GRRR im annoyed by this (Domain & Workgroup)

[Vini]

I have a laptop, work given, that is connected to the work domain.

When im at home I want to be able to access the home shares from my laptop and work shares from my home network.

My laptop is DHCP connected, my laptop can see

Domain (laptop) and Workgroup (home computers) in network connections, but my home network cannot see the Domain (laptop) only Workgroup (home computers).

I just want to transfer files, Ive never managed to get this working successfully. What the hell do i have to do?

[Paul Adams]

The home machine cannot browse and see a domain because there is no domain controller to contact via WINS/NetBIOS.

The work machine knows it is a member of the domain so can "see itself" when browsing without the need to contact a DC, and it can see the home machine workgroups because they broadcast their presence periodically to let other workgroup members know they are there (or have changed, or left).

What you can try is to put a HOSTS entry in your home machine with the IP address and name of the work machine as it is on the home network - the work machine would need to have a static IP address at home for this to work of course, but hopefully whatever is providing your DHCP settings can take care of this.


For example, on my home LAN the clients are given DHCP settings via a D-Link wireless router so I can use the web-based UI to find the entry for my work laptop when it is connected and add it to the list of static addresses on the DHCP page.

Then on the other machines on the same network I could edit the file:
%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
and add an entry for my laptop name along with its IP address.
e.g.

127.0.0.1       localhost
10.1.45.66      worklappy

Note the file is called only "HOSTS", it does not have any extension, so if you edit it with Notepad, make sure to use quotes around the filename when saving to prevent ".txt" being added.

Now verify that the home machine can "ping worklappy" and the IP address resolves correctly and gets a reply, then you might be able to browse to \\worklappy.

Note also that domain policies may have applied security restrictions to the member machines which can foul up this process, and XP SP2 has 2 firewall modes - one for when connected to the corporate network and one when it is connected to untrusted networks (such as your home), this is defined by group policy too.

[Vini]

i can ping \\jameslaptop_wifi

it must be a firewall thing.

[Paul Adams]

i can ping \\jameslaptop_wifi

it must be a firewall thing.

By adding a HOSTS entry for the laptop?

One thing you have to make sure is that the name you put in the HOSTS file matches the NetBIOS name of the machine - from XP onwards you will run into problems if you try to access SMB resources via an IP address or using a name which is not bound to the machine (most often "network name not found" or similar).

Try also adding your FQDN (fully qualified domain name) to the HOSTS file on the same line - you can get this from the properties of My Computer on the "Computer Name" tab.

e.g.
If my machine is WORKLAPPY with IP address 1.2.3.4 and is joined to the domain OOHLALA.COM then my FQDN would default to worklappy.ohhlala.com, and in my HOSTS file on another (non-domain) machine I would add:

1.2.3.4       worklappy worklappy.oohlala.com

Then, pinging worklappy or worklappy.oohlala.com should both work, and you can try opening \\worklappy or \\worklappy.oohlala.com

Or you could try from a command line:
"net view \\worklappy"
though this might produce "access denied" if you haven't yet provided credentials to the other machine to validate your session - which is why I start with trying to run \\machinename to generate an authentication prompt.

XP firewall settings are easy to check - any exceptions pushed down by group policy are visible (with a "Yes" in "Group Policy") but greyed out as it is controlled by Domain Admins.
"File and Printer Sharing" is a built-in exception which is enabled by default, but with the scope set to "My network (subnet) only".

[Vini]

right time to readdress this cos its still bugging the bugs out of me. ill try and be clearer than before...

whilst at work i use the onboard NIC (ethernet) and connect using DHCP. and the only 'advanced' network setting i have configured, is the 'domain'...

my problem is when i come home, im still set to 'domain' and not 'workgroup'

so i struggle to see my shares.

the pc i want to be able to view the shares of is:

Win MCE05, folder shared with access to change dirs. (no security options in MCE)


from my laptop i can ping the PC with the shares. so theyre talking. i can browse Entire networks, which results in:

- Domain
- Workgroup

being listed, however, double clicking on workgroup brings back 'access denied, make sure your computer is connected and you have permissions' error.


ideally what i want to do, is have two network profiles on my pc, one which retains the DNS settings for when im at work, and one which i can enable for when im at home, which sets workgroup settings up and not domain. i dont need my worked mapped drives either at home.

i thought id struck gold tonight when i found 'Plug and Browse' it looks like its perfect, but actually seems to do SFA.

so... can anyone else share my pain? know how to fix it? shed any light?