I have an XP Professional laptop. When at the office I login and authenticate against a domain controller. When physically detached from the network, I still have the ability to tell my computer to login to the domain via caching. The problem is that when the computer is physically detached from the domain, and I login to the laptop, if ANY network interface is enabled and DNS addresses are assigned to a NIC, the computer sends CONSTANT DNS queries looking for the domain controller. The problem is that the system literally "halts" after every DNS query, waiting for the domain controller to repsond. Obviously since I am off the network the DC never responds, but the computer is useless while it waits for the DNS query, or lack thereof.

Even if I do something as simple as click on the Start Menu, or double click a folder shortcut on my desktop that does not reference a network at all, DNS queries are made, and they must time out before I can proceed. Its like this computer is married to the DC and is always looking for it.

Any ideas?

One, you can try looking for any network drive letters in My Computer or Web Folders in My Network Places that are referencing shared folders on the domain. If there are, delete them (provided your work network will reconnect them for you or you know how) and see if that helps.

In my experience, based on small networks, and depending what your company policy is and what your able to do, I always found it easier for mobile users (and much better for performance, especially on boot up), to not have the laptop as a member of the domain, but instead be standalone with login and password on the laptop that matches their account on the domain, then have a batch file that maps network drive letters that the user can double click when they're on the business network. It my experience that's always worked better for the user.

Assume that I already did an Internet search.

Good point. I know that Group Policy pushes out some scripts that map drive letters to shares on the server. I would wonder, however, since I am loading a cached profile, whether or not the "mapping" is actually occuring during boot up when physically disconnected from the domain. I will check into this.

I have created a local profile on the local machine that I use when I am physically disconnected from the domain. My problem is that I use desktop shortcuts quite heavily, so I technically have two desktops; one associated with the "domain" account, and the other associated with the "local" account. My "My Documents" folder points to a local reference in C:\Documents & Settings

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check into it.

"I would wonder, however, since I am loading a cached profile, whether or not the "mapping" is actually occuring during boot up when physically disconnected from the domain." No. The drives will not be mapped since you're not connected to the network. If the "Reconnect at logon" option was/is checked, then the computer will attempt to connect and fail of course. The mapped drive letters will show as disconnected.

I didn't reply at first, because I couldn't figure out what you meant by DNS query. What exactly DO you mean by that?

"So won’t you give this man his wings
What a shame
To have to beg you to see
We’re not all the same
What a shame" - Shinedown