Wierd File Sharing Problem

[andrew.palumbo]

Here's the network topology:
Two computers, GILES and WESLEY, both running XP-Pro-SP2 with SFS
file sharing, connected via a router to form a workgroup WORKGROUP
using a common subnet. Both have Administrator-priviledged users
'Andrew' and 'Jessica' with no password and fast-user-switching
enabled.

They can see each other fine using 'net view' and the network
neighborhood browser.

They each have a public share called 'Drives' which contains NTFS
folder mounts of their System(C drives and a 250GB internal drive
(WD250RE1 on WESLEY and WD250RE2 on GILES). GILES also has another
200GB internal drive called Venus1.

XP Personal Firewall has been temporarily disabled on both computers
while this is sorted out. restrictanonymous is set to 0. Guest
account is enabled on both. No accounts are in the 'Deny network
access to this computer' list in Local Security Settings' and 'Allow
network access to this computer' includes all registered users as well
as 'Everyone'. No messages appear in either computer's event viewer
when the following problems are experienced.

So here's the problem(s):
Any user on WESLEY can browse through to and edit any files in:
\\GILES\Drives\C
\\GILES\Drives\Venus1
However, WESLEY\Andrew can see but not open the contents of
\\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2

i.e. in Explorer, opening \\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2 from WESLEY shows the
five subfolders of that folder, but trying to open any gives a message:

"\\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2\Weddings is not accessible. You might not
have permission to access this network resource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have access permission.

Access is denied."

When the subfolders are examined using 'Properties' in the file or
context menu, they come out as 0 byte, 0 content.

When the failing UNC is supplied to 'net use', such as:

'net use \\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2\Weddings'

there is a long delay followed by the response:

"System Error 53

The network path was not found."

An parallel situation occurs when any user on GILES tries to access
files within \\WESLEY\DRIVES\WD250RE1'. Again, all other 'drives' can
be browsed and edited with no errors.

Any ideas???

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Chuck]

Here's the network topology:
Two computers, GILES and WESLEY, both running XP-Pro-SP2 with SFS
file sharing, connected via a router to form a workgroup WORKGROUP
using a common subnet. Both have Administrator-priviledged users
'Andrew' and 'Jessica' with no password and fast-user-switching
enabled.

They can see each other fine using 'net view' and the network
neighborhood browser.

They each have a public share called 'Drives' which contains NTFS
folder mounts of their System(C drives and a 250GB internal drive
(WD250RE1 on WESLEY and WD250RE2 on GILES). GILES also has another
200GB internal drive called Venus1.

XP Personal Firewall has been temporarily disabled on both computers
while this is sorted out. restrictanonymous is set to 0. Guest
account is enabled on both. No accounts are in the 'Deny network
access to this computer' list in Local Security Settings' and 'Allow
network access to this computer' includes all registered users as well
as 'Everyone'. No messages appear in either computer's event viewer
when the following problems are experienced.

So here's the problem(s):
Any user on WESLEY can browse through to and edit any files in:
\\GILES\Drives\C
\\GILES\Drives\Venus1
However, WESLEY\Andrew can see but not open the contents of
\\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2

i.e. in Explorer, opening \\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2 from WESLEY shows the
five subfolders of that folder, but trying to open any gives a message:

"\\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2\Weddings is not accessible. You might not
have permission to access this network resource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have access permission.

Access is denied."

When the subfolders are examined using 'Properties' in the file or
context menu, they come out as 0 byte, 0 content.

When the failing UNC is supplied to 'net use', such as:

'net use \\GILES\DRIVES\WD250RE2\Weddings'

there is a long delay followed by the response:

"System Error 53

The network path was not found."

An parallel situation occurs when any user on GILES tries to access
files within \\WESLEY\DRIVES\WD250RE1'. Again, all other 'drives' can
be browsed and edited with no errors.

Any ideas???

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew,

There are several possible causes for a "System Error 53". It appears that
you're aware of most of them, but maybe reviewing the list will help.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/mysterious-error-53-aka-name-not-found.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/mysterious-error-53-aka-name-not-found.html

Are you sure that Windows Firewall is the only firewall involved? What
antivirus programs do you have?
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/your-personal-firewall-can-either-help.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/your-personal-firewall-can-either-help.html

Beyond that, I'd suggest that you review Sharing ("sharing") and NTFS ("Security
- Permissions") permissioning for the shares and folders in question. Disable
SFS, and use the Properties applet; or run CACLS.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/09/server-access-authorisation.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/09/server-access-authorisation.html

 

[andrew.palumbo]

You were right with the last suggestion. When I turned off SFS and
examined the NTFS permissions on the subfolders, none of them had
priveleges supplied for 'Everyone', just named users. Since SFS uses
Guest/no-password it seems that's where the conflict was. Fixing
the NTFS permissions fixed the problem.

 

[Chuck]

You were right with the last suggestion. When I turned off SFS and
examined the NTFS permissions on the subfolders, none of them had
priveleges supplied for 'Everyone', just named users. Since SFS uses
Guest/no-password it seems that's where the conflict was. Fixing
the NTFS permissions fixed the problem.

Andrew,

That's great news. Thanks for letting us know what the immediate problem was.