# Enabling share drive on 2003 Server



## rabidjade (Feb 22, 2007)

I just upgrade from windows2000 server to windows 2003 server on my home file server. Now I have it installed I want to share one drive with my LAN. In Win2kServer, all I did was enable the sharing for the drive and it was accessible from anywhere on the LAN. I tried the same thing on the new installation and can't access the drive anywhere else on the LAN except at my web server (Windows 2003 Server Trial) and it accesses it just fine. 

When I try to access the new server (\\servername) from another LAN computer, it prompts me to enter a username/password. I try to log in as administrator with the admin pw (of the problem server) and it tells me I don't have access to the share. It does this from any computer on the LAN except the web server as mentioned above. I did the exact same install to the web server when I set it up two weeks ago and never ran into any sharing problems on it. 

What throws me off is I can access the problem server just fine from my web server, running the same OS.


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## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

First I do not want to come on here and reply as if I'm an expert with the server platform. But I can tell you from experience that the default drive is a little taboo on a server as far as sharing. I remember connecting like
\\server\d$

By default there are default admin shares already created. If I were to make a suggestion if this is just a simple share would be to create a subdirectory off the root and share that drive. Server is very complex. If you start talking about sharing root drives you may enter the world of user permissions and groups, etc. I am not sure how far you would want to take this anyhow. Also is the server domain or workgroup based? If a user logs in to the client through the domain which is hosted on your server, I would think the authentication is already processed. However. If you are just in a workgroup type setup. Make sure the client is on the same workgroup. If all else fails, I've found this command line helpful \\192.168.x.x\serverdrivename where you use the \\with an ip address... For some reason my machines don't always want to translate the intranet dns if you would even call it that. I make an entry in LMhosts and it solves it.

Anyhow, if you needed a quick fix. That should do it. Anything more complex, I'm sure there are plenty of qualified server guys out here.



rabidjade said:


> I just upgrade from windows2000 server to windows 2003 server on my home file server. Now I have it installed I want to share one drive with my LAN. In Win2kServer, all I did was enable the sharing for the drive and it was accessible from anywhere on the LAN. I tried the same thing on the new installation and can't access the drive anywhere else on the LAN except at my web server (Windows 2003 Server Trial) and it accesses it just fine.
> 
> When I try to access the new server (\\servername) from another LAN computer, it prompts me to enter a username/password. I try to log in as administrator with the admin pw (of the problem server) and it tells me I don't have access to the share. It does this from any computer on the LAN except the web server as mentioned above. I did the exact same install to the web server when I set it up two weeks ago and never ran into any sharing problems on it.
> 
> What throws me off is I can access the problem server just fine from my web server, running the same OS.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

Check the permissions of the share. Make sure everyone has full control.


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## rabidjade (Feb 22, 2007)

I've played with permisions on the share with no change. This isn't the OS drive so security is not a critical issue. I'll try all the above and see what happens.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

Make sure you check the share permissions and not just the security permissions.


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## rabidjade (Feb 22, 2007)

crazijoe said:


> Make sure you check the share permissions and not just the security permissions.



Yup, checked both and played with both from the begining.


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## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

Haven't seen any server experts followup on this except for the one suggestion about permissions... Note that permissions for "everyone" can be taken in one of two ways... Everyone is a generic term and second it is actually a group under windows. From experience I just have found that creating a mapping to the actual drive letter from the root has admin issues. Geez, I can't even connect using the real administrator login name and password for the server. Did you have a chance to try my suggestion about a subdirectory?



rabidjade said:


> Yup, checked both and played with both from the begining.


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## rabidjade (Feb 22, 2007)

smz said:


> Geez, I can't even connect using the real administrator login name and password for the server. Did you have a chance to try my suggestion about a subdirectory?


Yup, tried it, didn't change anything at all. Still have the same problem.


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## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

You definitely have a server permission issue.
Is this server setup as a domain your client logs into or is it just acting standalone as a file server? I asked this before but don't recall getting an answer. There is always the option of entering your authentication information slightly different when attempting to connect to a resource if it's standalone... Such as Username would appear to be: User1 though if you are in a standalone or even Workgroup setup, it may be expecting the format of "servername\user1"
as the user name. Of course on thing you probably want to make sure of if it is standalone is that the user name and password you login to your computer locally with matches that which appears on the server. If not, add the exact Username and password that your computer logs in as to your server. For this test, I would also appoint this user name as an administrator. You can always change that later.

Give that a shot. I've seen this clean up a few things in the past with Win9x platforms.



rabidjade said:


> Yup, tried it, didn't change anything at all. Still have the same problem.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

rabidjade said:


> When I try to access the new server (\\servername) from another LAN computer, it prompts me to enter a username/password. I try to log in as administrator with the admin pw (of the problem server) and it tells me I don't have access to the share. It does this from any computer on the LAN except the web server as mentioned above.


This generally tells me this is an invalid account I guess we will need a little more info as smz has requested. Domain, workgroup, accounts on the machine. One of the differences between Win2K and Win2K3 is that MS locked down Win2K3 from the start and you have to go in and loosen it up.


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## rabidjade (Feb 22, 2007)

Thought I replied but I guess it didn't go through. I compared what i did with my web server compared to the file server. Only difference is the web server is sitting on a static IP and the file server wasn't yet. I made one of the NIC's on the file server a static IP and now I can get to the file server driver. Only hangup is the fact I have logon to the file server the first time I access it after either machine reboots but other than that, it's working fine now. Thanks for the ideas though. This was an interesting issue and I did learn something from it. Windows2003server is a nice server level OS.


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## smz (Mar 12, 2007)

Hopefully this solution is satisfactory to you. Glad our tips could lead you in that direction. I've always found that the static IP is sort of a "safe" mode in connecting to other computer on your local lan. But I am also a DHCP hater, lol.



rabidjade said:


> Thought I replied but I guess it didn't go through. I compared what i did with my web server compared to the file server. Only difference is the web server is sitting on a static IP and the file server wasn't yet. I made one of the NIC's on the file server a static IP and now I can get to the file server driver. Only hangup is the fact I have logon to the file server the first time I access it after either machine reboots but other than that, it's working fine now. Thanks for the ideas though. This was an interesting issue and I did learn something from it. Windows2003server is a nice server level OS.


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