Network ID grayed out, cannot change domain/workgroup??

From: Shawn (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 06/25/04 

Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 18:18:35 -0700

Okay it ended up being the software for the wireless
card. There were options to let the wireless profile
manager handle the ip settings and handle the domain
settings. Even though the checks were taken out of those
boxes the problem persisted and if you uninstalled the
wireless management software it never let go of its hook
on the network settings. Resolve was to if neccessary
reinstall wireless software, delete current wireless
profile and then select adhoc networking, it clears the
block on the network settings allowing you to manipulate
as normal. Unless you are statically assigning IP's there
should be no need to have the wireless card software
control the ip and domain settings and in general I guess
domain settings should not be so easily manipulated by the
end user, lesson learned. Thanks for the GP tips.

Hopefully this will help a person or two.

-Shawn

>-----Original Message-----
>
>
>HELP!
>
>Here is the issue we have had 5 machines now that after
>users took them home and tried to get them to work on
>their home wirless network the network properties are
>toast. We get a typical call, the machine is no longer
on
>the domain, just needs to be re-added. Problem is when
we
>try to re-add the machine to the domain the network id
>button is greyed out and and when you go into properties
>you can change the name of the machine but you cannot
>change between domain or workgroup or specify a name for
>the domain or workgroup. The workgroup does show a name
>of "." which gives an event id 3932 ". is not a valid
>domain or workgroup name" This is all while logged in as
>local admin. Also I noticed that the the workstation
>service will not start which has many subsequent
>dependencies fail. (Note: When workstation service is
>stopped, all network id properties should be greyed out
>including the properties button but I can click on this
>but can only change the workstation name at that time)
>When you try to start the workstation service it comes
>back with "error 123: the filename, directory, or volume
>label syntax is incorrect." I found one kb article
>relative to this but it did not fix the problem, I even
>imported a known working lanmanworkstation key. I have
>tried completely removing everything involving networking
>and every single non-standard program on the machine.
The
>only thing I find online as to why the properties would
be
>grayed out is because client for microsoft networks is
not
>installed, but I have removed and reinstalled it numerous
>times. I look in the registry and I cant find anything
>related to the configuration of the client for ms
networks
>nor any settings for workgroup or domain. (I even set
>another pc to a workgroup and set an odd name and
searched
>the registry for it without avail) There appears to be
no
>policy restricting access. So I guess I am either
looking
>for a magical answer or at minimum can some one tell me
>where I can find all the stored network settings for
>msclient? Also in nt4.0 I could go and set extended
>permissions on user accounts as to what they could or
>could not do on a granular level such as logging on as a
>system account, interacting, etc, is there anything like
>this in win2k? I am thinking that the wireless software
>had an option to let it manage the network settings for
>ease of switching between network profiles (wireless
>points and wired connections) and then the software
jacked
>up while it still had a hook in the network properties,
>maybe removing the administrator group from being able to
>make the neccessary modifications. I dont know, its just
>a guess, any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!!
>
>thx
>
>-Shawn
>.
>