Re: more on MS networking

[flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Patricia,
≪But a further wrinkle is that it LOOKS as if Vista wants a router in
the connection. We have one at the office, and as soon as I changed the
workgroup name to that of the office workgroup, the Vista laptop saw the
whole network. At home, with just it and the desktop (booted into XP),
connected by Cat5 cables and a switch, the Vista box kept complaining of
a "Problem with the router"--which doesn't exist--and trying to dial out
through the desktop's modem (even though the laptop has its own). Modern
software cannot believe you don't have broadband. ≫
Correct. If a station configured for a workgroup (i.e,. w98) finds
itself in a workgroup not its own, then it seeks a router on the
assumption that it will find its workgroup via the router. Similarly, a
station configured for a domain which finds itself embedded in a domain
foreign to it will also seek a router on the assumption that the domain
is reachable via the router. If the router happens to lead to the local
service provider and thence to the Internet, so be it. If there is no
router, then the machine will do its level best to get out of the local
network, via modem (infrared, bluetooth, ISDN, etc etc.) if such a
connection exists. In these cases, Mr. Flashlight is flummoxed, since it
finds neither its expected wg/domain locally, nor a router or primary
domain controller which might help it to locate the expected wg/domain.
There is no simple way to turn the search function off without laming a
lot of other functions.
As you discovered empirically, the simplest solution is to manually
change the workgroup/domain name to match whatever environment you
happen to plug into. A Windows machine cannot belong to multiple
workgroups/domains simultaneously, nor can Windows save multiple
profiles (as MAC OS X, for example, can) allowing you to simply switch
preconfigured workgroups/domains with a mouse click.
(I can't believe you don't have broadband either. With flat rate these
days, it's cheaper than a modem link. Take the plunge!)