Teacher laptops home wifi issues

[caffrey]

We have just got a few laptops here for SLT.

When they are using them at home using a cached account they can't get their home wifi working, looking at the event logs it seems its trying to connect to the domain, and no dns servers are configured (don't even think its picking up an address from DHCP).

Aside from anything PEBCAK related - is there anything I should be aware of?

 

*edit* is it proxy?

I've just logged onto a laptop here with wifi switched off and the proxy settings are still in the registry

 

yeah ignore, think its the proxy, just have no way of testing here - created local account instead

Edited November 16, 2012 by caffrey

[Duke5A]

We have just got a few laptops here for SLT.

When they are using them at home using a cached account they can't get their home wifi working, looking at the event logs it seems its trying to connect to the domain, and no dns servers are configured (don't even think its picking up an address from DHCP).

Aside from anything PEBCAK related - is there anything I should be aware of?

 

*edit* is it proxy?

I've just logged onto a laptop here with wifi switched off and the proxy settings are still in the registry

 

yeah ignore, think its the proxy, just have no way of testing here - created local account instead

 

We had issues with proxy settings and teachers taking their laptops home too. I eventually settled for using an auto configuration script in IE so they wouldn't have to mess around with it anymore. It has worked pretty good so far.

[FN-GM]

We had issues with proxy settings and teachers taking their laptops home too. I eventually settled for using an auto configuration script in IE so they wouldn't have to mess around with it anymore. It has worked pretty good so far.

 

Same here Auto script is the way to go.

[caffrey]

Cheers, for now I've set up local accounts, it's only two users / laptops - unless I move them into some sub OU I guess, I should really look into VPN for them but don't think its worth the work!

[Oaktech]

can i interest you in the following

 

vbs scripts to change proxy... we dumps vb script in folder called c:\inetsettings and deposit icons on desktop that say home internet settings and school internet settings. just stick the ip of internal proxy in the VB scripts.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nibxi4g1j92f5qb/2OOkyW7DWW/Inet%20Settings

[caffrey]

Cool, thanks - was thinking similar with two reg files -not sure if I can trust them to remember to do it tho

[Oaktech]

can you name them "double click me at home" "double click me at school" and just shout at them every time they pebkac?

[caffrey]

I'd have to do it in 72 point fonts to really rub it in

[robmal]

I'd have to do it in 72 point fonts to really rub it in

 

LoL!

 

We use a little utility called Proxy Switcher. It does the same as the script but auto senses when no domain is available and permits connection to a home wifi

[jack1121]

LoL!

 

We use a little utility called Proxy Switcher. It does the same as the script but auto senses when no domain is available and permits connection to a home wifi

 

+1 for Proxy Switcher

I personally use it when travelling from home to work with my laptop. I just set it so if it can ping DC1's address, then activate the proxy. Anything else then don't (for example, when I am at home). Also lets you add multiple rules if you connect to multiple networks with different proxy addresses. Just set it up to silently start when Windows starts in the settings and it just sits there and does it's job, it's never failed me. Settings can also be locked via an ADMX template from the Proxy Switcher website so they can't mess around with it. Teachers here will soon be getting Boot Camped MBPs so this will be a nice addition for the teachers, now if I can find something similar for OS X....

 

Here's their website: Proxy Switcher

 

Jack

[Duke5A]

Here is the auto config script if anyone is interested. It's a tweaked example I think I got from FN-GM.

 

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)

{

//Declare proxy strings as variables
var staffproxy = "PROXY yourproxyhere:3128";

// IP not to use proxy
if (shExpMatch(url, "http://10.*")) { return "DIRECT"; }
if (isPlainHostName(host)) { return "DIRECT"; }

// URLS not to use proxy server
if (shExpMatch(url, "*blah.somesite.net*")) { return "DIRECT"; }
if (shExpMatch(url, "*whocka.whocka.net*")) { return "DIRECT"; }
if (shExpMatch(url, "*asdf.com*")) { return "DIRECT"; }

// Apply proxy if machine is on internal network
if (isInNet(myIpAddress(), "10.0.0.0", "255.0.0.0")) { return staffproxy; }
if (isInNet(myIpAddress(), "10.0.0.0", "/8")) { return staffproxy; }

else

return "DIRECT";

}

 

If Internet Explorer can connect to the host and download the script it'll use it, but if it can't it'll go out direct. So with it hosted internally when a user take their machine home proxy settings won't be used. The script is already set to not apply proxy settings to connections on a 10.0.0.0/8 network. The only goofy thing I had to do is with lines 18 and 19, where the proxy is applied. The myIpAddress function returns different strings depending on what browser it is called from. Line 18 will apply the proxy in IE, and 19 is for Firefox.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Duke5A