Help on mapping drives on Windows 2k3 server

[joeyg2391]

Hi guys,
I am newbie to the windows server 2003 OS. I thought i might give it a try and test it out. My question is since all my other computer are on the same workgroup, how can i have them map a shared folder that's on my server machine. On my Xp machine i actually did map to the server's shared folder. My only problem is that when i restart my machine it says it cannot connect to the network drive. I have to manually click on the network drive and enter my username and password. I dont want to keep on doing this. I want my XP machine to automatically connect to the share without needing to type your username and password since the Server would know that the XP machine user is connecting to it. I setup my server's shared folders with different users and with different set of permissions. One folder for example is set for storage space for my XP machine and Only my XP user can access it. Can you help me out. Also is their a good site or book that teaches everything about Win2K.


Thanks

 

[Smilin]

When you are in a workgroup you are logged on to just the account on your machine. You'll need to have an account on the other machine you are trying to map a drive to. You'll also need to provide those credentials separately to connect.

In a domain (not workgroup) environment you are logged onto the whole domain so you can easily map a drive or reconnect to one without supplying credentials.

If you want to automatically supply credentials for another workgroup computer you can "Connect using a different username" from Tools | Map a network drive. Be sure to specify the user account as:

<the remote computer>\<your username on that computer>

You can also use the "net use" command and specify credentials. See the helpfiles for more info.

There are a TON of books on 2000\2003. Checkout your local bookseller or amazon.com. Books from the Microsoft Press are usually good picks. Also, don't forget the helpfiles built into the OS. Helpfiles in 2000, XP and 2003 are very powerful.

 

[joeyg2391]

well actually on the server i made a user for my XP machine. So when i go to my XP machine and click on the shared folder it asks me for my username and password located in the Server. I actually do want that. I want it to recongize the XP machine and associate the account i created on the Server.

 

[Smilin]

Your "identity" is a combination of the security identifier for your account plus that of the machine you are logging onto. That identity will be checked against the security database on the machine you are logging onto and access will be granted/denied. Since you are going from a local to remote machine the machine security identifier will always be different even if the account names are the same and exist in both places.

If you want that account to be recogized you'll have to use the SAME security database. I think what you are after is a domain rather than a workgroup. Otherwise you're going to have to provide credentials in one way or another.