XP Home and networking

[DarrenW]

Has anyone figured out a way to tweak xp home so it can join a domain on a NT/2000 network?

 

[Dan O]

Home Edition cannot be used to logon to an Active Directory domain. For obvious reasons, the Domain Wizard is also missing in Home Edition.

It also does not support the network features:

IPSecurity (IPSec)
SNMP
Simple TCP/IP services
SAP Agent
Client Service for NetWare
Network Monitor
Multiple Roaming feature

You are going to have to upgrade to Professional Edition.

 

[DarrenW]

Thanks Dan-O,
I did notice that some of those services are listed as additions that can be installed. One question though, Active Directory is not supported but what about an NT 4.0 domain?
Not that i'm trying to cheap out by using XP Home, i'd prefer Pro, but i've got salesmen with laptops already bought with XP home. RAS dial-in is not an option either.

 

[Dan O]

Darren,

I use XP Professional and I don't know for sure. But I did find a MS article on how to Join a Domain in Windows XP for both PRO and Home. Give is a read and let us know how you make out:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q295017

 

[DarrenW]

Thanks Dan-O,
I checked the link. It states that Home edition DOES NOT support domains. They will have to buy the Pro upgrade

 

[Dan O]

Darren,

I read it more closely and found the statement has well. But maybe you still don't. What exactly would you like them to do? You they only need to Share files and printers you don't have to logon the domain.

 

[mole]

I have no experience with XP, either home or Pro, but Dan O might be on to something. You should still be able to share drives/devices and access them.

In WinNT/2k if you don't want to log the computer into the domain, but want to reach out and log in as a domain user, what I do is this from the command prompt:

net use [x]: \\servername\sharename /USER:domainname\username


Where [x] is the drive letter or logical device you want to map.

That will get you onto a share in a domain provided that you have a valid user account (in the domain) and permissions to access that share without logging the computer into the domain in a formal logon... as in running a logon script and authentication onto the local machine through the domain controller. It helps if the local username and password are synchronized to the username and passowrd on the domain. You may also have to use the full server name with the domain name or substitute the ip of the server you are connecting to.

That works in NT, give it a try in XP and see if it works and let us know.

Good luck.

 

[mole]

Maybe XP home edition is like Win9x with respect to not supporting all of the command line options of Net.exe and you will not be able run the /USER: switch.

Still, give it a try.

BTW - Darren, just noticed who you are and was wondering if you could give a weather report from up there in Alberta? My family visited Glacier Park in MT this past July and it was the warmest I had ever seen it there, mid 80's to near 90 F one day and very dry...that was just before the fire on the west side of the divide.

 

[DarrenW]

Alas, these users do need to log-in to the domain to use some applications, simple file and print sharing is not enough. I convinced them to buy the Pro upgrade. BTW, the sales rep had told them that Home edition would work on a domain when they bought their machines, then would do nothing for them when I told him it wouldn't. Nice eh?
Mole, the weather up here is typical winter ranging from -10 to +5 degrees celcius (about 10 to 40 farenheit?). And yes, we have been in near drought conditions here (re: the fire at Glacier). I'm about 1 hour north of Waterton National Park (the Canuck side of Glacier)

 

[mole]

I have had some luck connecting Win9x and WinNT/2K workstations that have not joined a domain allowing users to access domain resources like shared drives and printers.

First each user must have a domain account with a unique user name, password and permissions appropriate to their needs and the security of the network.

Now similar to as I said before in an earlier post, but a must this way is to create a local user account on the local machine for the specific user(s) that exactly matches the user name and password of the domain account. (Password synchronization is a must, so when they expire it gets tricky.)

Two separate things, the domain account and the local user account. Now with the client PCs running Windows Networking, TCP/IP and/or NetBeuI, log on as a local user and map a drive into a resource on the domain. Remember, we have not joined a domain on the local PC. Use the

net.exe use [x]: \\servername\sharename

command I gave before, but you do not have to include the /USER:domainname\username switch.

That could be taken as a slight security hole, but remember, the user must ALSO have a valid account on the domain, so the domain security is still in good shape - not compromised by anyone who does not belong.

Still, I have no experience w/ XP, but I hate to have to give up on something. I have seen only one isolated case where this did not work on NT, 2K or 9X.

Thanks for the wx report.

 

[DarrenW]

Well Mole,
Since you're so persistent and I like that, i will try the net use command on the one XP Home machine i've got left. I upgraded the other to Pro (i think i like XP now that i've played with it a bit). I will let you know if it works. Thanks!

 

[mole]

I'm actually hard headed. I hope it works, it makes me mad too that the sales person sold your clients something they could not use straight away as expected.

As for being persistent, I started my venture into IT back in 1997 when as a lowly user I approached our LAN team where I work with a conflict between two applications that was crashing PCs all the time and was told the problem was "impossible to resolve" and there was nothing that could be done. That was the wrong thing to say to me or the right thing depending on how you look at it, because it was NOT impossible to resolve and I am now an administrator on that very application delivery system where the problem existed.