XP Professional needed for networking?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Toller
  • Start date Start date
T

Toller

I need to buy a laptop for my son to take to college.
The college says that XP Professional is necessary because XP Home does not
support networking properly.

That is a new one on me; my home network works just fine on XP Home, it even
works fine on WME. The network is wired; afaik, they don't have a wireless
network up.

I hate the idea of spending $150 extra for XP Professional, but don't want
to get him a computer that won't work.

Any advice here would be appreciated.
 
If the college requires the students to log into their domain then XP Pro
would be required.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-
 
Toller said:
I need to buy a laptop for my son to take to college.
The college says that XP Professional is necessary because XP Home does
not support networking properly.

That is a new one on me; my home network works just fine on XP Home, it
even works fine on WME. The network is wired; afaik, they don't have a
wireless network up.

I hate the idea of spending $150 extra for XP Professional, but don't want
to get him a computer that won't work.

Any advice here would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


This has to do with the network setup at the college. XP Home won't work
well with domains. Professional is designed to do just that.
 
Hi Toller,

As others have said, he will need Pro to access the college domain. This is
quite common, you may wish to ask the school if they provide student copies
of the operating system. Many do, but generally only to computer tech
students and to those who ask (and ask the school's network guy/gal, not the
admissions people).

Incidentally, this: "XP Home does not support networking properly" is quite
untrue. It supports networking just fine, in fact there is no difference in
the underlying factors of any XP system's ability to network. The difference
is in the ability to connect to a domain, which requires additional
functionality.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
You might find your son qualifies for a student\academic version of XP pro.
It would be worth looking into.
 
Hi Toller,
Your request about XP Home and XP Pro
on a laptop for your son, Rick states correctly about the problems with xp
home logging on to a domain,
It could be that the college is running antivirus software
which automatically checks for DAT updates at log on.
This will only work on xp pro systems where the user must log on to a domain
to activate the auto update.
Check with college to see if this is the case.
Petern
 
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