[H-GEN] Win XP roaming profiles with Linux?

[Hilton Travis]

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Hi David,

On Sun, 2003-01-19 at 10:21, David Duffy wrote:
> Hilton:
> >I agree with using Win 2k for testing here, but disagree totally that
> >you have "been let down by old MS" - after all, you ar eplainly told
> >that Windows XP Home cannot log in to a domain - even its product name
> >indicates that it is a Home User operating system, not a business OS.
> 
> OK, looks like I'm screwed - I only have Windows XP Home installed and
> I'm not about to go out and buy 3 XP Professional licences at full price.

Perfectly understandable.

> >As for Windows 98 and roaming profiles, this is just a kludge that
> >Microsoft even supports it.  Win98 was never really designed for use on
> >business networks either.
> 
> I'll have to tell Marvin (the office Linux box) not to talk to all those pesky
> little Winows 98SE workstations I have in the office! :-)

I never said it wouldn't work, I said it was never designed to be used
on business networks.  Not that I haven't supported many, many Windows
98/98SE installations in business networks.  However, it can and does
work with roaming profiles, to a greater degree.

> >Samba can and will work well as a Domain Controller (PDC - or Primary
> >Domain Controller) for your network.  The latest versions also provide
> >this functionality for Windows XP Professional machines (earlier
> >versions could not act as a domain controller for XP Pro clients).
> >Nothing will act as a Domain Controller for Windows XP Home machines as
> >this functionality has been removed from the operating system, along
> >with a lot of the cost of XP Pro.
> 
> I wonder if there's another way to get XP Home to point to the Samba
> machine just for the documents,etc? I somehow managed to get the
> Win98SE office ones to use the 'documents' folder on my Linux box
> there. But then, XP as you say handles it all quite differently.
> David... 

Most definitely - if you run your network in "peer to peer" mode - ie,
without a Domain - then all machines that you have, 98 and XP Home, will
connect and work fine.  alternatively, set up a username/password on the
domain that is the same as your XP Home machine username/passwords, and
away you go (if the workgroup they join is the same as the Domain the
Win 98 users join).  You'll possibly need o change permissions for your
"documents" folder, but I didn't have to do that here.

-- 

Regards,

Hilton Travis                   Email: Hilton at QuarkAV.com
Manager                         Phone: +61-(0)7-3343-3889
Quark AudioVisual               Phone: +61-(0)419-792-394
Quark Computers
(Brisbane, Australia)            http://www.QuarkAV.com/

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