zox Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Does any of you can shed some light on how to use laptop at home and at work without changing manually IP setup.At home I am using DHCP for internet but at work I must have static IP with mounted network shares etc.So basicaly I want to just plug my laptop to outlet and have it switch auto to static or dynamic IP.Is this possible and if it is, how?Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 This is a painful deal, I know. There are some things you can do -- especially in Windows XP -- to improve this. XP is able to both manage multiple network connections and automatically detect them. The reality is that this doesn't always work. But, the first step might be moving to Windows XP if that's possible for you.Symantec used to have a product called Norton Mobile Essentials that was designed to do this. It didn't sell well. And they discontinued it.There's a small company called J.W. Hance with a product called NetSwitcher that is supposed to do this, and it looks even better than Norton Mobile Essentials. I have not tried it, although I hope to one of these days. [Disclosure: NetSwitcher has been a past advertiser in SFNL, and they just agreed to start up advertising again.]Those are the best thoughts I have for you. Maybe some other folks have other ideas.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Thanks Scot.It is WinXP and I tried fiddling with hardware profiles but it doesn't work for some reason.I will give a try to Netswitcher, also I found another tool that I fhave to test "Mobile Net Switch"http://www.mobilenetswitch.com/I'll let you know how they performed.Will see if anyone else has another solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Does any of you can shed some light on how to use laptop at home and at work without changing manually IP setup.At home I am using DHCP for internet but at work I must have static IP with mounted network shares etc.So basicaly I want to just plug my laptop to outlet and have it switch auto to static or dynamic IP.Is this possible and if it is, how?Thanks. Not sure if this will work, but you could try setting up a new User Profile with your work settings. Just a suggestion/guess.Not having or using a laptop with any frequency I was not sure if changing the settings in one profile would effect all the others on a laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 Actually the answer is even easier than you would imagine...If you have a built-in network card try getting a PCMCIA Network adapter and then configure one adatper for home and one for work... because windows can handle separate adapters very easily... I did this for a long time left my one card at work and plugged it in while there and then used the built in one at home...-Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 22, 2003 Share Posted March 22, 2003 What Mike says will work under XP. Hardware profiles do not work, because they don't have anything to do with the network stack. Nor do Windows users -- although using that in conjunction with two NICs might actually be ideal. But because XP can manage multiple Network Connections, generally the two-NIC solution works well.Still, to be honest, this doesn't always get around problems you'll have with different network clients, such as mixing a Netware client with a Microsoft Network client, especially with more complicated network environments, like VPNs. I have seen XP's multiple Network Config abilities break down in certain settings. They're pretty good, not perfect.So, in that event, NetSwitcher or Mobile Net Switch (which I'm interested to know more about) is another solution. And may be cheaper than a PC Card NIC, dunno. In any case, I am *very* interested to know learn about your experiences testing the software.One thing about NetSwitcher that I like is that it allows you to save a baseline configuration. Anyone who is mucking around with network settings could use this thing. Like, say, with AOL or a touchy VPN installation. I hope Mobile Net Switch offers that feature too.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted March 22, 2003 Author Share Posted March 22, 2003 Thanks all of you for replies.I went with Mobile Net Switch for now.I am using trial version to see if I like it or not.So far it works like a charm, especially since I discovered feature that let's you create different profiles with different mount shares and switching is instant and transparent, without boot.I'll let you know Scot how it behaves in real world working environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot Posted March 23, 2003 Share Posted March 23, 2003 Sounds pretty cool, Zox. Thanks. We'll be interested to hear your experiences.-- Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trapper99 Posted March 29, 2003 Share Posted March 29, 2003 I can't remember what it is called, but I think there is a utility built into XP Pro to handle multiple connection settings. I will try to find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted March 29, 2003 Author Share Posted March 29, 2003 That would be great trapper99 if you can find it.Just to report.Scot, Mobile Net Switch rocks for now.I finally set it up, it was easy and painless. It works and switches you on fly and eben mount/dismount yhour network shares and printers.I think I found a bug though, when I am at work under my "Work" Profile which is Static IP, mounted shares, etc.. as soon as I try switching to "Home" profile which is DHCP application freeze.I can kill it and restart it but it is the same way every time.I know that on the same network at work I do have both DHCP and static shares so that is not the problem.However if I am in "Home" profile on the same network and switch to" Work" it goes smooth and everything is fine in a second or two, very fast and transparent.Not that I need to switch at work to "Home" profile, it was just for testing purpose :)Thumbs up so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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