Alternate IP configuration options

Here is my scenario:

  • Portable Win2k PCs traveling between home and office environments
  • Each PC contains only one network adapter
  • Office TCP/IP environment: static IP addresses
  • Home environment: DHCP served by router connected to cable/DSL modem

    Goal:

  • To somehow have a mechanism in place to easily change TCP/IP parameters between the two environments (.cmd procedure, etc.)
  • To make it impossible for users to manually change network parameters

    Can you offer any suggestions?
    This is a common problem, and it's one that is resolved in Windows XP. Windows XP has an "Alternate Configuration" tab, and the right way to handle this is to configure the alternate configuration with the static IP you've assigned on your LAN.

    Probably the easiest way to solve the problem is to put a DHCP server on the office LAN and configure all systems to use DHCP all the time.

    Without doing that, you can use a .reg file to update the registry values that contain the IP configuration on the systems. The user would be able to implement the change by double-clicking on the icon, though the system may require a reboot. This article should give you the information you need.

    This was first published in July 2003

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