Joe_Miner Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Tried em both, and yeah, the VPN built in is amazingly easy! So if the above tweak to keep from joining the domain means permanently loosing VPN access capabilities, then yes, instead, I'd say I'll stick with this procedure (particular for media center autologon PCs and test VMs in a lab): installing the connector reboot choosing this user only, saying no to migrating user data then on first login, go right back to COMPUTERNAME\username and password for local login go to System, Change, re-join the workgroup instead of the domain double-check that the domain join didn't hard code the Windows Server 2012 IP as your DNS (while leaving the IP as DHCP), this can be a problem if you're trying to install remotely (and lose connection after reboot) reboot Then you're all set, no side-effects, all the functionality (VPN, network shares, backups, etc). After installing the connector and rebooting, just click on your network icon in the taskbar, then click on the name.remotewebaccess.com item to connect the VPN, no password prompt, it just works. But haven't gotten it to autostart yet, if that's easy enough, then it could become a replacement for my multi year success with Hamachi VPN. I did notice that the remote PC can only get to/ping the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server. This means you can't access other network resources from the remote PCs, which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon your needs/wishes. Thanks for the write-up Paul! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 (edited) In one of my earlier posts, I linked to instructions I used to create a scheduled tasks and powershell script to enable autostart and auto-reconnect for the WS2012e vpn client. EDIT: Yes, I too used this to retire Hamachi. Edited December 17, 2012 by Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneWolf Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 (edited) I used Thurrott's article to connect our two desktops without joining them to the domain. I may change this eventually, but the clients are backing up fine, which is one of my chief aims. The other is a good media server, which I can do without a domain join (as I have a content streaming appliance for that). I don't need document redirection to the server if it's backing up my clients. I still have to test if Access Anywhere works with my clients that aren't domain-joined. I don't see why not, though. Edited December 18, 2012 by LoneWolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Miner Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Tried em both, and yeah, the VPN built in is amazingly easy! So if the above tweak to keep from joining the domain means permanently loosing VPN access capabilities, then yes, instead, I'd say I'll stick with this procedure (particular for media center autologon PCs and test VMs in a lab): installing the connector reboot choosing this user only, saying no to migrating user data then on first login, go right back to COMPUTERNAME\username and password for local login go to System, Change, re-join the workgroup instead of the domain double-check that the domain join didn't hard code the Windows Server 2012 IP as your DNS (while leaving the IP as DHCP), this can be a problem if you're trying to install remotely (and lose connection after reboot) reboot Then you're all set, no side-effects, all the functionality (VPN, network shares, backups, etc). After installing the connector and rebooting, just click on your network icon in the taskbar, then click on the name.remotewebaccess.com item to connect the VPN, no password prompt, it just works. But haven't gotten it to autostart yet, if that's easy enough, then it could become a replacement for my multi year success with Hamachi VPN. I did notice that the remote PC can only get to/ping the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server. This means you can't access other network resources from the remote PCs, which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon your needs/wishes. Tinkererguy: Why bother with the step of "go to System, Change, re-join the workgroup instead of the domain" You have access to the server shared folders wouldn't re-joining the local workgroup just potentially complicate things? Thanks, Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techmuso Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 just setting up WSE 2012 Essentials for the first time and went to connect a Win 8 client computer for backups, only to realize the server forced me to a new Account linked to the server and blocked out my Win 8 local account..it gave me the option of migration, but i'd like to just keep my account on Win 8 as it is with all program settings etc...is that what you guys are talking about here?? Luckily I could remove the win 8 machine from the server, and then system restore it to roll back the changes made once i had added the connector on the Win 8.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikon Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Yes, that's what this thread is about: how to connect a client to WSE2012 without having to join it to the domain. The other option is to have the client join the domain and use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate the settings, data, etc. from the local user account to the domain one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techmuso Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 so are the instructions still valid for connecting the client without joining domain? I know so many people say "what do you have against joining the domain??" blah blah ...but, I'm like a bunch of others who upgraded to 2012Essentials and want that WHS feel......I'm not really interested in joining the domain, OR having the server do DHCP and DNS...is that still do-able?? which would be the most current instructions for connecting without domain join? Thanks in advance for the advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikon Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I haven't heard anything about the procedure changing at all. I don't have a link to instructions but I don't think they have changed either. It should be pretty easy to find them with a quick search. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no-control Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 so are the instructions still valid for connecting the client without joining domain? I know so many people say "what do you have against joining the domain??" blah blah ...but, I'm like a bunch of others who upgraded to 2012Essentials and want that WHS feel......I'm not really interested in joining the domain, OR having the server do DHCP and DNS...is that still do-able?? which would be the most current instructions for connecting without domain join? Thanks in advance for the advice! Yes but then you would have to do it the hard way...joining the domain is the easy way. BTW if you want that "whs2011" feel they still make it and support it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techmuso Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 ok! got the client pc connected without domain join! yayyyyy!...now, the question is, how do you easily share folders between client and server?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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