Help with Network Share reconnect at login

Hi everyone. I'm at the point where I want to kill Win 2000 and XP.

Situation: Several new PC's in the company (yes we just started upgrading to Win XP from 98

) have mapped network drives to them that require user name and password to access. So they are all connected and mapped and work just fine.

Problem: Every friggin time the computer reboots you have to supply the password credentials for each damn mapped share. Why won't it just save the stuff and automatically login during reboot? Yes, I have selected the 'reconnect at login' option when mapping the drive and Yes I have tried the 'net use' command.

Ex: net use /persistent:yes

Here's the real kicker. I have a Windows 98 machine that has mapped network drives and when I choose the 'connect automatically at start up' option it remembers the password. So I must be missing something. Someone please help.

Thanks,
-TeK

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Comments

jmc724

Are you in a win2000 domain environment? If yes create a group policy to map the drives its call the logon/logoff script.

If not then get a dc.

jheal00

The behavior you describe sounds like you are using Windows XP Home Edition. If that is the case, this is by design.

johnnynodough

what type of box is hosting the shares?

TeKniques

jmc724 wrote:

Are you in a win2000 domain environment? If yes create a group policy to map the drives its call the logon/logoff script.

If not then get a dc.

No we are using a Workgroup environment spread to 6 locations. Sweet isn't it

jheal00 wrote:

The behavior you describe sounds like you are using Windows XP Home Edition. If that is the case, this is by design.

Yes, the machines are Win XP Home, but the problem is that the same thing happens on Windows 2000 Pro machines as well. We don't have any Win XP Pro licenses for me to check if that is the case there. But why can the Win 98 machines reconnect with no password prompt?

johnnynodough wrote:

what type of box is hosting the shares?

Several: FreeBSD x 2, NCR-Unix, and Windows Server 2003 for the web share.

I appreciate all the replies and suggestions. Thanks guys.

johnnynodough

The reason Win98 has no password prompt is because it is treating the shares like NetBios shares, Win2k and XP prefer NTFS shares.

johnnynodough

Im pretty sure in Win2k there is a client you can install, client for unix systems or something to that effect, you have to enable it on the add/remove windows components. Im not seeing it by default on XP, but I am sure it is out there. You just need to enable XP and 2K to connect to a NetBios share.

keatron

What you are describing is a fundamental problem with workgroups. On the machine which hosts the share you are connecting to, create an account for each User trying to connect. This should take care of your issue.

johnnynodough

That needs to be done on the windows boxes, but the devices that are hosting the shares are UNIX.

TeKniques

johnnynodough wrote:

The reason Win98 has no password prompt is because it is treating the shares like NetBios shares, Win2k and XP prefer NTFS shares.

Thank you that does explain it.

keatron wrote:

What you are describing is a fundamental problem with workgroups. On the machine which hosts the share you are connecting to, create an account for each User trying to connect. This should take care of your issue.

Tell me about it, it's not fun. There are so many old clients using Win 95/98 that we have just started upgrading, but since we just buy new computers with Win XP home already installed we have to continue using workgroup. The company doesn't want to fork out the cash for Win XP pro licenses even though it's a mere upgrade with the new comps. I don't make these decisions

I will see if I can find something that Johnny was talking about with the netBIOS client. With the Win 2003 machine, if I create individual accounts even though were not on a domain this will work theoretically? I thought user accounts only applied to a domain environment, but hey, that's why I'm studying 290 right

Thanks again for the suggestions, I will give them a try.

keatron

Unix? I didn't read anything about Unix in the initial post.

johnnynodough

With the Win 2003 machine, if I create individual accounts even though were not on a domain this will work theoretically?

Is the only seamless way it will work for connecting to windows shares, of course besides having a domain.

johnnynodough

You intrigued my interest, so much so that I actually did a little checking around. You need to install "Services for UNIX"

Win2k
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000pro/deploy/confeat/w2kpunix.mspx

WinXP
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prci_unx_rjai.asp

These in addition to Keatrons suggestion of configure identical user accounts (usernames and passwords of course) should make your drive mappings seamless.

TeKniques

Just thought I would update the situation.

It is fixed thanks to Johnny and Keatron. Absolutely what they both said 100% corrects the problem if anyone has a similar problem.

It's actually a little easier in Unix. Switch to root and create a user account with full permissions (the computer you are trying to connect to the share) and re-map the network share with those credentials and it works perfectly.

Thanks again for your help guys.

-TeK