Some XP PCs can't access Maxtor Shared Storage but some others can

[Oliver Breitfelder]

Hello.

We are using a AFAIK samba-based NAS drive called "Maxtor Shared Storage II"
in a network with 10 Windows XP PCs (Home and Pro machines).

We created a private (= password secured) share on this network drive.
Unfortunately we are experiencing some difficulties when trying to access
this share:

Some of the machines can't login - the login window always re-appears as if
the user account data was not accepted while other machines on this network
can perfectly access the share with EXACTLY this username and password!
First I thought this could be a Home/Pro problem but after further
investigation I found out that the problem seems not to be connected to Home
/ Pro / SP1 / SP2.

It works on some Pro based machines and on some of the Home based machines.
And vice versa I cannot connect to the share with some machines running Pro
and some PCs running Home. I also compared the registry values in
HKEYLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Las. But even with registry values matching
the ones from a PC where access to this share works did not help. Still no
access.

I just can't find out what is different between the "good" and the "bad"
machines. Please help. Thanks in advance.


Bye Oliver

 

[smlunatick]

Hello.

We are using a AFAIK samba-based NAS drive called "Maxtor Shared Storage II"
in a network with 10 Windows XP PCs (Home and Pro machines).

We created a private (= password secured) share on this network drive.
Unfortunately we are experiencing some difficulties when trying to access
this share:

Some of the machines can't login - the login window always re-appears as if
the user account data was not accepted while other machines on this network
can perfectly access the share with EXACTLY this username and password!
First I thought this could be a Home/Pro problem but after further
investigation I found out that the problem seems not to be connected to Home
/ Pro / SP1 / SP2.

It works on some Pro based machines and on some of the Home based machines.
And vice versa I cannot connect to the share with some machines running Pro
and some PCs running Home. I also compared the registry values in
HKEYLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Las. But even with registry values matching
the ones from a PC where access to this share works did not help. Still no
access.

I just can't find out what is different between the "good" and the "bad"
machines. Please help. Thanks in advance.

Bye Oliver

I have seen somethong simuliar when an anti-virus software (Norton A/V
2007) was installed and "blocked" the NetBIOS access to the Samba
shared drive. You need to check for possible anti-virus software
settings that block Internet worm type viruses and configure the
access to "unblock" local network access.

 

[Oliver Breitfelder]

[..]
You need to check for possible anti-virus software

settings that block Internet worm type viruses and configure the
access to "unblock" local network access.

Thank you, I'll check that ASAP.


Bye Oliver

 

[Oliver Breitfelder]

[..]
You need to check for possible anti-virus software

settings that block Internet worm type viruses and configure the
access to "unblock" local network access.

Thank you, I'll check that ASAP.

That's what I found out:

Norton isn't my problem.

When I access a PUBLIC share on the Maxtor drive, Windows seems to send the
actual username and password of the windows user account although no
authentication would be necessary for the PUBLIC share. If I then try to
connect to a PRIVATE share, the connection ist denied.

If I use "net use * /delete" and kill this access to the PUBLIC share I can
easily access the PRIVATE share again.

I used a sniffer program to log the SMB protocol transfer: After accessing a
PUBLIC share (where windows sends actual username and password of the
windows user account!) Windows always uses the login data of the windows
user no matter which data I enter in the window "Connect to: Maxtor Shared
Storage".

This means if I do not terminate the access to the PUBLIC share manually it
is impossible to access a PRIVATE share afterwards. Windows saves the user
data it used to access the PUBLIC share and doesn't terminate the connection
itself even when the window showing the public folder is closed. You can
check this by using the net-command.

Same problem: If you connect your PC to a PUBLIC share at startup (assigning
a drive letter) it is impossible to access a PRIVATE share from this PC as
long as you do not disconnect the drive letter association. If you do that
the connection also disappears from the "net" status und you can access a
PRIVATE share using another combination of username and password.

So far my experiences.


Bye Oliver