Connecting a Laptop to Multiple Networks

Having a notebook or laptop provides the freedom to be truly mobile. You can work in many places and situations. But this brings an annoyance: if you move your notebook between various different networks, you always have to change network settings.

Recently my employer has issued me a brand new notebook. When I came home at the end of the day, I had to disable DHCP, set up an IP-address and DNS configuration. Next morning I needed to reverse my configuration to work at my office. The real headache began when I went to our customer site...

SWITCHING NETWORK SETTINGS ON THE FLY

There are three ways to switch a notebook between networks with one click.
First is to use a built-in windows feature of saving and loading network settings. This way is for experienced users.
Second is by using Windows XP "alternate configuration" feature.
The third way is to use third-party utilities like Net Profile Switch, IPSwitch etc.

WINDOWS "NETSH" UTILITY

Windos 2000 comes with the "netsh" utility that gives you the possibility to "dump" all network settings into a file which you can later use to restore your complete Network settings.
To Save the current Settings use "netsh -c interface dump >netset1.txt" To Load the Settings again use "netsh -f netset1.txt"

Create a dump file for every Network that you use (e.g.., netset2.txt, etc.) and create a desktop shortcut for every Network.

Pros: - Cons: hard for inexperienced users, does not deal with switching a proxy server in a web-browser, mapping network drives etc.

WINDOWS XP "ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION" FEATURE

Windows XP contains the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) properties" dialog box, which has a tab "Alternate Configuration" in it. You can specify "alternative" settings, which would be used when the "default" settings are not accessible.