Flex your intellectual muscles
[Editor's Note: Solve this month's Windows NT problem and get the chance to win $100 or a copy of one of the author's books about NT. Email your solutions to challenge@winntmag.com. Include your full name, mailing
address, and connection to NT (e.g., administrator, user). To add to the
author's collection of NT problems, email problems and solutions to
answers@voicenet.com. Look for the solution to this month's problem in the
November issue. For the solutions to the May Reader Challenge, see "May
Winners."]
Many corporate Windows NT LANS are heterogeneous, with connections to
workstations running NT 3.5x, Windows 95, and Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.1.
These mixed networks sometimes present problems for administrators.
Problem
Lionel administers a small (30-node) NT network that has mixed Windows
platforms on the workstations. Everyone logs on to the domain.
Lionel needs to remotely administer Nellie's Win95 workstation and Barry's
NT 4.0 workstation. Thus, Nellie and Barry need to close their applications.
Lionel opens Server Manager, finds Barry's computer listed, and uses the File,
Send Message command to send Barry a message, asking him to exit the software
he's using. Server Manager doesn't list Nellie's computer. Lionel decides to
postpone the work on Nellie's workstation, and he makes a mental note to remind
Nellie about calling in if she's not coming to work.
Later that day, Lionel sees Nellie in the cafeteria. When he admonishes her
for being late to work, she tells him she was at work and logged on to the
domain before 9 a.m.
Nellie didn't lie to Lionel, so why didn't Server Manager list her
computer? Why does this problem occur on Win95 but not NT workstations?
May Winners
Congratulations to Brian O'Neill of New Technology Partners in Bloomington, Illinois, and Rick Damiani of San Gabriel, California. Brian won first prize of $100 for the best solution to the May Reader Challenge. Rick won second prize of a copy of Windows NT Troubleshooting (Osborne/McGraw-Hill).
The brief solutions follow. For complete explanations, see the Windows NT Magazine Web site at http://www.winntmag.com.
Solution for Problem 1
Tommy completes his NT domain logon but cancels his NetWare logon. His computer continues trying to connect to the NetWare server, and he gets an hourglass haunting. To solve this problem, Tommy needs to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the logon process, and complete both logons. He can avoid the problem in the future if he chooses the same password for the NT and NetWare logon.
Solution for Problem 2
If you configure an automatic logon with a null password for an NT workstation, the workstation logs on automatically only once. After the initial logon, NT notices the null password and resets the Registry's AutoAdmin-Logon key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) and prevents another automatic logon. You need to create a password for the automatic logon.
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