• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Password protecting a workgroup in WinXP?

A

Audiofight

Platinum Member
Is it possible to password protect a workgroup on the network?

Here's the deal, I have 4 other people living with me technically. My friend has also moved in for a couple weeks on a temp basis till school starts up at the end of the month. We are running on a 100MB switched network and, of course, are sharing files and what-not. But, one of my roommates is kind of a recluse and is experimenting with an NT Server and we believe he is trying to force us into a Domain with him without our knowledge. Or, best case scenario, his server is screwing with our workgroup. We keep losing sight of each other on the network and have to manually search everytime we want to connect to a computer. It takes quite a good amount of time to search, despite the house being entirely wired up with Cat5e

So, we all tried switching to a different workgroup the other night and all of our problems have disappeared. So, is there any way to prevent my one roommate from joining our new workgroup to prevent his computers from screwing it up again?
 
No. There is no way to prevent anyone from joining a workgroup. Furthermore, servers are automatically declared browser master over workstations, so when the workstations detect a server, no matter if it's even a workgroup, they look to it for the network computer list. If his server isn't set up right, that would cause all of these problems (whether on the same workgroup or not).

Drew
 
He doesn't know all that much about the NT Server OS. I know he is learning quickly, but that doesn't help us.

Since we switched out of our workgroup, which he decided to also name his domain, we haven't had any problems.

If necessary, we will stay where we are at and see what happens, or else have a talk with him about shutting it down or stopping from switching to our workgroup with the fubar system.

Thanks anyways
 
Ah, that explains it. Having a workgroup by the same name as a domain is a VERY bad idea.

Just make sure that the workgroup name and domain name is different. All will then be well. 🙂

Drew
 
Yeah, he has his own domain (tried to get us all to join, but why?) and it worked fine.

Lately, however, all our computers are having problems accessing the network. It says we don't have rights to access our workgroup and to contact our sys. admin.

WTF? How can we not have access to a workgroup?

Then, while doing a fresh install of WinXP, it asked for a domain password when trying to set to our workgroup. That is what tipped us off as to what he was doing. So, we changed and fixed it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top