Requiring User Name and Password for Connection to Network Resourc

[Guest]

I work in an office with about a dozen people and their respective computers,
connected via a Peer to Peer LAN with one another and a shared network
storage device. In addition to using space on the shared storage device we
periodically wish to connect to shared folders on one anothers' computers.

My computer, and most if not all of the others in the office, run XP Pro
with SP2.

When I connect (or, rather attempt to connect) to another machine on the
network I understand that my computer automatically sends a user name and
password to the computer to which I'm trying to connect. I understand that
the user name and password sent are the user name and password under which I
logged on to my own machine.

I would like to change that behavior. I would like have my computer prompt
me to supply a user name and password to be passed on the remote machine each
time I attempt to connect.

I have the impression that once upon a time when I was looking for something
else, I saw an option somewhere in Windows for changing to the desired form
of behavior, but now that I want it, I can't find it anywhere.

Do any of you know how (or if) I can do this? If so, I would be grateful to
know how.

Thank you.

John

 

[Chuck]

I work in an office with about a dozen people and their respective computers,
connected via a Peer to Peer LAN with one another and a shared network
storage device. In addition to using space on the shared storage device we
periodically wish to connect to shared folders on one anothers' computers.

My computer, and most if not all of the others in the office, run XP Pro
with SP2.

When I connect (or, rather attempt to connect) to another machine on the
network I understand that my computer automatically sends a user name and
password to the computer to which I'm trying to connect. I understand that
the user name and password sent are the user name and password under which I
logged on to my own machine.

I would like to change that behavior. I would like have my computer prompt
me to supply a user name and password to be passed on the remote machine each
time I attempt to connect.

I have the impression that once upon a time when I was looking for something
else, I saw an option somewhere in Windows for changing to the desired form
of behavior, but now that I want it, I can't find it anywhere.

Do any of you know how (or if) I can do this? If so, I would be grateful to
know how.

Thank you.

John

John,

If Advanced File Sharing is active, and you have a matching account on the
server, you should get access without prompting. That's how most folks like it.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Activate>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Activate

If you don't have a matching account on the server, and if the Guest account on
the server is not enabled, then the server should request that you authenticate
using an account / password that is on the server.

If the Guest account on the server is not active, and Simple File Sharing is
active, then you just won't get access.

See my article, and the referenced white paper from Microsoft:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OtherOS>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OtherOS

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the helpful information, but I think I'm missing something
because I don't see how this answers the question I asked.

As I read the material to which you referred me, it desribes how to manage a
system in which a one computer - acting as a client - gets access to another
- acting as a server - by automatically proferring a user name and password
based on information stored on the computer, either in the windows users
profile or elsewhere.

I want to change that behavior. I don't want the client to ever
automatically offer a user name and password. Instead, I want the user to be
prompted to provide it every time.

I posted my question because I thought I had onece seen where I had the
ability to make this change, but I can't recall where it is.

So, I reiterate my initial question in perhaps slightly clearer language.
How do I instruct my computer NOT to automatically offer a user name and
password to a server and to, instead, prompt the user to enter one every time
it connects to a server resource?

My question, of course, assumes that it is possible to do so. If it's not,
I'll just have to give up.

John

 

[Chuck]

Thank you for the helpful information, but I think I'm missing something
because I don't see how this answers the question I asked.

As I read the material to which you referred me, it desribes how to manage a
system in which a one computer - acting as a client - gets access to another
- acting as a server - by automatically proferring a user name and password
based on information stored on the computer, either in the windows users
profile or elsewhere.

I want to change that behavior. I don't want the client to ever
automatically offer a user name and password. Instead, I want the user to be
prompted to provide it every time.

I posted my question because I thought I had onece seen where I had the
ability to make this change, but I can't recall where it is.

So, I reiterate my initial question in perhaps slightly clearer language.
How do I instruct my computer NOT to automatically offer a user name and
password to a server and to, instead, prompt the user to enter one every time
it connects to a server resource?

John,

All of the references that I provide assume that one is trying to do what you
are trying to avoid doing, so my apologies for confusing references. So let me
rephrase everything. Read the whole set of rules below.

1) If your server is using Advanced File Sharing, and you're logged in locally
with an account that is mirrored on the server, you'll get connected
automatically.

2) If you're logged in locally with an account that is NOT mirrored on the
server, and Guest is activated for network access, you'll authenticate with
Guest.

