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Connecting to a Share from a Client Computer
When a user on another computer on the network attempts to access
a shared disk or folder, Windows XP Professional checks to see whether
that user has permission to access it. The client computer sends
the user name and password of the user who is currently logged in,
and the XP Professional computer checks them. If those ‘credentials'
match an account on XP Professional, then it checks the ACL for
the shared disk or folder. If the ACL permits access by that user,
access is granted; if not, access is denied.
On a client running Windows 95, 98, or Me, that's the whole story.
The user must be logged in with a user name and password that XP
Professional recognizes.
On a client running Windows 2000 or XP, there's more to the story.
If XP Professional doesn't recognize the logged-in user name and
password, it causes the client computer to prompt the user to enter
a different user name and password.
Connecting to a Share from Windows 95, 98, or Me
The following shows how to connect to a shared disk or folder from
a computer running Windows 95, 98, or Me, and also shows some of
the more common error conditions which can occur. In this example,
the client computer is running Windows 98 Second Edition.
Under Windows 95/98/Me, you can set the Primary Network Logon
to Windows Logon, and all of the networking features
described here will function correctly. The only situation in which
the Primary Network Logon must be set to Client for Microsoft
Networks is to log on to a Windows NT server or a Windows 2000
server.
The most important thing is to understand that everything is keyed
to the user name. When you boot up the client machine, you need
to get logged in with the correct user name.
Many Windows 95/98/Me machines are configured to boot all the way
through to the Windows desktop without the user actually performing
a login. If this is the case, click the Start button, and
look at the Log Off menu option. It will show you what user
name is currently logged on. If it isn't correct, then click Log
Off and log back on under the correct user name. If the XP Professional
account was set up with a password, then you must enter that password
at the Windows logon prompt. If you configured XP to permit ‘blank'
password authentication, then you may click OK without entering
a password.
Now,
you ought to be able to browse the network by double-clicking Network
Neighborhood (or My Network Places).
If you get an error at this stage, you're most likely not logged
on. See the Troubleshooting section for how to proceed.
You can now browse the contents
of the XP Professional machine by double-clicking it.
If the list of shares appears, then all is well. However, a common
failure at this point is to be asked for the IPC$ password.
This happens because the XP Professional machine is not satisfied
with the credentials of the user attempting to browse it. See the
Troubleshooting section for how to proceed.
You
may now look in the individual shares. If all is well, you'll see
the shares that the user has permissions for, yet you ought to get
an Access Denied error (below) if you attempt to access other
shares. In this example, we're logged in as Fraser and can
access the Boys' stuff, but not the Girls' stuff (right).
Connecting to a Share from Windows 2000 or XP
If Windows XP Professional doesn't
recognize the user name and password presented by a Windows 2000
or XP computer which wants to access a share, you can enter different
credentials. Here, we're logged on to another Windows XP computer
as a user which doesn't have an account on the computer named RONS-PC.
Entering a valid user name and password grants access
If Windows XP Professional doesn't
recognize the user name and password presented by a Windows 2000
or XP computer which wants to access a share, you can enter different
credentials. Here, we're logged on to another Windows XP computer
as a user which doesn't have an account on the computer named RONS-PC.
Entering a valid user name and password grants access
