LAN Setting Question

[rodriguez24]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here and I already have a question that I've searched for and haven't found answered. I use a laptop at work and am connected of a LAN. My laptop has already completely crashed twice and I had to wipe out my hard drive. My network admin has already said he won't set it up again. However, I'm going to get a 5680 ASAP(for obvious reasons). Is there a way to backup the LAN Settings?

I would use Norton Ghost except that my current laptop uses XP Home. And for my next laptop I am going w/ XP Pro. I hope I explained my question correctly.

BTW You guys got a great forum going here. I hope I am welcomed

-Juan R.

I've been reading this forum for months. I almost registered a few times just to do this ----------->:banana: :banana: :banana:
Gotta love the dancing bananas!!!!

[Kasteo]

Hmm... backup lan setting, huh? Usually, when I need to reformat my system, I will write down all those informations in LAN Setting in the Control Panel, IP address, Subnet mask, Default Gateway, DNS server, WINS server. I think that should be enough for you to get reconnect to you old network when you get a new system.
Hope this help. :cheers:

[MARQUISDARQUIS]

I don't know if there is an actual file that has the LAN settings in one place. It would make sense there would have to be but I've never found it. Just do like Kasteo says, write it down. Except I write it in a text file.

It'd be nice to know where those settings reside. I think on my system, they are in the router. I guess they are in my PCMCIA WiFi card as well, but there's no way to get them out of there that I know of.

[JeffL]

There probably isn't a file but a series of registry entries.

Yupp, indeed there are. Kinda sloshed around everywhere tho. Better off to write down those entries. Of course, your network admin sounds nasty to not do something that takes 30 seconds.

BTW, make sure you write down your workgroup and/or domain settings, and the computer name if applicable, and make sure to get those DNS servers too, or no internet for you :)

[mattew]

Win XP Home= Does not work on Corporate network. Each time you would turn the computer on, you would have to manually get your laptop onto the network. So Network admin would have to do it every day if you took your laptop home.

[JeffL]

Originally posted by mattew
Win XP Home= Does not work on Corporate network. Each time you would turn the computer on, you would have to manually get your laptop onto the network. So Network admin would have to do it every day if you took your laptop home.

Erm, I think you mean it doesn't support the extra domain features and VPN connections, windows remote desktop, and such. Yes the laptop will work on a corporate network, if it is based on protocols such as TCP/IP and IPX/SPX that all versions of Windows use, you will connect just fine. There is no manual config necessary because you couldn't connect to a corporate network without the required protocols unless you manually installed or used 3rd party software, but even that doesn't need to be configured but once...

A corporate network is much the same as a home network, just with more upscale equipment, higher security and network permissions, and more users, who could potentially be running programs requiring proprietary protocols.

[rodriguez24]

Thanks for all the replys you guys are great! So are the settings that Kasteo pointed out all of were they just suggestions and there is more? Obviously I don't know much about networking. I know computers and software; I definitely don't know that. Thanks again guys!

-Juan R

[myrkat]

Simple things to find out from your network admin (via phone is OK):

1) Are we (users of his beloved network) have a DHCP server to assign IP addresses automatically, or is there a static IP (unlikely) for each machine?

2) What are the two IP addresses of our DNS servers (primary & backup)

3) What is our WORKGROUP / DOMAIN name (I'd assume it's domain, if you have a network guy, so don't ask about workgroup, then).

4) Does it matter what I call my machine, as it appears on the network? (some places like to assign useful machine names, others don't care).

Once you have all that, write it down and save it in your desk drawer (heh, I have no drawers on my desk...)

Then, when you re-install (or install for the first time) your OS, it will be easier to setup. Typically, if you are on a DHCP (99.999% of networks are now-a-days) all you need is the IP of the DNS and the name of the Domain...

Windows will prompt you for a user/password who has access to the domain (which should be YOU / your userid/passwd) and then the DNS will be edited later.

It's difficult to explain w/o visuals, but it is easy to do.

-myrkat

PS: you can always come back here and re-post/ask for more info as you go along.

[rodriguez24]

Like I said in my original post, I am new here. And all I have to say is "WOW!" you guys are great.

I will try all these suggestions but first....................................:mad: I HAVE TO GET MY 5680!!!:mad:

Thanks again :)

-Juan R.

[mattew]

Let's take something very basic. XPHome laptop on network at office. Let's say there is a mapped drive to M for Matt's documents.

Shut down the XP Home laptop and turn it back on....

M is gone and you have to manually get M back. While I agree that we could give ourselves an ip address etc. and surf the net all day.. XP Home is useless in a corporate network environment unless you are saving your documents locally and you do not have any software that is on a server somewhere.

I guess you could get by using //server/data/mattsdocument... but what I see most of is M: which equals Matt's drive. If you are doing drawings for your work, or preparing documents for your work... are you going to save those to your laptop where they are not being backed up and where they are not accessible to the boss who just might own those documents.

If you are using your laptop to play online games all day... sure it will work, if you want to work in your corporate environment, get XP Pro.

Matt

[rodriguez24]

Actually that's exactly what I do. I do drawings for work and save them on the network with XP Home. So I'm not sure exactly what you argument is.

-Juan R.

[raypou]

you sure about that, mattew? in win 98 you could do it, so why not in XP Home? there is a little check box that says something like 'reconect at startup' in 98, might be similar in XP home...i only have the pro version on this computer, maybe later i will confirm with my brothers computer