We use NIS (ypbind) and Kerberos at work for all our Linux and Unix systems. Home directories are mounted via autofs from an NIS map. Everything works just fine as long as all network resources are available (however, things turn ugly when the NIS servers are not reachable). Some users also want to start using laptops and bring them home or on trips to continue working while not at the office. Of course, their home directories won't be available and neither will other network resources. Creating local accounts with the same UIDs and local home directories solves most of the problems. However, I can't create a local account with useradd while ypbind is running because it complains that that account already exists. Is there a better way to create a local account then "service ypbind stop; useradd...; service ypbind start"? What are other strategies that you use to deal with off- network use in an NIS environment? Alfred