I have a weird situation that maybe some of the fine folk here at Anandtech may be able to shed a little light on. I have a Windows 2003 domain with local users and users at remote sites. The users at the remote sites use a VPN connection from time to time to get data from the home office. Now, one of our remote offices has a sizable staff so there is a point to point T1 line connecting that office with our main office.
That being the case, they log on to their PCs with their domain account when they are in the office. Everything works great when they work out of the office. When they leave the office to attend a trade show or what not things get a little wacky. They still log onto the PC with their domain credentials and it is set to cahce credentials so they are able to log on even though they are not connected to a domain controller to verify those credentials.
Now that they are logged on with cached credentials they can use there notebook like any other day. Except when it comes to using the VPN connection to access shared folder on our network at the main office. When they try to connect to or map a shared drive, a message comes up to this effect:
The user name you typed is the same as the user name you logged in with and a domain controller could not be contacted.
This only happens when they log on to the notebook out of the office with their domain credentials. If they log on to the notebook with a local account, the mappings all work as they are supposed to. Also, if they try to connect to a shared folder with an account other than the one they logged onto the PC with, everything works fine.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this or get around it that is easy for the user? They will not like having different profiles (domain and local) accounts that they have to use for different situations, so I would like to avoid that if possible. What I have done to kind of get around this is to create a second domain account for them and write a batch script to map the drives with that username as opposed to their main domain user account. It works but it is clunky and Id like to get away from it.
Thanks for any input in advance.
P.S., a little background info. The VPN connections are initiated by the built-in Windows PPTP client and are connecting to a Fortigate 100A unit as the concentrator.
That being the case, they log on to their PCs with their domain account when they are in the office. Everything works great when they work out of the office. When they leave the office to attend a trade show or what not things get a little wacky. They still log onto the PC with their domain credentials and it is set to cahce credentials so they are able to log on even though they are not connected to a domain controller to verify those credentials.
Now that they are logged on with cached credentials they can use there notebook like any other day. Except when it comes to using the VPN connection to access shared folder on our network at the main office. When they try to connect to or map a shared drive, a message comes up to this effect:
The user name you typed is the same as the user name you logged in with and a domain controller could not be contacted.
This only happens when they log on to the notebook out of the office with their domain credentials. If they log on to the notebook with a local account, the mappings all work as they are supposed to. Also, if they try to connect to a shared folder with an account other than the one they logged onto the PC with, everything works fine.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this or get around it that is easy for the user? They will not like having different profiles (domain and local) accounts that they have to use for different situations, so I would like to avoid that if possible. What I have done to kind of get around this is to create a second domain account for them and write a batch script to map the drives with that username as opposed to their main domain user account. It works but it is clunky and Id like to get away from it.
Thanks for any input in advance.
P.S., a little background info. The VPN connections are initiated by the built-in Windows PPTP client and are connecting to a Fortigate 100A unit as the concentrator.
