Need to manually authenticate user to share printer/files

[Dbyte]

I have a LAN with 9 PCs: 6 Win98SE, 2 Win2K Pro, & 1 WinXP Home. All are setup in a P2P configuration (no domain) with a shared Internet connection (fractional T1). All the PCs can share folders &/or printers fine except for the XP box. When the user logs into her XP box it does not automatically authenticate her on 1 Win2K machine. She has to then go to My Network Places, double-click on the Win2K box she needs to reach, & re-enter her user ID & password. The XP PC is the only 1 with this issue. Here is what I've already checked:
1. Firewall disabled on XP box.
2. Workgroup name is same.
3. User name list for both PCs is identical.
4. XP user has full rights/privileges for files & printer on Win2K box.
5. Both PCs can ping each other by name &/or IP address prior to manual network authentication by XP user.

I have 2 questions:
1. What is causing this?
2. How can I automate the XP user's authentication on the Win2K box?

I've already searched this forum, but nothing seems to relate directly to automated login authentication in a P2P environment.

-Dbyte

 

[bcastner]

What causes it is the default behavior of XP at logon not to make connections automaticly to remote shares that require the use of alternate credentials.

See:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;283492&Product=winxp

 

[jsauce]

Well as I see it your problem is probably the fact you are using XP home. XP Home doesn't have any advanced networking abilities and only uses simple file sharing which should work fine, but sometimes it doesn't. Does the 2000 machine shares have passwords, if so you may want to clear them. If you were using XP Pro I'd suggest a logon script as that would easily fix this but Windows XP Home doesn't have user management, like XP Pro and 2000 does. Are you trying to actually map the drives? By mapping the drive you can give the username and password and also let windows xp know you want to reconnect at logon, which it will then do automatically. Right click on network places and select map network drive. Then fill in the information and make sure that reconnect at logon is checked. Also if you have the connect using a different username option it will allow you to select the username and password to use when doing so.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[Dbyte]

Bcastner, what do you mean by "alternate credentials"? I only ask because the user of the XP box has her name & password setup on the 2K box as well, & they are identical.

Jsauce, how do I find out if the 2K box has share passwords & remove them? I am not trying to map the printer. Should I?

 

[bcastner]

. XP Home will always require you to answer the prompt, the point made above by member jsauce. "Note Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition lacks the Stored User Names and Passwords feature for network share connections. Windows XP Home Edition stores only Remote Access Services/Virtual Private Networking and Microsoft .NET Passport credentials. "

. If the username and passwword are identical between the XP Pro and the Win2k box, remove the existing cached credential and try again.

Start, Run, control userpasswords2
Click the Advanced tab, then Manage Passwords.
Remove the Win2k information if present.