Work Offline (Win XP)

[Karen]

Hi All,

Is there any way of telling my laptop that I am not connected to the network (and therefore don't try mapping drives or connecting to the Exchange server) when I am working from home. I know in outlook I can go to the bottom right of the screen and choose work offline but it takes ages to have this functionality available. I often use my calendar or draft messages at home so that they are sent when I get back to work.

Also at home I have had trouble connecting to the home network for file and print sharing - when I try and connect I get a message saying something like "This computer is part of a domain, unable to connect". Interestingly I am able to use the home internet ADSL connection. At work the computer is a member of a domain (SBS 2003) and at home there is just one PC that I want to have file and print sharing with.

Any help gratefully received.

Cheers

[Matz]

Hiya

how are you currently connecting to your network at home? With a router / switch, or are you plugging a crossover cable from your laptop to your PC?

Have you got XP on both machines? Have you run network setup wizard from the PC at home?

Outlook has settings to stop it trying to connect if offline, such as 'send and recieve immediately when connected'. It would be worth looking into what is set here. Tools | Options | Mail Setup | Send Recieve

Can you give some more info?

[viking33]

Am I missing something here?
Can't you just go to IE or OE, click files and click "work Offline"?

[eddym]

You might try netswitcher ( http://www.netswitcher.com). This allows you to set different network profiles for at home and at work.

[Karen]

Hi ya in answer to your questions...

Connecting via wireless network
XP on both machines - although it is XP home on the desktop and XP Pro on the lap top
I could turn off the send and receive immediately when connected but would need to remember to do this when I am at work (not my preference). The other thing is that what is causing the most annoyance is that whenever you go to either explorer (or an open dialog) the delays are very long as it is looking for mapped drives, which of course it cant find.

Thanks for your help

[Karen]

Sorry viking that doesn't help IE does and should connect to the internet, it is the drive mappings that is slowing things down.

[StuartR]

I solved this problem by having a couple of BAT files, one that maps all my network drives that I use at work and one that deletes all the network drives. I have shortcuts to these two files on my desktop so I can quickly add or delete my work network drives. (I have a third one that maps the home drives too).

StuartR

[peterg]

Have you considered adding a second user with different preferences, so that you can simply log on according to what is appropriate to your location?

[Rebel]

Karen,
Have you looked at <!profile=eddym>eddym<!/profile> 's suggestion of netswitcher ? For $15, it will probably do what you want, and if you search these forums you'll find some pretty favourable comments.

[Matz]

Hi

I'm just wondering if its something to do with the wireless network as opposed to your laptop looking for mapped drives. I have the same set up here, I bring my work laptop home and connect wirelessy, but it does not have delays looking for the network drives ( i connect to 5 when at work), nor the Outlook or our in work messenger. I just get the 'network not available' message regarding all these.

What does happen though is when I am using windows explorer to look at files on my Home PC via the wireless network, I get delays navigating around from time to time.

Have you found any solutions yet?

[Karen]

Thanks all, haven't tried Netswitcher yet. This may solve the problem for me but I was thinking of getting laptops for all the staff at work so that would increase the costs over time. Hoping to have a windows type solution.

I don't think it is to do with the speed of the connection. The wireless network works well. The main issue is either at a Windows Explorer screen, or in any open or save dialog boxes which was why I thought it was to do with drive mappings.

Outlook is a lesser problem as I usually use OWA when connecting in from home. It is a nuisance however if I go to outlook to get a contact name or something and before I can get any action out of outlook it is trying to send and receive (which it cant do cause there is no server connection).

[JoeP517]

Karen,

If you are up for a little reading see Managing One Windows XP-based Laptop for the Office and Home and the links on this page.

Joe