Incorrectly identifying passwords as wrong

[IanGlinka]

Users in my office have been complaining that while logging on, they are being told their passwords are incorrect, when in fact, after retyping them in the exact same way (or simply leaving them the same without touching them... you know how windows leaves your password in for you) - it will let you in! Sometimes it takes up to 3 times. I don't understand.

We run a win2k Server with primarily windows98 clients.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Ian

 

[butchrecon]

Are you running WINS? James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[IanGlinka]

I'm actually not sure if I am running WINS or not. How can I check this?

Ian

 

[Lightspeed1]

Under administrative tools you will see an entry for WINS, select and it will take you to the WINS management screen.
Regards,
Lightspeed1

 

[IanGlinka]

I don't see an entry for WINS - I suppose that means I'm not particularly using it. Still, I have a problem at hand regarding users being rejected logon even after they have typed in their CORRECT password.

Ian

 

[BradSQLGuy]

I've seen this alot with Win9x machines trying to authenticate. What happens is your Win9x machine has 2 passwords.. 1-network password 2-Windows password. If the user resets the password and it's different from the Network password it can cause this type of problem. Try changing the Windows password to match the network password by clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, Passwords. Windows 9x many times gets confused when these two passwords are not identical. After you reset the passwords to match reboot the computers and hopefully that will fix your problem. -Best cartoon of all time :-D 'Spongebob Squarepants' :-D

 

[IanGlinka]

I know that can't be the problem, as the machine WILL logon with the user's password. It's just that sometimes it takes 2 tries, someimtes 3, sometimes it goes in on the first try. I KNOW* the passwords are correct because it happens to me as well as machines that auto-login with stored passwords (tweakui). We don't use the windows password.

Ian

 

[BradSQLGuy]

The only other thing I can think it could be is because Windows 98 doesn't send an encrypted password and can sometimes be interpreted as incorrect or invalid. You can go into the registry on your Windows 98 machines to try to fix this.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Vxd\Vnetsup

Under this key, create a new DWORD registry key named "EnablePlainTextPassword", set its value to 1, and then restart your computer.

Other then that I don't know what it could be. -Best cartoon of all time :-D 'Spongebob Squarepants' :-D

 

[GlenJohnson]

Do you have a way of checking your network for bad packets? Sometimes a nic failing will send out enough bad packets that it confuses things and the authentication will fail. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
gjohn76351@msn.com
"We will either find a way, or make one".
Hannibal (247-183 B.C.); Carthaginian general.

 

[GenesisCraigM]

FYI - Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, NT4, and 2K have never cached user's passwords in the initial logon box.
Craig J Matthews
System Administrator, Genesis Group
craigm@genesisgroup.com