I have a user with a laptop. On our network in the office, she needs a static IP. On her network at home, she needs to use DHCP to obtain an IP address. The laptop has just one network card. What is the best way for me to configure this? (She doesn't have wireless at home)

Assuming no dhcp servers at work you set as dhcp with the alternate set to the static ip.

At work dhcp will file giving you the static. At home dhcp will succeed give you a dhcp ip.

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wanderer, are you sure of that? In my experience if you configure the nic to use DHCP, you can't also add a static IP. If DHCP fails, the default is to use an APIPA address (169.254.0.0/16).

The recommended approach is to use hardware profiles. 1 profile for home and 1 profile for work.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141600

FishMonger,

I believe wanderer is right in that no hardware profiles are needed under Windows XP. The articles you linked about Hardware Profiles are for W2K and Windows 98, respectively

Managing One Windows XP-based Laptop for the Office and Home

Quoted:

Before Windows XP, if you had a network at home, moving a laptop from home to work, and vice versa, was a daunting task. You had to reconfigure network settings every time you changed location. You might have needed to create multiple hardware profiles as well, especially if you used a docking station at work.

i_Xp/VistaUser

I see this "hardware profile" thing alot with this issue. Someone needs to do a hardware profile someday. Then they will realize its a HARDWARE profile not a PROTOCOl profile.

In other words if you had two nics you could have a different enabled config for each which includes the hardware and software config. You can't do this with one nic card because there is only one hardware config but you want two protocol configs.

Fishmonger if dhcp fails it looks at the alternate tab. If nothing is there then you get a apipa ip.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article...

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I forgot about XP's alt IP config. I normally work with W2K or Linux and don't like XP and can't stand Vista.

Buy a $12 usb to ethenet adapter and set it up for her to use at home?

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Well, we do have DHCP at work, but anyone in our office building cannot use it if they want to use the network printers. (I'm not a network guy, i'm a database guy, just doing this to help a friend out). So basically if you're on our network, it will assign you a DHCP address, but our stuff won't work in this office with that address.

Can I reverse this and have it use DHCP if the static IP isn't working or anything like that?

That's crazy concerning dhcp but whatever.

Your user needs to buy or have the corp buy her Netswitcher which is a software app to move between networks.

Google it for more info.

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