Question
August 14, 2007 at 09:49 PM
simonsimoon

Access Workgroup and Domain data at the same time?

by simonsimoon . Updated 18 years, 11 months ago

Why a XP Pro changed its login method from workgroup to domain can see and be seen, access and be access by computers in the old workgroup?

My company is planning to add a domain controller to current 2 physically separated Lan with 10 computers on each, peer to peer using wrokgroup. in order to increase the security of shared files and folders.

So I test it out at my home first by adding a Windows Server 2003 DC at my home currently with 3 XP Pro under workgroup home.

I installed the DC with domain name home.internal or HOMEINTERNAL. and created a test account.

From one of the XP Pro, right click MyComputer -> property and change the login method from workgroup to domain, a windows pop up ask for user name and password, a welcome message appear and ask for a reboot.
After reboot and login the first thing I do is to go to network neighbor to see what is the different, the different is the workgroup is still their and a new domain is added. I can still access the files on workgroup computer. Well I think maybe domain is superior than workgroup so computer on domain can access workgroup files.

So I do the opposite, access the files on that domain computer, a password box pop up. if i use the user name of that computer to log in I can access the file on that computer only. If I use the domain user name to log in I can also access the files on the Server 2003.

I know I still have a lot of setting to do in the AD, GPO and file system, but I never expect that computers inside a domain can exchange data so easily with other computers, do I setup these things correctly? I have not test it under a freshly installed XP that has not join a workgroup before, can it still access workgroup computer’s files when it is in the domain?

I did equip my self with a few server 2003 books first, they all looks like old testament to me, emphasize on all aspect of the server and server role and seldom mention the client.

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