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Does adding computer to domain change its path?


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#1
ascoredhat

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Hello!

I have a computer (let's call it Computer X) on my network that I realize looking inside the network neighborhood was never "officially" added to the domain, and yet it is part of the network as I've been able to share it's printer with all the other computers on the network. It is XP Pro, same as the other computers.

I recently added a new computer (Computer Z) that has Win 7 Pro to the network and domain, but when I try to get it to find and add the printer of Computer X, I can't get the Add a Printer section to find it. All the other computers were able to find Computer X's printer without it being part of the domain, so I'm thinking that maybe the XP Pro has a Add a Printer wizard that can find other XP Pro computers in a network even if it's not in a domain, but apparently Win 7 Pro demands that for it to find that computer it MUST be part of the domain.

I guess it won't be that difficult to go to the System Properties and Network ID and let the wizard add it to the domain. My question is, will doing that change the path that the other XP Pro computers currently use to access Computer X's printer? I don't want to cut all of them off at the same time I'm making it so the Win 7 Pro computer can find it.

Thanks!
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#2
dsenette

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depending on how your DNS works, and your domain structure, the answer is "maybe". as long as you don't change the computer name then the "path" will not change much, but it may change enough to where you've got to reconnect everything. adding a computer to a domain will append .<domainname> (where <domainname> is the name of your domain) to the machine's DNS entry, however, if your DNS/DHCP is already set to append that to everything, it may already be showing up that way. worst case scenario is that you've got to go back and remap everything once it's all connected
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#3
ascoredhat

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Thank you for your reply, dsenette. Since I can't seem to get the new computer to see the printer on the computer that, for whatever reason, I forgot to originally add to the domain, the only way to make it happen is to remedy that original oversight and finally add it to the domain with all the other computers.

And as you said, the "worst" case scenerio is I will have to go to each of the other computers and re-add that printer with the new path, assuming there is one, and that's not really a big deal in the big scheme of things. Shouldn't take more than a half hour at most.

I appreciate you taking time to answer and I hope you have a great rest of the week.
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