Mapping drives from non domain pcs via scripts

[glennda]

Does anybody have a script (or know an app that will do it) that will prompt for a username and password then query Active Directory to find the users homedrive and then map the drive on the PC?

As I want to be able to remove some of our class sets from the domain as 90% of the time they just use it for web browsing which will be alot quicker from power on to being usable for students.

[MaceZ4]

Ok maybe someone can pick up from this and figure out how to tie it in with AD...

I use bat files to map drive for people that don't have/want domain attached machines.

net use X: \\server\folder\ /user:domain\userid password

Change where it says "server" to the name of the server, "folder" to the location and you can keep digging as deep as needed so as to tie into people's storage drives.

Then replace "userid" with the login name and "password" with their password.

Yes it's simple and boring to make loads of these, but it has served well for me

[glennda]

Ok maybe someone can pick up from this and figure out how to tie it in with AD...

I use bat files to map drive for people that don't have/want domain attached machines.

net use X: \\server\folder\ /user:domain\userid password

Change where it says "server" to the name of the server, "folder" to the location and you can keep digging as deep as needed so as to tie into people's storage drives.

Then replace "userid" with the login name and "password" with their password.

Yes it's simple and boring to make loads of these, but it has served well for me

Yeah I have that part as have been given a autoit script from somebody at another school but not all my users are on the same file server which is where I need the AD query for the homepath.

So far i have

Local $Username, $Password, $Result, $Flag

$Flag = 0

RunWait("cmd /c net use w: /DELETE")
RunWait("cmd /c net use p: /DELETE")

Do
	if $Flag = 1 Then
		MsgBox(0,"Error","Your username or password were incorrect. Please try again")
	EndIf

	$Flag = 1
	$Username = InputBox("Logon to Network Drives", "Please enter your username:","","",150,80)

	if $Username = "" then
		Exit
	endif

	$Password = InputBox ("Logon to Network Drives", "Please enter your password:","","!",150,80)

	if $Password = "" then
		Exit
	endif

	$Result = RunWait("cmd /c net use N: \\server\share " & $Password & " /USER:" & $Username & " /PERSISTENT:NO")
	$Result = RunWait("cmd /c net use R: \\server\sharedarea " & $Password & " /USER:" & $Username & " /PERSISTENT:NO")

Until $Result = 0 AND NOT @error
Exit

I just need to find something i can use for a query to ad to output to say $homedrive

then add the variable to the $result instead of \\server\share

Toby

[michaelf]

I just need to find something i can use for a query to ad to output to say $homedrive

then add the variable to the $result instead of \\server\share

It's been a while since I've used AutoIt but what about this for a slightly different way of looking at the problem.

Instead of using RunWait to launch an external command to map the drive, why not use AutoIt's DriveMapAdd command instead? The advantage here is that if it fails it will return an @error code showing the reason. You could then write an IF loop to try out the different places where the homedrive could be stored until it finds one that exists.

Secondly I believe that one of the @error conditions also flags an incorrect password allowing you to provide a friendly prompt in the case of typos.

Not the cleanest way I know but it might just work?

[glennda]

Yes drive mapadd until it finds one was a suggestion somebody else made - although having each year group on a different share it could take forever to find one. As we would have

\\FS1\INTAKE10$\USERNAME
\\FS2\intake10$\username

And on for each year group 7-13 across 6 file servers the users at the bottom might be there a week!

[glennda]

having just seem this thread

some of the software mentioned there might also work - i'll look into it further next week.

but my prefered method would be a script of somesort

[glennda]

Just wondering if anybody else has any thoughts to this as i'm stumped as can't find anything i can use - although I think it must be do able.

[JHeaton]

I could probably whip up something in VBScript if you want. The only problem I foresee is the password box; does your current script mask the passwords with dots or asterisks?

[glennda]

I could probably whip up something in VBScript if you want. The only problem I foresee is the password box; does your current script mask the passwords with dots or asterisks?

If you could that would be great - never really played with vbs.

Currently it uses this line

$Password = InputBox ("Logon to Network Drives", "Please enter your password:","","!",150,80)

and hides text input with !

Cheers

[JHeaton]

Okay, I'm not 100% sure that VBScript can do that, but I should be able to find a solution. I'll get back to you in a day or so.

[glennda]

cheers

[glennda]

If not just a vbscript which can query ad and get me the Homedirectory path for a user. I might be able to then play with autoit to get the username/password into it.

[SimpleSi]

Just an idea - are you usernames mapped to user folder names in any sort of logical way

e.h user jsmith11 - user folder is \\server\pupils\2011leaver\jsmith ??

Then you wouldn't need to query AD.

regards

Simon
PS I would imagine that a non-domain machine wouldn't be able to access AD info for security reasons BTW

[JHeaton]

Just an idea - are you usernames mapped to user folder names in any sort of logical way

e.h user jsmith11 - user folder is \\server\pupils\2011leaver\jsmith ??

Then you wouldn't need to query AD.

regards

Simon
PS I would imagine that a non-domain machine wouldn't be able to access AD info for security reasons BTW

Not querying AD would be much, much easier, although it is possible to query AD from a non-domain machine. The problem I came across when doing research on it last night is that it requires a set of credentials for an account that is able to query AD in the script, which might cause a potential security issue.

[glennda]

Not querying AD would be much, much easier, although it is possible to query AD from a non-domain machine. The problem I came across when doing research on it last night is that it requires a set of credentials for an account that is able to query AD in the script, which might cause a potential security issue.

hmm - can it not use the credentials which will be inputed? As each user has the rights to view their own personal information as they need to be able to see their home directory/profile paths etc