2
I always assumed that assigning computers to different workgroups was a way of effectively putting them on separate Windows networks. I just tried this, expecting computers in one workgroup to be invisible to computers in the other (and vice versa). Instead, all computers are still visible and accessible to one another.
If this isn't the purpose of changing workgroup names, what is?
EDIT: Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007, this question is not a duplicate. I'm asking specifically what changing workgroup names achieves, not generally what workgroups are for. Could you please undo this?
Mica
Posted 2015-06-05T19:50:18.023
Reputation: 678
3Workgroups don't mean what they used to back in '93. Now that NBT works over TCP/IP (rather than the old non-routable NetBUI) protocol, and WINS is no longer needed to broker naming across subnets, the workgroup does not present a reachability barrier. that said, each workgroup maintains its own browse masters and holds its own elections, so there is a differance, its just less and less noticable to the user each iteration. – Frank Thomas – 2015-06-05T20:11:32.687
1Xichael: I don’t understand your question. If it is (1) “I have four computers (FRED, WILMA, BARNEY, and BETTY) at home, and they are all in the workgroup MSHOME. What would be the effect of changing FRED and WILMA to be in the BEDROCK workgroup, and leaving BARNEY and BETTY as they are?” — then your question is a duplicate. If you’re asking (2) “What would be the effect of changing the name of the workgroup for all four computers from MSHOME to XICHAEL?” — then the question borders on the frivolous, and the answer is trivially “None, of course”. – Scott – 2015-06-05T21:30:07.163