Partition sharing through network

[Guest]

Hi all.
In XP I've got an entire partition shared from my laptop through my home
network. I would love to do the same thing on vista, but if i not use a
password for my user, it won't me let access this partition from the net,
either if i told him not to use "password protection sharing" in "network
connection and sharing center" (hope the translations from italian is correct
)

Is there something we can do for this?

Thanks all
Luca

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

As with XP, Vista limits the use of user accounts without passwords to local
logon only.

Both Vista and XP have a setting that can be changed to allow network
connections without a password, but it is a significant security exposure to
turn this on.

However if you are determined:

1. in Explorer, navigate to c:\windows\system32
2. right click gpedit.msc, select Run as Administrator
3. click Continue (or supply the credentials for an administrative user
account is so prompted)
4. in the left pane, navigate to:
Computer Configuration
Windows Settings
Security Settings
Local Policies
Security Options
5. in the right pane double click "Accounts: Limit local account use of
blank passwords to console logon only"
6. select the "Disabled" radio button
7. click OK
8. close the Group Policy Object Editor

If you can connect to shares (over the network) on a Windows XP computer
with a user account that does not have a password, you (or someone else)
must have changed this setting on that XP computer sometime in the past.

 

[Guest]

I've search this setting in my XP Pro, and its state is active... But I can
access to my shared partition in my lan with no problem... At this point, i
dunnow how I can, but can, both from my desktop to my laptop partition and
from my laptop to my desktop partition!

 

[Ko]

I haven't seen the first question.
But if you want to share a part of the HD (partition or folder is the same!)
you have to use the advanced options and set the rights conform the way you
want to work.
Ko.

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

1. The default for "Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to
console logon only" is "Enabled" (sorry, I don't know what that is in
Italian). You need to change this to "Disabled" to allow connection to
shares from another computer using a user account that does not have a
password. Unfortunately, the Microsoft designers have made some things
confusing by choosing to define some settings in the negative (in this case,
"limit..." - prevent - as opposed to "allow..."). This means one has to
"Disable"
some settings in order to allow whatever the setting controls.

2. XP Home does not have gpedit, but XP Professional does. My testing shows
that with XP Home, the behaviour is as if this setting is set to "Disabled",
so connecting to shares from another computer using a user account with NO
password works.

3. Vista Home Basic does not appear to have gpedit or Local Security Policy
(as
does Vista Ultimate for example). In Network and Sharing Center, the
setting of
"Password protected sharing" ("On" or "Off") doesn't make any difference -
can not connect to shares using a blank password.

However, there is a subtle difference. If you try to connect to a share by
keying the UNC name in Start, Run (e.g. on an XP Home computer):
a. with Password protected sharing Off, on the computer attempting to
connect to the Vista computer's share (e.g. XP Home), net use shows that the
Vista computer's share was "connected" although access to the share's
content is denied.
The Vista computer appears in My Network Places, Entire Network,
Microsoft Windows Network (in the appropriate workgroup) and the shares are
listed, even though you get access denied if you click on one of them.

b. with Password protected sharing On, on the computer attempting to connect
to the Vista computer's share (e.g. XP Home), net use does NOT show the
Vista computer's share
The Vista computer appears in My Network Places, Entire Network,
Microsoft Windows Network (in the appropriate workgroup), but no shares are
shown. If you click on the Vista computer, you get access denied.

4. If you set "Password protected sharing" to Off AND add the Everyone local
group to the Share permissions

(right click on the folder, select Share..., click Change sharing
permissions, key Everyone, click Add, click Share, click Continue (on the
UAC prompt), click Done),

then you can connect to the share on the Vista computer using a user account
that does not have a pasword.