More NetSwitcher V3 Frequently Asked Questions
I'm having problems with joining
an NT4 or Active Directory® Domain. Why?
The most common questions we receive are related to NT4 or AD domains.
Following are some basic concepts relating to this and how to resolve them:
-
Account privileges. In order to come
and go from the domain your domain account (i.e. the account you use to
join the domain) must have the "Add Workstation to Domain" user
right. It's a common misconception, even among network admins who
should know better, that joining a domain requires domain admin group
membership. This is NOT true. A user account needs
only the "Add Workstation..." user right. Nothing more. To add
this right to your user account, open the DOMAIN SECURITY POLICY control
panel (on the SERVER) and select User Rights Assignment:
Then add yourself (or whoever) to the list of users having this right.
This user right gives you the ability to add workstations to the domain.
Nothing more, nothing less. To my knowledge there is NO way to
accomplish this action without this right. And if there were, it would
be a security violation and MS would likely issue a patch for it.
-
Object access rights. Note that in
Windows NT4/2000/2003 Servers all objects in the system have a hierarchy of
rights and ownership. Users sometimes say to me that they have the
"Add Workstation..." right as above but still cannot join the domain.
The most common response from NetSwitcher is the "Error #5 - Access
Denied" message. The issue here is not the user right to join the
domain but the ownership of the existing computer account on the server.
So while your account has the rights to create a new account, it lacks the
rights to delete the existing computer account which is likely owned by the
administrator. The solution is simple, get the administrator to delete
your workstation's computer account on the server and then you can re-join
the domain with NetSwitcher. To do this, use the AD Users and Groups
control panel, select your computer account and delete it:
-
Unexpected Password Errors. In order
to join the NT4 or AD domain, you must supply credentials. In Windows
terminology credentials are simply a valid username and password. In
NetSwitcher the first time you attempt to join a domain it will ask you for
the username and password on the server to use to join the domain. If
this information is acceptable to the server you can continue. If not
you get an error. One common error is "Error 1323 - Can't update the
password". This occurs most often with a Windows XP Pro client
workstation connecting to a W2K or W2K3 Server which runs ONLY AD without
NT4 domain compatibility. In this situation you most likely need only
to specify the fully qualified (i.e. FQ) username rather than the shorthand
username you usually use. In AD the FQ username is of the form
username@domain.ext. So an
example is joe@netswitcher.com.
If you are seeing the 1323 error, try updating your username to the FQ form.
If you've already specified the non-FQ username for NetSwitcher, change it
using the Manage Locations dialog in NetSwitcher:
And then you get:
Select the location that joins the domain and click the "Edit Domain PW"
button. Then you get:
Managing Email Clients with NetSwitcher V3? Here
are some ideas:
Microsoft Outlook [Express]
Qualcomm Eudora
(Note: The V3.2.0 release (and later) of NetSwitcher includes support
for Microsoft Outlook [Express] and Qualcomm Eudora. The above notes are
no longer needed for these programs but the techniques may be useful for other
purposes.)
Netscape Navigator Mail
What versions of Windows are supported?
NetSwitcher V3 has been tested and is supported with:
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millenium, Windows NT 4 Workstation SP4+,
Windows 2000 Professional.
NetSwitcher does not work with: Windows
3.1, Windows for Workgroups V3.11, Windows CE, MacOS, OS/2, or Linux.
NetSwitcher has been reported to work with, but is not
supported with: Windows NT 4 Server, Windows 2000 Server.
Preliminary tests with the Microsoft's next version of
Windows (code named Whistler) indicates that NetSwitcher is compatible with
it. At this point, however, this situation is subject to change at any
time as this product is still very early in its development cycle and just about
anything could change at any time.
Update 28-FEB-2001: It's been reported that Windows
XP/Whistler BETA 2 does not work correctly with NetSwitcher for network
adapters. We do not yet have access to BETA 2 so we have not been able to
test this but more than one user has reported that no network adapter tabs are
displayed.
When I start Windows 2000 the system pauses for what seems
like a very long time at the "Preparing Network Connections screen?
After I login to Windows 2000, the network seems to be
non-operational for a couple of minutes, what's wrong?
