I have a remote user that at the time I built his Vista 32 Business laptop did not need to part of the domain as he was rarely if ever going to be on our local LAN. Everything was installed with the laptop being in a workgroup instead of domain. Now we are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 which from what I can tell requires machines to be part of the domain. We have a Cisco ASA 5510 which we he can successfully VPN connect to. Logged on locally and the VPN established I can change from a workgroup to our domain. Am told successfully joined the domain and to reboot. Here is the conundrum. After rebooting because we have yet to login the VPN hasn't been established so if we try to login to domain\username is told that no servers can be found. I can logon locally but when I try to configure CRM it fails because I'm not logged into the domain. How can I get a VPN established before boot up or before logging in? How do I get all his "stuff" programs, files, settings moved from his local profile to his domain profile, or do I just have to suck it up set everything up? Thanks in advance John

Hi John, Thank you for posting. May I know if you are using a third-party VPN client to establish the connection? If you just use the Windows built-in VPN connection feature, please try the following steps to establish the VPN connection and then log on domain: 1. Create a VPN connection which allows other people to use this connection. 1) Log on as a local admin. 2) Control Panel >> Network and Sharing Center >> Setup up a connection or network >> Connect to a workplace OR Set up a dial-up connection. 3) Check the checkbox to Allow other people to use this connection (so that the owner of the DUN configuration will be System and not your individual user). 4) Complete the wizard and save the connection. 2. Join the computer to a domain (establish a dial-up connection first, if needed). 3. Log on using Dial-up Connection 1) After rebooting, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to log on if prompted. 2) You are presented with the logon screen for the user that last logged in. Press Esc or click Switch User to view other logon options. 3) There will now appear a blue button near the lower-right corner, just to the left of the red Shut Down button. 4) Click the blue button. If you have more than one System-owned DUN configuration, then all of them will appear here as buttons that can be clicked, in which case you click the one you want to use. 5) If prompted, type the username and password for the DUN connection and click the round, blue button to connect. 6) A dialog appears, showing the progress of the connection attempt. 7) After the connection is established, Windows will use the same credentials to log into Windows. If that fails, the DUN connection remains active, and you will be taken back to the Windows logon screen to submit Windows credentials. Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT

Hi, I just want to see if you have had an opportunity to try my suggestions and how is everything going. If you have any questions or concerns on the information I've provided you, please feel free to let me know and I will follow up with you as soon as possible. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT

Nicholas,Sorry I only received notificaiton of your today's post.We hare using a Cisco ASA 5510 security appliance. We are using either they VPN client version 5.0.04.0300 or their AnyConnect VPN Client version 2.3.0254. Using either of these we can succesfully establish a connection.I am not able to connect using your suggestion to use the Windows built-in VPN connection feature.I'm fearing I'm going to be stuck in the middle between Cisco saying their clients work so it's not on their end and Microsoft saying something is not configured right on the Cisco end.Hopefully you or someone else has this device and can point me to an area of configuration for the Windows built-in VPN connection.Thanks,John

Hi, Thank you for your update. I know that you are using a Cisco VPN client to establish the VPN connection. Based on my research, I think you may setup a VPN router and connect the computer to this router. In this way, the VPN connection can be established first with the routerand you may logon to domain then. Since you are using a third-party VPN client and we have limited information about it, it is recommended that you contact Cisco for technical support. As they are familiar with their products, maybe they can give you some constructive suggestions on this. Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT

Hi, I am currently standing by for an update from you and would like to know how things are going on your end. I would appreciate it if you could drop me a note to let me know the status of the issue. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know and I am happy to be of further assistance. Meanwhile, if you have been contacting Cisco regarding this issue, please also keep me updated. Your feedback isvaluable for us. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT

I'm currently working with Cisco for a solution. Thanks for you help.John

Nicholas,I'm now able to get the remote user to establish a VPN connection before the Windows login and therefore able to login to the domain.How do I now go about moving all his "stuff" from the local logon to his domain logon?Thanks,John

Hi John, Thank you for updating. I am glad to know that the VPN can be established before logging onto the domain. Based on my understanding on your question, I know that you suspect that there are maybe some differences between logging onto domain and local computer. Please let me know if I am right. In this case, you can just logon to domain or logon to the local computer as usual. To logon to domain, please input the domain account and the password; to logon to local computer, just use the local user account and password. Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT

I just want to say hi and see how this is going. Please drop me a quick note at you convenience to let me know the current status of this issue. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thanks! Nicholas Li - MSFT

Niholas,It wasn't a matter of logging in under the doman vs the local domain. I needed to get all his settings from his local profile, such as his desktop appearance, etc.I did some searching and found the copy profile under advanced system settings and with some permission changes I'm all set.Thanks,John

Hi John, Thank you for writhing back and letting us know the good news. I am glad to know that the problem has been resolved. In the future, if you experience any issues regarding our products, you are also welcome to post a new thread in our forums. It is always our pleasure to be of assistance. Have a nice day! Nicholas Li - MSFT

Hi John, I am working on setting up a remote laptop on our company's Active Directory. I have exactly the same problem statement as yours.. After the reboot, we would like the remote users to be connected to the VPN first, and then login to their profile on Windows. We are going to use XP for this. Could you please outline the steps as to what you did in your case? Thank you. Regards, Sweta

John,How were you able to get Cisco VPN to connect prior to a Windows login? We have spent hours and hours trying to figure this out. We are moving towards Windows 7 and have yet to figure this out. Thank you in advance for your time!

Swets/Bryan, We are using a Cisco ASA 5510 security appliacne with VPN, so I can only speak to this devices. You need to be using Ciscos AnyConnect client. First have you confirmed that once logged into the computer the users are able to successfully connect to your respective VPNs? If you're not able to connect this way there are too many variables for me to help troubleshoot. Hopefully you have a service contract with Cisco that you can use for help with this. In our case we are using Windows Vista on the remote users computers. With that at the time of booting the computer and do the three fingered salute(CTRL+ALT+DEL) you have the Shutdown Options button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Clicking on the up arrow should give you the ability to choose your AnyConnect VPN login. Login to your VPN there and then login through the standard Windows login. I'm not sure this is possible if you're not using SSL VPN and AnyConnect. We have a service agreement with Cisco and the were extremely helpful with getting this working. We no longer have any XP clients so I'm not sure if it's the same. Hope this helps. John