alternate network settings for different users

[Victoria Kapsambelis]

I have a 2 computer network in my home - Pc/Windows XP
home edition and Mac OS 9.2. I am using an application on
the Mac which allows me to share files with my PC. I must
however have my network settings set with a specific IP
address and the XP built in Firewall turned off. Meanwhile
I connect to the internet via a cable model which requires
I obtain an IP address automatically and for which I
choose to keep the Firewall turned on. I have set up 2
users, hoping I could simply configure different network
settings and switch users to log onto my mac rather than
reconfigure my network settings each time, however I
cannot seem to get this to work. Each user just defaults
to the last network settings. Any help?

[Phil]

"Victoria Kapsambelis" > wrote in
:

> I have a 2 computer network in my home - Pc/Windows XP
> home edition and Mac OS 9.2. I am using an application on
> the Mac which allows me to share files with my PC. I must
> however have my network settings set with a specific IP
> address and the XP built in Firewall turned off. Meanwhile
> I connect to the internet via a cable model which requires
> I obtain an IP address automatically and for which I
> choose to keep the Firewall turned on. I have set up 2
> users, hoping I could simply configure different network
> settings and switch users to log onto my mac rather than
> reconfigure my network settings each time, however I
> cannot seem to get this to work. Each user just defaults
> to the last network settings. Any help?
>

In XP the network settings aren't changed based on the user logon. There
are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to download the program
Netswitcher from
http://www.netswitcher.com/downloads.htm. This works well as long as you
aren't changing domains.

Another way that works great if you are simply changing IP address
settings is to use the netsh command. Here's how:

Configure the IP settings for your home network. Open a command prompt
and type:

netsh interface ip dump > c:\IPcfg-home.txt

This will create a text file called IPcfg-home.txt on your c: drive.

Configure the IP settings for your office network. Open a command prompt
and and type:

netsh interface ip dump > c:\IPcfg-office.txt

This will create a text file called IPcfg-office.txt on your c: drive

With those text files you can switch your IP settings in a matter of
seconds with this command:

To switch from your office LAN to your home LAN:

netsh < c:\IPcfg-home.txt

To switch from your home LAN to your office LAN:

netsh < c:\IPcfg-office.txt

Since I use netsh on a daily basis (switching between, home, work, client
sites), I've created a batch file for each location and put it on my
desktop. In your case, since you want to change this based on the user
logon, you can place the appropriate batch file in the user's startup
folder.

For details on the netsh command:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?
url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/netsh.asp

--
Phil M.
MCSE - NT4/2000