Hi atKandy,
Thanks for the clarification!
Now, I have a few questions and for you:
1) When you disconnect your workstation from the network, log off and log back in to the local computer, rather than the domain, the system will accept your login name and password without authenticating to the domain - correct ? Normally, this shouldn't happen unless you have created an account on the local workstation with the same username and password as the domain user! Can you confirm that this is NOT the case?
For example, if you connect to the domain with a username of "Kandy" and password of "enter" and create on that same user on the local workstation, then when you disconnect the wrkstn from the network, you should be able to log in with the same details. So if the above scenario is true, then you are NOT logging in with 'Cached user information'.
When the workstation is disconnected from the network, it looses its comm channel with the Master Browser of the network, as a result, the workstation is removed from the Master Browser's list
as expected. At the workstation's side though, under normal conditions where its still connected to 'some' network but has lost all communications with other hosts, it will automatically force an election and become a Master Browser.
If you disconnect the network cable, then it is possible that since there is no physical connection ( Physical Layer problem), you can expect this problem to affect the upper layers.
To help prove you my point, I tested the following scenario:
Configured my laptop with an IP Address of 192.168.0.1 mask 255.255.255.0. While connected to the network here at home, I ping my own interface and receive a reply.
To help further troubleshoot the scenario, I created a share on the C drive called "test". I double click on "My Network Places" and the share is shown as a network folder, double click on it and I can access the share and view its contents.
I close all windows and doubleclick on "My Network Places" again, but this time click on the "view workgroup computers" link on the left and there I find my laptop computer as one would expect. I can also access it as a network object.
Everything works fine up to this point.
Then I disconnect the network cable.......
Ping 192.168.0.1 ... I get a reply - The o/s is clearly looping the IP address to the local tcp/ip stack. Great, no problem ...
I then go to 'My Network Places'.... and guess what ? I can still see the previously accessed "test" share .... so I double click on it and receive and error that the workstation is unavailable! Tried it a few times and received the same error.....!!
I then close the window, open "My Network Places" again and click "View Workgroup Computers", where I am expecting to see my own workstation ... but nothing appears!
After I reconnect the LAN cable, everything works again without a problem.
So my findings prove the following:
1) Lan or No Lan, you are able to ping your workstation's configured IP thanks to the automatic loopback that takes place... but thats as smart as the operating system gets!
2) Without a physical layer (check OSI model), the above layers will partially work. All network connections are disabled and will not work - even your local PC's shares are unavailable!
So what your trying to achieve is mearly impossible unless someone has found a smart way to trick the O/S and loop every network share on the local workstation, back it itself, just like it happens with the IP Address.
I think I've explained my testings and findings very well, if there are any questions, let me know.
p.s As a last note, let me tell you that when I disconnected the LAN cable to see if I was able to 'see' my workstation through the "My network places", I could access it for aprox. 5-10 seconds and then everything would vanish - clearly the workstation understood no connection was in place and disconnected all logical network connections.
Cheers,