3) If you're logged in locally with an account that is NOT mirrored on the
server, and Guest is NOT activated for network access, it will ask you to
authenticate.

4) The Microsoft white paper is a good reference here. You need to:
# Enable Advanced File Sharing.
# Disable Guest for network access.
# Ensure that no non-Guest accounts are mirrored on any potential clients.
# Ensure that at least one non-Guest account is activated for network access.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Activate>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Activate
# Access the server from your client. When it pops up with an authentication
demand, use the non-Guest account defined on the server.

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much for califying things. I will give it a try as you suggest.

Am I correct, by the way, in interpreting your answer to mean that there is
not a way of simply instructing the cliient computer to bypass all this
complex business about whether or not there's a mirrored account or a guest
account and simply ask the user to always supply a user name and password?

John

 

[Chuck]

Thank you very much for califying things. I will give it a try as you suggest.

Am I correct, by the way, in interpreting your answer to mean that there is
not a way of simply instructing the cliient computer to bypass all this
complex business about whether or not there's a mirrored account or a guest
account and simply ask the user to always supply a user name and password?

John,

There's not a SIMPLER way, as most folks don't care about manual authentication.
If your account (on your local computer) is mirrored on the server, why would
you want the server to ask you to authenticate again?

So by design, if your account is mirrored on the server, you aren't asked to
authenticate. The Guest account is used as a fallback; if it's active on the
server, you aren't asked to authenticate.

Windows 98 used password protected shares ("Share-Level Access"), or optionally,
user protected shares ("User-Level Access"). Folks preferred the latter. Most
folks use user level access, and love it.

Having written all of that, I'm curious now. Why do you WANT to authenticate
repeatedly?

 

[Guest]

Oh well. I must have seen something else and just misinterpreted it, so that
I thought it compelled what you call "manual authentication."

Thank you kindly for all the time you have evidently put into following this
thread with me. No matter what the outcome, I'm very grateful!

As for why, it's a fair question. We have this shared storage device in our
office that appears to be tempermental. There are people in my office who
tell me they can connect one one day, and then the next day they can't.
Typically the error message is someting along the lines of "You don't have
permission to access this resource. Check your user name and password blah
blah blah blah." Now in all these cases, the folks who are having trouble
haven't actually typed ANY username or password, so there's nothing for them
to check!

Hence my question. If we could arrange things so that the user actually had
control over the user name and password that is passed to the remote
resource, then (I think) we ought to have better and more predictable
success. Since I now have learned from you that the manual approach is not
possible, I will have to figure out another approach. Thanks to you, I
have a good starting point in the essay to which you directed my attention.
I'll be reading that rather carefully before tying to develop another
approach to our problem.

Once again, thank you very much.

 

[Chuck]

Oh well. I must have seen something else and just misinterpreted it, so that
I thought it compelled what you call "manual authentication."

Thank you kindly for all the time you have evidently put into following this
thread with me. No matter what the outcome, I'm very grateful!

As for why, it's a fair question. We have this shared storage device in our
office that appears to be tempermental. There are people in my office who
tell me they can connect one one day, and then the next day they can't.
Typically the error message is someting along the lines of "You don't have
permission to access this resource. Check your user name and password blah
blah blah blah." Now in all these cases, the folks who are having trouble
haven't actually typed ANY username or password, so there's nothing for them
to check!

Hence my question. If we could arrange things so that the user actually had
control over the user name and password that is passed to the remote
resource, then (I think) we ought to have better and more predictable
success. Since I now have learned from you that the manual approach is not
possible, I will have to figure out another approach. Thanks to you, I
have a good starting point in the essay to which you directed my attention.
I'll be reading that rather carefully before tying to develop another
approach to our problem.

OK, John,

I think that you may have a rather common problem that's discussed here. The
generic message "You don't have permission to access this resource BLAH BLAH
BLAH" can have many reasons for coming up. Many of them typically will NOT be
solved by manual authentication.

If the problem is transient ("temperamental"), I'd bet you have a variant of a
master browser conflict. Let's do some diagnosis of the problem.

First, when you see the message, what is the complete and exact content? That
could be essential.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/01/look-at-complete-detail-in-error.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/01/look-at-complete-detail-in-error.html

The next time that you see the message, provide "browstat status", "ipconfig
/all", "net config server", and "net config workstation", from the problem
computer at the time, and from one non problem computer, and diagnose the
problem. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions
precisely (download browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp

You may also read about the browser in general:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html

And about diagnosing the problem:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html