The Windows runas command and the /netonly switch

Earlier today I needed to administer a Windows Server remotely using a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. The computer I was using was in one domain and the remote server was in a workgroup, meaning many MMC operations failed. I tried running MMC as the administrator using runas /user:remotecomputername\username mmc but kept getting: "RUNAS ERROR: Unable to run - mmc 1311: There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request."

Then I found out about the /netonly switch for the runas command, used to indicate that the supplied credentials are for remote access only. By changing my command to runas /netonly /user:remotecomputername\username mmc, I was able to authenticate against the remote computer without needing the credentials to also be valid on the local computer, as described by Craig Andera.

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