XP Password prompt when accessing shared folders

HI,

I have a ckient with 2 XP Pro PCs. OFFICE2 can connect to OFFICE1's shares with no problem. OFFICE2 ALWAYS asks for user and password, but in Title bar of password prompt it says "Connect to OFFICE1 ". Above the username prompt it says "Connecting to OFFICE2 ". Thi sseems weird to me!! I have enabled NetBios over TCP, set up accounts til i'm blue in the face, and am getting nowhere!!!

Any suggestions??

 

First, Control Panel, Folder Options, View
Nearly at the bottom is a checkbox for "Use simple file sharing - recommended "

Make sure it is checkmarked on both boxes.

Second, on both boxes:
Start, Run, net user Guest /Active:yes

Third, on both boxes, make sure that Netbios over TCP/IP is enabled:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318030

Finally, make sure that in the Security for any shared folder that the Group "Everyone" is included.

Power down all equipment. Bring up modem, then router, then workstations. Wait fifteen minutes then test your file sharing.

 

It should be noted, that by enabling the guest account and relying on it for Network files sharing, you have made your network less secure. It will be more easy for viruses to pass files around the network.

Unfortunately I cannot provide a better solution. However, you should be aware that there is a security trade off in making the network easier to use.

If it was my network, I'd leave the system as it is. Personally the inconveniance of having to enter a usename and password occasionally is worth the better security.

However, if your user is insistant that the user prompt disappears, you may have little choice than to use the technique Bill has suggested.

 

I did not enable the Guest account. It is in whatever state the user left it. I forced the enablement of Group Guest if there were any issues with its default state under XP.

In many ways this is the most secure model for network access. (This configuration has absolutely nothing to do with access from outside your LAN). Because the Guest account is by defintion a limited user account under XP. If using XP Home edition you have no choice, the Simple File Sharing model using the Group Guest for authentication is the only one possible. This is also the model used by XP Pro by default. You can change the defaults for XP Pro to use a permissions and access model that more closely resembles Windows 2000 if you choose, but it seems overkill in the setting asked about by the original poster in this thread.

WindowsITPro Magazine shortly after the release of Service Pack 2 offered US$10,000 to anyone who could read a .txt file left on an XP Professional workstation protected only by SP2; and leave a .txt file message in response. After one week no one had managed the feat. The experiment was ended by their ISP who was recording over 5,000 hits on the IP address per minute.

I you have some way of remotely broaching the security of a Group Guest access enabled XP Professional workstation runnning Service Pack 2, Microsoft would love to hear from you. And so would I.

 

Here are a few viruses that use the guest account.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32spybotw.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32adoyua.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32sdbotq.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32xiboa.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/jssqlspiderb.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/trojzgbbota.html

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32donka.html

I agree that with XP Home you have little choice but to use the guest account, and also the SP2 has blocked up many of the holes viruses like these attacked. However, I still believe that the best advice is to disable guest unless you have to enable it.

 

. The "viruses" you mention are all worms and not viruses. This is important because you need to consider both the direct consequences of the worm infection, and its desire to spread using network and internet connections. A Guest user and the Group Guests are LUA users and this would not permit any changes to the Host computer to cause direct consequnces; and a logon as User Guest would fail under XP Home and XP Pro by default. Nothing I suggested earlier changes these default settings for User Guest.

. All attempt a console logon with User Guest. This has nothing to do with the Simple File Sharing authentication model using the Guests group. By default in both XP Home and XP Pro the user account Guest is disabled. Nothing I recommended changed that situation.

. You failed to mention that even if a console logon as User Guest had succeeded because of user changes to the default security model, the user Guest is a LUA user by definition, and is not priviliged to make persistent OS changes. Even the Guest profile is completely removed at logoff by the Guest user. Again, this has nothing to do with Windows Networking security. See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300489

The local account "Guest" can be disabled under Simple File Sharing without effecting its networking capabilities. This is in fact the default for XP -- all versions. The "Guest" User is of importance only for a console logon and has nothing to do with network authentication.