Re: XP network users authenticate against guest password

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Paul L'Allier (plallier_at_stirling-dynamics.com)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 10:25:04 +0100

>
>Paul,
>
>With XP Pro, if Simple File Sharing is disabled, check the Local Security Policy
>(Control Panel - Administrative Tools). Under Local Policies - Security
>Options, look at "Network access: Sharing and security model", and ensure it's
>set to "Classic - local users authenticate as themselves".
>
>With XP Pro, if you set the above Local Security Policy to "Guest only", enable
>the Guest account, using Start - Run - "cmd" - type "net user guest /active:yes"
>in the command window. If "Classic", setup and use a common non-Guest account
>on all computers. Whichever account is used, give it an identical, non-blank
>password on all computers.
>
>Cheers,
>Chuck
>Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Thanks for the reply Chuck.

I've checked and it was already configured this way.

However, I've now discovered the solution and it's one of those really
annoying one which I should have spotted instantly. Definitely user
error.

The guy who originally configured the machine set up a user account
for me using my full name as the username, rather than my usual
username. He then used the "Change Name" option in control panel to
correct what he thought was the username, but was actually the
displayed name.

When I logged in locally, windows was displaying my username and
accepting my password, so I erroneously thought the account was
configurared correctly. Running "net user" at the command prompt
revealled the truth.

Having recreated the affected user accounts, all is now behving as I
had expected.

Cheers,
Paul

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