Network shares do not appear on some computers

[Jim Howes]

On a windows 2000 professional system we have a number of shares

GeneralData
Public
RestrictedData
PhoneLog


Of these, RestrictedData has the more restrictive of access permissions, in that
only certain named users have any sort of access.

The local security policy is unchanged from the default. There is no domain.

The problem is that one particular computer (running Windows 98 SE) cannot see
\\machine\RestrictedData in the list of available shares via explorer, but can
both map \\machine\RestrictedData to a drive, and can browse to
\\machine\RestrictedData via shortcuts and typing the UNC path into the address
bar in explorer.

When mapped, the user credentials, as viewed via compmgmt.msc's 'Open Files'
panel show that files are being correctly accessed as the user concerned.

For some reason, this has become a critical issue (despite being a complete
non-issue for me and all of the other members of staff concerned) for one
particular manager, and I need to GET IT SORTED NOW! OR ELSE.

(Naturally, I am treating this with the priority it obviously deserves, just
below watching grass grow, paint dry, watching pots boil, and trying to get a
truthful answer out of a politician)

I am wondering, however, if it has something to do with the length of the share
name.

Jim

 

[Jim Howes]

I am wondering, however, if it has something to do with the length of the share
name.

Replying to my own post, I have created a
\\mymachine\VeryLongShareNamePerhapsTooLongForWindows98

and XP/2000 sees that, whereas w98 does not. So I conclude that there is a
length limit.

Yet further investigation via...
X=12345678901234567890 ; for f in `seq 1 20` ; do D=`echo $X | cut -c1-$f` ;
mkdir $D ; net share $D=C:\\TMP\\$D ; done
(helps if you have a real shell for that one, or it's a _lot_ of mucking about
with the mouse and keyboard. ;-)
.... suggests that W98 can only see shares in explorer that are no longer than 12
characters in share name length, and make no attempt to display (but can still
_USE_ shares with longer names)

 

[John John]

Yes, the 12 character limit is documented here:

Windows 95/98 Clients Cannot See Long Share Names
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;160843

There is also a maximum length of 14 characters for passwords, Windows
9x machines might not be able to access network resources on NT machines
if NT passwords are longer than 14 characters.

John