The issue here is the same. I believe that this is
normal Windows 2000 behavior. We have observed this on multiple systems
both with NetSwitcher and without NetSwitcher. It appears to be related to
the auto-discovery process used in Windows 2000 to locate proxy servers and
firewalls on your network. This appears to be the intended behavior by
Microsoft.
UPDATE 27-FEB-2001
If, however, you are using the Nortel ExtraNet VPN Client
(a.k.a. IPSECSHM adapter) and you are seeing this, we do have a
fix. NetSwitcher V3.2.2 corrects this issue for the IPSECSHM
adapter.
Note also that the most recent versions of the IPSECSHM
adapter from Nortel do not do this.
Does NetSwitcher support Netscape
Navigator VX.X? Does it support Mozilla?
Yes. NetSwitcher V3.2.6 supports all versions of
Navigator from 4.0 through 7.1. It also supports Mozilla 1.0-1.5.
Earlier (or later) versions of these browsers may be supported but have not been
tested.
Sometimes my DHCP address fails to
get updated. How do I fix this?
This problem sometimes happens due to defective network card
drivers. If you find that your DHCP address is "stale" after
rebooting, check with your network card vendor for an update. The DHCP
server should always be queried after the system is rebooted. This is most
often happening on Windows 2000 systems with older NT4 type network card drivers
that have not been fully updated to Windows 2000 specifications.
This can also happen when moving from one DHCP location to
another. There is nothing to tell the TCPIP protocol to query the DHCP
server at the new location. As far as it is concerned, there is nothing
different and the lease on the IP address is still OK. So, what to do??
Windows provides a small utility called IPCONFIG that permits
manually forcing the DHCP server to be queried. The syntax of the command
is:
IPCONFIG /RENEW_ALL (for
Windows 98)
IPCONFIG /RENEW (for Windows
NT/2000)
This command can be given from the Start Menu>Run or from a
MSDOS/CMD window. Note that the command is normally in the \WINDOWS folder
on Win9x machines and in \WINNT\SYSTEM32 on NT and 2000 systems.
NetSwitcher includes the RunCommand feature that can be used
to run this comand automatically after applying a new setup. On the
Extensions tab, click the "Add" button in the bottom section:
Fill in your information similar to this:
Be sure that the string in the Command edit box is a COMPLETE
pathname to the IPCONFIG.EXE executable. Use /RENEW_ALL for Win9x and
/RENEW for NT/2000. Also be sure to check the "Wait for this
command..." checkbox. Then click OK. Now be SURE TO SAVE your
location profile to save this RunCommand.
Now when you APPLY the setup containing this RunCommand, the
IPCONFIG program will be run and your DHCP address should be updated.
How to I use NetSwitcher with my Cable
Modem at home and a corporate LAN at work?
A bit of background first. Almost all cable modem system
are setup to use DHCP (Obtain IP Address Automatically) and require you to set
your computer name to match the name they give you. This makes sure that
only customers who are authorized to connect to the system do so and help make
sure you get the right IP address for your system.
Now with Windows 9x/ME systems it's no problem to just change
the computer name to whatever. Windows doesn't care and there is no issue
with changing it to the cable name or back.
The problem comes with Windows NT/2000 where changing the
computer name can have an adverse effect on your NT DOMAIN membership at
work. Network admins don't like to have to re-join member workstations to
the domain and some are reluctant to provide the required privilege to permit
users to do this themselves.
Here's a way around this. Your cable provider might not
admit it or even support it but chances are that you do not have to use DHCP to
connect with the cable system. If you know the IP address, netmask,
gateway, and DNS server addresses, you can configure these as static values in
NetSwitcher and connect to the cable network without renaming your
computer. If your cable company did not give you these number, you can
setup your computer for DHCP once and let it connect to the cable. Then
use IPCONFIG (NT/2000) or WINIPCFG (Win9x) from a CMD window and see what values
were actually assigned. Your computer gets these same numbers assigned all
the time. (Note: it's possible that at some point your cable provider might
juggle some of these numbers and your cable connection may stop working.
Before calling them, reconfigure for DHCP again and see if anything has
changed.) Now with static IP numbers you do not have to change your
computer name from the work name.
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This page last updated:
January 07, 2004 11:43:33 -0500