Booting with different NetBIOS names/security settings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pt
  • Start date Start date
P

pt

I have a laptop with Win2K (SP4). I would like to configure it with 4
different "profiles". When the machine boots, I would like to select
the profile to provide naming & security services specific to the
location. There will be multiple users logging into the machine,
depending on it's location (me or my fiancee when the laptop is at
home, me or a co-worker when it's at work). At work we use Novell and
NDS for NT domains, so I'll have to log in with my "real" network
name. Depending on location, I can tell the Novell client login
dialog (which has replaced the normal Windows login dialog) to login
"Workstation Only", which means it doesn't try to connect to the
network shares. What would be ultra-cool is if I could be at home,
use those resources as if a member of the "my-home-workgroup", then
connect to work via Check Point SecureClient VPN, and have the machine
dynamically change it's name & workgroup affiliation, and connect my
Novell drives (without a reboot, which would kill the VPN connection),
but I'm guessing this level of sophistication is beyond capabilities
of the OS.

The profiles I would need:

1. Connected to the internal network @ work. The NetBIOS settings
"computer name" & "workgroup" would "laptop-X" & "dept-y".
2. Connected to my home network. Names would be "laptop" and
"my-home-workgroup". Yea, I realize this isn't necessary, but it
makes it easier for my fiancee to browse the network.
3. Isolated. No network available. Settings not important.
4. Unknown/untrusted network. Connected to an untrusted network.
For example, at the coffee shop, at a hotel that provides broadband
network services, or at a client or vendor's site using their internal
network. In this case, I need to tighten up security settings (see
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~mchugha/w2kfirewall.htm). This machine
does NOT have a third-party firewall, although I've been told that the
VPN client acts like one when active.

I've tried to use the "hardware profiles", but that doesn't seem to
affect anything -- changing "computer name" and "workgroup" booted
into one of these changes it in all the other profiles as well.
 
pt

I would use different operating systems for this, in a multi boot setup.
You would need one partition for each install, though. On a laptop, one
option is to have several hard disks, as they usually can be switched out
easily. Personally, I use one hard disk at home and another one at work.
This will also ensure that I don't translate any form of virus, or other
data that shouldn't be transferred, from my home network to my work and
vice versa.

Best regards

Bjorn
 
Bjorn Landemoo said:
pt

I would use different operating systems for this, in a multi boot setup.
You would need one partition for each install, though. On a laptop, one
option is to have several hard disks, as they usually can be switched out
easily. Personally, I use one hard disk at home and another one at work.
This will also ensure that I don't translate any form of virus, or other
data that shouldn't be transferred, from my home network to my work and
vice versa.

Best regards

Bjorn
Click to expand...

The drawback is when it's time to update Windows & the applications
.... (Q. When's the best time to update Windows? A. All the time!).
With your suggestion it would be 4 times as much work.
I work for a disk drive company, so I'm not a fan of constantly
plugging drives into, and removing them from, the laptop. That
connector isn't designed for a lot of insertions. Plus, bad things
happen when humans come into contact with disk drives ... static,
gravity, coffee, etc. Plug it in and leave it in.
 
The drawback is when it's time to update Windows & the applications
... (Q. When's the best time to update Windows? A. All the time!).
With your suggestion it would be 4 times as much work.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a problem.
I work for a disk drive company, so I'm not a fan of constantly
plugging drives into, and removing them from, the laptop. That
connector isn't designed for a lot of insertions. Plus, bad things
happen when humans come into contact with disk drives ... static,
gravity, coffee, etc. Plug it in and leave it in.
Click to expand...

On Dell laptops, a pin adaptor is mounted on the 44 pins, giving you a
knife edge connector, that seems to withstand - at least my - abuse. After
eight or nine years handling laptop hard disks this way, none has failed,
yet...

Best regards

Bjorn
 
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