain/workgroup thing cause an issue. The main settings will be set for DHCP and have the DNS entered in and his computer is attached to our work domain, but when he goes home and he has his alternate set up as say 192.168.0.10/255.255.255.0 and 192.168.0.1 as gateway, will he be able to share files with his home computer that is set up in a workgroup?
What's your DHCP solution? Even a crappy Linksys router will let you do it. Having to manually enter the DNS server really kills the point.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
If you have DHCP at work and at home, you'll get an IP address without an issue. However, there could be other issues, like a domain login for work, and a workgroup login for home that you'll still have to address. We really need to know specifics about the two environments.
I'm still curious, why can't you use DHCP? Any decent DHCP server can lock an IP address to a MAC address, so the value of a static IP address is moot I would think.
He is logging into a Domain here at work and is on DHCP, however the DNS is not given out by DHCP, we have to put that in manually. He then has a lan at home set up as a workgroup and everything there is DHCP. I was under the asumption that since the DNS is not being handed out by DHCP at work that this would cause and issue. So I am still kinda confused by all this really. He can set up the alternate with a static IP and set all that up for his LAN, but will the domain/workgroup thing cause an issue. The main settings will be set for DHCP and have the DNS entered in and his computer is attached to our work domain, but when he goes home and he has his alternate set up as say 192.168.0.10/255.255.255.0 and 192.168.0.1 as gateway, will he be able to share files with his home computer that is set up in a workgroup?
Re:If you have DHCP at work and at home, you'll get an IP address without an issue. However, there could be other issues, like a domain login for work, and a workgroup login for home that you'll still have to address. We really need to know specifics about the two environments.
I'm still curious, why can't you use DHCP? Any decent DHCP server can lock an IP address to a MAC address, so the value of a static IP address is moot I would think.
Re:After the DHCP requests fail it'll fall back onto the static address in the alternate tab, there's no real 'sensing' going on.
What's nice is I have a piece of software called laptop-net for Linux that can be setup to sense what network you're plugged into and use the appropriate configuration, you just tell it an IP or two that's always on that network and is unique and it'll ARP for that IP when the link comes up, it'll go down the list until one of them is found and then use the appropriate scheme for that IP.
Re:One more quesiton on that, is it like auto sensing or something? If I have a laptop set up for DHCP at work, and then have an alternate for say home, will it just figure out which one to use when I plug in?
Re:Oh….. all my pc's have static IP. I will set them to DHCP when I get home to see that. Thanks!
Re:Now you see, I didn't realize that!
I have always used DHCP with XP, so I've always seen the tab. Re:The alternate config only shows up when you are using DHCP for the primary, and it will use the alternate settings when DHCP is not available.
DHCP (http://www.neffing.com/pics/albums/userpics/altconfig.jpg)
Alternate Config (http://www.neffing.com/pics/albums/userpics/alt.jpg)
Re:Originally posted by: guy
In the properties of TCP/IP for the chosen connection, there's a tab for an alternate configuration.
Can you post a screenshot somewhere, because I am not seeing any extra tab on my XP pro box for this. I also have a user that could benefit from this. Thanks.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
In the properties of TCP/IP for the chosen connection, there's a tab for an alternate configuration.
That only works if the first one is using DHCP, which I can't use.
As for the hardware profiles, I was wondering the same thing.
Re:Is it possible to put network cards in the docks? Then setup a hardware profile for each dock?
Re:If you don't think the user can handle the (fairly simple) software switch …
If you move the NIC to the other PCCARD slot, the system thinks it's a different card.
Set up the top slot for location one, the bottom slot for location two. All the user has to do is move the card.
FWIW
Scott
Re:In the properties of TCP/IP for the chosen connection, there's a tab for an alternate configuration.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
XP has the capability of having two network configurations, the switch is simple.
How is that done?
Re:And there's netsh if you can get the user to click on scripts depending on the location.
Re:XP has the capability of having two network configurations, the switch is simple.
Re:Link to: NetSwitcher (http://www.netswitcher.com/product_info.htm)
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