Alternative home directory mapping during Solo logon

Question

Can a user's home directory be mapped to a share on a different machine during Solo logon?

Symptoms

N/A

Resolution

Yes. To allow the user's home drive to be mapped to an alternative location (usually a "common files" share on another computer in a workgroup) the following changes can be made to the Ranger.dat file.

This feature is provided to enhance the way Ranger Solo can be used in simple network workgroups. Usually, users save and open files from a "virtual" "H" drive on their local machine. In a workgroup, it may be required that users store their work on one central machine, thus giving access to work from any machine on the workgroup.

Note: this method does not give the full functionality of a network server, as all users will have access to every other user's files. For full network functionality, it is recommended that a network operating system such as Windows 2000 server is used.

A working workgroup should also be configured and tested (possibly without ranger Solo installed) before implementation.

Instructions

Edit the Ranger.dat from the machine's Ranger directory.

Locate and add the following entries into the Solo section:

solo

AltMapCommand01 Skip/Use alternative map command

AltMapEachTime01 Run command each time a user logs on instead of just the first time (default 0)

AltMapVisible01 Show / Hide command's window. 1 visible 0 hidden (default0)

AltMapFilefilename.exe Full path of file to run (eg: c:command.com)

AltMapParamparams Optional parameters for the above file (eg: /c c:windowsnet.exe use h: machine1shared)

AltMapStartInpath Full path of working directory (leave blank if not required) (eg: c:windows)

Save the changes.

For example:

AltMapCommand1
AltMapEachTime1
AltMapVisible0
AltMapFilec:command.com
AltMapParam/c c:windowsnet.exe use h: machine1shared
AltMapStartInc:

If AltMapEachTime is set to 1, then this action is performed at the end of the logon process after the user has logged on to enable the "net use" command to work...


Note: This setting will only work when Solo is running on Windows 9x machines.

Note: The "central" machine containing the shared files will have to be turned on in order for "client" machines to correctly connect to the common share and log on. If the drive cannot be mapped, then Ranger will report an error and shut the machine down.

Note: This feature will only work when Solo is running on Windows 9x machines.

Note: This feature is available from LPTPLGN.EXE version 4.0.3.6 (June 2001).

Testing