Wireless domain logon?

I have around 30 laptops and 80 desktops (at a high school) to manage. We've
removed the local accounts to prevent the recurrance of all sorts of problems
that have plagued the students and teachers in the past. This means that
students and teachers have to use their domain credentials - all good so far.

The hardware is from a variety of manufacturers, but all clients are running
XPproSP3 and the domain is Server2003sp2. All WAPs share the same SSID and
WPA2 key, with different channels to provide coverage over the entire campus.

The problem is with the laptops... The wireless network connection will not
be active until someone is logged on, but they can't logon until they have a
connection to the domain. Because there is some caching by default, there is
no problem if a student uses the same laptop each time, but this is rare.

How can the laptops, WAP, server, or domain be configured to allow wireless
domain logon?

In this case you my want to use WPA enterprise for domain authentication.
This how to may help.
wireless setup
How to: setup WPA Enterprise on wireless client How to use Ad Hoc
connection Start wireless without logon Tips for Best Performance ...
www.howtonetworking.com/wireless.htm


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"Graeme" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:74E5E536-2200-4766-9FBD-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have around 30 laptops and 80 desktops (at a high school) to manage.
>We've
> removed the local accounts to prevent the recurrance of all sorts of
> problems
> that have plagued the students and teachers in the past. This means that
> students and teachers have to use their domain credentials - all good so
> far.
>
> The hardware is from a variety of manufacturers, but all clients are
> running
> XPproSP3 and the domain is Server2003sp2. All WAPs share the same SSID
> and
> WPA2 key, with different channels to provide coverage over the entire
> campus.
>
> The problem is with the laptops... The wireless network connection will
> not
> be active until someone is logged on, but they can't logon until they have
> a
> connection to the domain. Because there is some caching by default, there
> is
> no problem if a student uses the same laptop each time, but this is rare.
>
> How can the laptops, WAP, server, or domain be configured to allow
> wireless
> domain logon?

Graeme <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I have around 30 laptops and 80 desktops (at a high school) to
> manage. We've removed the local accounts to prevent the recurrance of
> all sorts of problems that have plagued the students and teachers in
> the past. This means that students and teachers have to use their
> domain credentials - all good so far.
>
> The hardware is from a variety of manufacturers, but all clients are
> running XPproSP3 and the domain is Server2003sp2. All WAPs share the
> same SSID and WPA2 key, with different channels to provide coverage
> over the entire campus.
>
> The problem is with the laptops... The wireless network connection
> will not be active until someone is logged on, but they can't logon
> until they have a connection to the domain. Because there is some
> caching by default, there is no problem if a student uses the same
> laptop each time, but this is rare.
>
> How can the laptops, WAP, server, or domain be configured to allow
> wireless domain logon?

Are you using native Windows wireless management or third party? You need
the former. You should also enable "Always wait for network at computer
startup and logon" via GPO.