domain.local not an option in Permissions location area

I'm trying to let a user on the domain have share access to one of my folders on my local machine. I know that in order to do this I have to select the user from the domain provided by my Windows 2003 server. I am able to do this on 2 machines, but the other 4 for some reason aren't allowing me to do that. I set up all the machines alike and I can't figure out what's the problem. Even on those machines that do work, once in a while when I go into the permissions dialog box and click on location only the local computer name shows.

Any suggestions? I think it must be a setting with my Windows 2003 server, perhaps dealing with Active Directory. Also, the computers that seem to work I can access their logs from the server, and get the message that they can't find the computer on those that it doesn't work.

 

share access to one of my folders on my local machine

Is this PC a domain member?

If not, have you tried adding local user accounts that exactly match the domain accounts of the folks you want to have access?

Are all the PCs involved located on the same network? I.e., same physical wiring and with IP/subnet settings that should allow them to communicate?

 

Yes, the PC's are all Domain members, all on the same network and same subnet mask. I am able to access the win 2003 server from all machines, it's just when I go to share a folder to domain members on a local machine that I get the problem.

 

Are the client PC's XP?
Make sure the Personal Firewalls are disabled.

 

The client PC's are all XP, and the only firewall that is up is the windows firewall. But that shouldn't have any affect as it won't even let me change the permissions on that local machine to share the folder. I could understand if it's shared properly and I couldn't access it from another computer on the network, but that isn't the case. Perhaps I haven't explained the problem good enough.

If you go to permissions on sharing, there's a place that says location. I need this to say mydomainname.local in order to share it for domain users, but it won't let me do this. Is it a setting with active directory? I can get one computer to work properly but the rest won't. From what I can tell, they are all set up exactly the same.

 

I'm not sure I'm following things properly here.

When you share the folder, normal best practice is to leave the share access set for the default of 'everyone'. You do the security part directly on the folder rather than the share. See the first picture for an example from my system.

In the security piece of folder permissions and since you are all on the same domain, it should be fairly easy to pick the users you wish to allow. The default location will be the domain where your PC is located but if there are others, you can click on the 'locations' button and pick a different one as shown in the second picture.

The domain.local thing sounds like a group rather than a user and if so, isn't required.

How about creating a new group on your PC (so it will be a local group) and putting in the domain user accounts you want to have access. Then just add that local group to the folder security.

The last two pictures show an example of that with a local group I created containing domain users.

 

I just had a thought that might help.

The accounts you are logging on to the client PCs. What group are they in on the domain? I would assume users.
If you are logging on with a domain user account that user will need local admin rights to the machine to hand out shares.

 

Thats the firewall I was refering to and it can be a problem in a domain enviroment.

 

OK, disabled the firewall and still no dice.