Logon Script NT/W9X

In a mixed environment of NT Server (later W2K)and on the client side Win9X/NT/W2K How can I make sure of compatibility? At the moment users have to each morning map up drives manually with domain/userid & pass to get connected as the system doesn't seem to remember them (sometimes I have to reset the pass). I guess the profile is wrongly setup?

How can I make this to work I want them to logon onto "domain" but with the drives coming up as in a logon script without having to browse to the share/resource and then map it up.

Anyone with a step to step guide how to setup the profiles correctly with users on a mixed platform of W2K, NT and Win9X, will I need a 3rd party software?

Thanks,
C.

Okay...here goes:

1.) Make sure that they are set to logon to a domain. Go to your network properties, click on "client for microsoft network" and hit properties. There will be a check box there asking if you want this machine to logon to a domain. Check the box and enter in the name of the domain in the place provided. Reboot.

2.) When the logon screen comes up, it will have an extra field called domain. So now, you are using NT domain accounts to logon just as if you were using win2k or nt for clients.

3.) The next thing you want to do is create a batch file that is set to run everytime a user logs in. A batch file is basically just DOS commands that are executed in order when the batch file is run. For instance, if you want every user to login and get a mapped drive to your file server's D:\ drive, then the command would look somethign like this: "net use x: \\servername\D:" Put that command in a file and name it "something.bat"

4.) After you have your batch file, you need to make the domain controller know to run it everytime a user logs in. In an NT server, there is a default share called NETLOGON that points to a path on the server. I believe the path is c:\winnt\system32\Rep\Imports\Scripts. If you put this batch file in that directory on the domain controller, the client machines will automatically look there for a file to run at startup.

5.) The next and final step is to have all user accounts specify the name of the file you wish to run at login. These accounts already know to look at the share NETLOGON (which is actually mapped on the server to c:\winnt\system32\Rep\Imports\Scripts). So, if the account is going to look there automatically, you have to tell it what file to look for in that directory. To do this, go to your domain controller, pull up the "user manager for domains," and go to the properties for all your users one at a time. In the properties there will be a section called "profile." Go to that section and you will see a field called login script. That is where you want to put the name of the batch file you created. So, everytime that user logs in, his machine automatically looks to the NETLOGON share and looks for a file that you specified in there profile options. If it finds the file, then it will run it and you will have mapped drives.

Hope this helps...good luck

Thanks for your reply & and time writing this. I have done all the above but I suspect the profiles are not right on the PDC. All Win9X's seem to be fine but W2K clients not. Uh... I'll have to look around.

Unfortunately I do not remember the commands I used, but basically in a login script that I wrote, I checked for an environment variable to determine if the pc was nt or 2000. I think it was if %os% , but I may have checked another variable.

If it is not nt or 2000, then the script assumes the client is win9x, it then jumps to code specifically for the win9x clients.

Hope this helps you some.