new PC on domain and user on new PC without direct network access

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aa128

Here's the situation and any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I apologize if this is not the correct forum.

Our company uses Windows XP Pro and AD 2000. We support a large number of
people who do not have corporate network access. Many of these people are
hired in the field and never step foot inside our buildings. Our people
typically have Internet access available to them and we do provide a select
handful of vpn offerings for them.
We hire new users in the field and send them a brand new PC with a corporate
image installed by the PC manufacturer. Our new users are directed to add
their computer to the domain as soon as they receive their computer.
We accomplish this using a local account with admin rights and one of our
VPN tools to connect to the corporate network and then follow the normal
steps to add the machine to the domain. This part works quite well.
Now that our machine is on the domain we want that new user to abandon the
local account and use their own domain account.
Here is the problem.
A new user cannot log in to a computer the very first time when the machine
is not connected to the corporate network. Plus, our vpn vendors are
reporting Vista will not support starting vpn before Vista starts so it does
not appear the solution will be found with a vpn product.
We were thinking we might be able to log on to a machine in the help desk
with the new user credentials then copy that profile to the newly imaged
machine in the field. If we could push the profile, including cached
credentials, to the new machine just after it has been added to the domain
our problems might be solved. Obviously we have not been successful to date.
We are also thinking we can't be the only company to have this problem so we
are likely missing something obvious.
We are certainly open to any and all suggestions and your suggestions are
always welcome and very appreciated.
 
aa128 said:
Here's the situation and any and all suggestions are greatly
appreciated.
I apologize if this is not the correct forum.
Click to expand...
Our company uses Windows XP Pro and AD 2000. We support a large
number of people who do not have corporate network access. Many of
these people are hired in the field and never step foot inside our
buildings. Our people typically have Internet access available to
them and we do provide a select handful of vpn offerings for them.
We hire new users in the field and send them a brand new PC with a
corporate image installed by the PC manufacturer. Our new users are
directed to add their computer to the domain as soon as they receive
their computer.
We accomplish this using a local account with admin rights and one of
our VPN tools to connect to the corporate network and then follow the
normal steps to add the machine to the domain. This part works quite
well.
Now that our machine is on the domain we want that new user to
abandon the local account and use their own domain account.
Here is the problem.
A new user cannot log in to a computer the very first time when the
machine is not connected to the corporate network. Plus, our vpn
vendors are reporting Vista will not support starting vpn before
Vista starts so it does not appear the solution will be found with a
vpn product.
We were thinking we might be able to log on to a machine in the help
desk with the new user credentials then copy that profile to the
newly imaged machine in the field. If we could push the profile,
including cached credentials, to the new machine just after it has
been added to the domain our problems might be solved. Obviously we
have not been successful to date. We are also thinking we can't be
the only company to have this problem so we are likely missing
something obvious.
We are certainly open to any and all suggestions and your suggestions
are always welcome and very appreciated.
Click to expand...

There won't be an easy solution to this, I think.

I'd either have the PC shipped to the office so you can join the domain, and
then ship it to them ....or even better, consider thin clients & a Terminal
Services box in the main office. Stick an SSL-VPN appliance in the office
too, so you don't need VPN clients.
 
Depends on your exact setup, but http://mylogon.net might help. This will
allow automatic local logon, and subsequent VPN connection to a server.

If you want the computer to be a domainmember this must still be performed
locally, but at least this way the computer can be preconfigured, then
delivered. At this stage the username need not be known. Vista is supported
provided that UAE is disabled during setup, and there is no requirement to
start the VPN at switch-on as there is with the conventional approach.

Has not actually been tried with the combination of Vista and VPN, though.
Considering I have one lone (brave??) Vista client, that setup ain't likely
to be tested soon, either.
 
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