Cant get a shared folder mapped!!!!! Going crazy!

[davidno99]

Hi,

I have a small business LAN with 5 users. We are running Windows server 2003.

The PCs are XP Pro and while they are on the server domain, when logging in they log in to the workstation and not the domain.

We do some digital video production and needed to setup an inexpensive backup. We setup another XP workstation so that it would copy all our critical data from the server onto a 1 Terabyte drive every week so there was always a backup. (we also do offsite)

In addition to this we wanted to map a folder to this new XP workstation so that individuals could copy critical data on their PCs (Video files) directly to this workstation, bypassing the server because the drive capacity on the server is nearly max out and we cannot affort to upgrade it at present.

I guess you can say this is the cheap mans NAS, but we need this to get us by.

Problem is I cannot MAP a folder to this PC and it is driving me crazy.

I think it may have to do with us not logging into the domain, because after many attempts, I tried logging into the domain on my PC and after doing so, I could access the shared folder.

A) Is there anyway of sharing this folder without logging onto the domain on our workstations?

B) is there any software out there to turn a PC into a NAS easily?

Thanks

 

[BadBigBen]

A) Is there anyway of sharing this folder without logging onto the domain on our workstations?

are both in the same WORKGROUP?

how is the share accessed, through \\hostname\share or through \\IP\share? if by hostname then try IP, or the other way around...

B) is there any software out there to turn a PC into a NAS easily?

see FreeNAS or OpenE DSS V6...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[davidno99]

Thanks for your reply.

They are on a Domain (not a workgroup) and yes they are both on the same Domain.

I can ping the workstation with the shared folder by IP address, but I cannot ping it by its domain name

Also, from the PC with the shared folder, I cannot ping either the IP address my my workstation via IP or domain name.

Do I need to set up the PC with the shared folder on my server DNS or something?

Sorry...I'm a little week in this area....all those years of management have softened my hands on.

Sincerely appreciate the help.

PS - the more I am reading about building a NAS, the more I am thinking that is the real solution, but I would still like to understand what is happening here.

 

[linney]

What does the command IPconfig /all tell you about the "shared" computer, when compared to the same command run on your own computer?

Pinging has to be set up to be allowed by your firewall if it is to get in and out of the machine.

See what this article says about "controlling ICMP packet restrictions"

Microsoft Windows XP SP2 - Installation and Tweaking Guide

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6...2_installation_and_tweaking_guide/index3.html

Some anti virus software also has hidden firewalling components. Have you got any Nvidia network cards or chipsets?

Got Network issues and nForce Chipset...thread1583-1437402:

I Simply Can't Ping A Computer On My Network
thread779-1096319

Besides the Sharing Access Permissions for the Shared Folder, have you looked at the actual NTFS Access Permissions for the folder and files?

 

[BadBigBen]

They are on a Domain (not a workgroup) and yes they are both on the same Domain.

for some reason, I thought the WS with the share was not part of the DOMAIN... my bad...

try this:

On the domain PC, create a new group.

Add only your users to the group. You would normally put in a domain user as domainname\username, but instead use ip-address\username. (using computername\username may also work)

Now set up your permissions on said share, by adding that group to the folder's security tab with modify access. Full access should only be for administrative purposes...


an alternative approach would be to access the share using DIFFERENT CREDENTIALS...

e.g. map the drive using NET USE...

sample batch below, seeing that you can access the share once you logged onto the domain, you would need some domain user to access the share, also parse the domain name along with the user name...

using a modified version of the script below, have it start at login or at startup (GP)...

:REM - no console output
@echo off

:REM - let's make sure that no share is mapped to drive Z:
net use Z: /delete

:REM - let's map the share to drive Z:
net use Z: \\server\folder$ /user:user@domain "password"

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"