My father has a Compaq Armada laptop, that has two LAN connections on it. One is a built in ethernet port, and the other is a wireless (wifi) connection. The PC is on W2K Pro.
Whenever he goes to his office, the laptop’s settings are reset to look for a specific DNS server, based on his company’s settings. When he comes home, it won’t connect because it is searching for that specific DNS server. I then have to logon on to the separate administrator account, and go to the TCP/IP settings for the wireless card and set the DNS settings to “automatically search for DNS servers…”
Is there any way I can set this up so that I can connect both at home and work without having to reset the DNS settings every time he tries to connect at home? We have no access to change any of the configuration at the office, as it is a relatively large network, and its not easily changed by your average employee for their convenience.
If you don’t mind spending a hundred bucks, you could always get a router for the office. Set the router to connect to that specific address and DNS at the office and the incoming connections to the router are done by automatic detection (DHCP). Therefore the laptop can just auto detect at both work and home.
Very often, DNS is set in windows by a ‘DHCP’ (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) server, available on whichever network you may be tapped into. There’s a good chance that your father grabs his IP address AND DNS settings from the DHCP server at work. Now all you need is a DHCP server at home, and you shouldn’t have to reset everytime. The popular internet router/switch/firewall combos like the popular Linksys and Netgear products (about 50-100 bucks) all have a built in DHCP server. They work very well, and are very easy to set up. Hope that helps
Why not use a product such as Netswitcher, which can change network configs automatically? I’m told a one-machine licence will cost $10 and I’ve heard good reviews about it.
Without knowing the specifics of the company’s setup, it’s quite difficult to give more specific advice.
Cool product Maxxxie! It basically lets you store different network settings for each place you’ll use your computer and easily flip between them. It looks like it works for both static and dynamic addresses. The only thing that looks a little complicated is if you have something like an NT DOMAIN at work. For that check out How to I use NetSwitcher with my Cable Modem at home and a corporate LAN at work?
