workgroups under XP professional

Hi,

a month ago I wrote a message here trying to solve this problem but I guess I was not clear enough so I did not solve it. I will try to explain it better this time:

My computer is on a Microsoft network and I am running Windows XP Professional. When I open "Entire network" I see 5 workgroups. My computer used to be in group 1, but when I installed XP (I upgraded form Me, so I didn't change a thing!) it goes automaticali to group 5 (!) which BTW has the same name as the domain.

In Win 9x/Me it was easy: I wrote the domain in the Network/Properties, and the workgroup in Network/Identification and everything was how it suppose to be, but in XP I just can't find out how to do the same.

I noticed that the Win 2000 machines in our network have not this problem - Win 2K somehow recognizes the workroups and everything is normal, but the two new machines with XP are condemned to sit in workgoup they don't belong

Anybody knows what I am writting about?
What should I do?

Thank you!

Aleksandar

P.S. My life is not in danger, I would just like to learn more by this problem

 

Aleksandar - as far as I am aware, what you want simply cannot be done with any NT system. They are either a domain member OR a workgroup member but cannot be both. However, they can see the 9X workgroups in network neighborhood.

9X does have the two places to put in network information. One is labled "workgroup" and another (under properties for "clients for Microsoft Networking) for domain membership.

When you spoke of the 2K systems seeing the workgroups, I'm assuming they are strictly domain members but can "see" the workgroups as in, they list them as part of their network neighborhood display.

If someone has figured out how to give them dual membership, I'd love to know about it since I think that was a very useful ability that was lost with the NT OS. However, if it can be done with 2K, it can be done with XP-Pro.

An NT PC (NT4/2K/XP) that was a workgroup member but on the same physical network as a domain could certainly see some of the domain PCs. And interact with them in some cases. But not completely. Any function requiring a domain logon & validation wouldn't work.

Something you might try - and I have no idea what will be the result but it can't do any damage - would be to put the XP PC in the workgroup of your choice rather than on the domain. Then logon using a valid domain account. The logon would be in the form of

domain-name\username
domain password

It might even work and I wish I were in a position to test it. Unfortunately, our XP PCs all have packaged/containerized software loads and taking one off the domain would require a couple of hours and would remove most of the software. Then another 2-3 hours to rejoin and reload everything. And if I took a server off the domain, I'd be looking for work tomorrow.

I know your logon does not have to be part of the same domain as the PC's membership but I'm really not sure about the workgroup/domain combination.

If that doesn't work, you could also try logging on as a workgroup member with a workgroup PC and then mapping to domain resources using a valid domain account. Again, I'm not positive it would work but couldn't hurt to try.