Laptop use at multiple sites
I've just got a laptop and will be using it at 2 work locations and at home. The work sites are 2 seperate domains on 2 seperate networks and I'm in charge of both networks so fiddling about is easy enough ;-) One is running AD on 2K and the other AD on 2K3 and I've got the same username for both domains. I've also got 2 mailboxes as each site has it's own Exchange 5.5 server.
At home I will connect to my home network (workgroup) using a wireless router.
I've found www.netswitcher.com which seems the ideal solution to quickly enable changes in network settings to allow access to both domains. But I'm wondering how best to deal with my 2 mailboxes.
As for My Documents, what's the best way to set this up using a laptop? Obviously I need to have them backed up on the 2 servers, but I also need to have the most recent versions on my laptop? How do I go about setting that up?
If possible I'd like to have just the one profile on the laptop so I only have one copy of firefox bookmarks, outlook contacts, etc etc
Any suggestions?
At home I will connect to my home network (workgroup) using a wireless router.
I've found www.netswitcher.com which seems the ideal solution to quickly enable changes in network settings to allow access to both domains. But I'm wondering how best to deal with my 2 mailboxes.
As for My Documents, what's the best way to set this up using a laptop? Obviously I need to have them backed up on the 2 servers, but I also need to have the most recent versions on my laptop? How do I go about setting that up?
If possible I'd like to have just the one profile on the laptop so I only have one copy of firefox bookmarks, outlook contacts, etc etc
Any suggestions?
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I would just set the laptop up to grab DHCP and on each of the DHCP servers at your work sites you could set them up to give you a static ip and dns. As far as home, you shouldn't have a problem there either with dhcp. Mailboxes shouldn't be an issue, unless you keep your mail boxes on a server which you could just have a couple of reg keys on your desktop and click one at each place to change the mailbox store to the different location
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masnrock - Hmm, that Mobile Net Switch product looks like it could be better for the job than NetSwitcher as it even deals with drive mappings, printers and more besides. Will have to download 'em in the morning and compare the two!!
JimsZ - I see what you mean about DHCP, but unfortunately one of the networks is only set up for fixed IP's as our main business software requires fixed IP's to run. But then I guess I could reserve an Ip from the range for my laptop so I always get issued that.
Can you explain a bit more about the reg keys and mailboxes?
JimsZ - I see what you mean about DHCP, but unfortunately one of the networks is only set up for fixed IP's as our main business software requires fixed IP's to run. But then I guess I could reserve an Ip from the range for my laptop so I always get issued that.
Can you explain a bit more about the reg keys and mailboxes?
Well... there is 2 settings you can use on network connections. You could have dhcp at 2 places and your reserved static at the one. Under TCP/IP properties for your network card, there is an alternate configuration. You could set static on the main configuration and set up alternate for DHCP or vice/versa.
As far as reg keys.
I'm not sure what you use for mail, but our company uses outlook express and we have their mailbox stores located on one of our servers.
I set up like this.
Go into
*whatever yours is*
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Identities - {8Q08CDF1-BE61-F48D-AC35-2
Outlook Express - 5.0
Then on right pane go down to STORE ROOT and edit the key to the path to your server's mailbox store. Once you have the path in there, right click on the 5.0 (left pane) and click "export registry key" and save a copy on your desktop named "work email 2" or whatever. Now, prior to opening outlook express at that site, just right click on the "work email 2" reg key and click "merge" and it will install that key into your registry and place your mailbox store on the server.
As far as reg keys.
I'm not sure what you use for mail, but our company uses outlook express and we have their mailbox stores located on one of our servers.
I set up like this.
Go into
*whatever yours is*
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Identities - {8Q08CDF1-BE61-F48D-AC35-2
Outlook Express - 5.0
Then on right pane go down to STORE ROOT and edit the key to the path to your server's mailbox store. Once you have the path in there, right click on the 5.0 (left pane) and click "export registry key" and save a copy on your desktop named "work email 2" or whatever. Now, prior to opening outlook express at that site, just right click on the "work email 2" reg key and click "merge" and it will install that key into your registry and place your mailbox store on the server.
Then on right pane go down to STORE ROOT and edit the key to the path to your server's mailbox store. Once you have the path in there, right click on the 5.0 (left pane) and click "export registry key" and save a copy on your desktop named "work email 2" or whatever. Now, prior to opening outlook express at that site, just right click on the "work email 2" reg key and click "merge" and it will install that key into your registry and place your mailbox store on the server.
As for this, you can have a different one for each site....
As for this, you can have a different one for each site....
ASKER
Am currently road testing Mobile Net Switch and so far it's looking good. Not the totally smooth solution I was hoping for but then I think that's more down to the limitations of connecting to 2 networks and windows