Domains

[Churnd]

Is it possible to connect to a domain wirelessly?

If no, say you have a laptop configured to connect to a domain while wired. Will it have any DNS issues once it goes wireless (assume it's logged into a local profile)?

 

[stash]

What do you mean by connect? Join, or access?

Joining a domain might not work for some wireless setups, since they may require domain authentication to access the network. Just accessing resources on a domain should not be a problem, since you should be able to authenticate if needed.

 

[nweaver]

You can join a domain on wireless

ypu can login to a domain on wireless

you can authenticate to a domain on wireless, assuming your wireless client supports SSO (ccxv3 certified will do this)

 

[stash]

The example I was thinking of is an 802.1x wireless network that uses certificate authN. For example, clients need to autoenroll for a computer cert to authenticate. Autoenrollment requires that the client first get group policy. So you have a chicken and the egg.

To work around it, you either let users who need to join the domain auth as guest into a VLAN that has access to the CAs and DCs, or require them to join the domain over a wired connection first.

 

[Churnd]

One domain at the University I provide desktop support for won't allow me to log on (access) it wirelessly. For lack of a better way of explaining it, here's my newbie attempt... I turn on the laptop and it boots to the login screen (the kind where you have to type in your username and password). From there I have the option to login to the domain or locally to the machine itself. It's my understanding that while you're at this page, your wireless connection is not working yet. So, therefore, how can it be possible to log on wirelessly?

The logon screen I'm talking about is illustrated here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/images...lbusiness/prodtech/images/xpwinn11.gif

So I guess they're called Active Directory Domains. I've tried asking the Systems Admin about this stuff, and he's more clueless than I am. Just looking to shed a little light in this area.

 

[stash]

Your wireless should be working unless it requires user authentication. Which would be dumb, since the computer portion of group policy would never apply.

 

[nweaver]

Your wireless MAY be running, but it's most likely not processed a profile (that is part of your user profile). MOST modern enterprise cards (Intel, Atheros based, Broadcoms) have a "single sign on" option that will use your login name for 802.1x authentication. If you use certificates, the most common type is user based, not machine based (yet, this is starting to come out and be supported in the last 3 or 4 months) so the admin can install a global profile that has a user cert to join the domain. Not too difficult, I do it every single day

2K has recently had a patch that makes installing your domain user cert on a passwordless local profile difficult.

 

[AsianriceX]

Originally posted by: Churnd
One domain at the University I provide desktop support for won't allow me to log on (access) it wirelessly. For lack of a better way of explaining it, here's my newbie attempt... I turn on the laptop and it boots to the login screen (the kind where you have to type in your username and password). From there I have the option to login to the domain or locally to the machine itself. It's my understanding that while you're at this page, your wireless connection is not working yet. So, therefore, how can it be possible to log on wirelessly?

The logon screen I'm talking about is illustrated here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/images...lbusiness/prodtech/images/xpwinn11.gif

So I guess they're called Active Directory Domains. I've tried asking the Systems Admin about this stuff, and he's more clueless than I am. Just looking to shed a little light in this area.

If you have an option to choose the domain at logon, wouldn't that suggest that the laptop is already joined to the domain? And having that, WinXP should use cached credentials if it can't find the DC (assuming you had cached your profile in the first place when you had network access).