W2K Pro- Strange admin members?

[flyfish]

I have found some strange entries under Local Users and Groups, Groups folder. The administrator account properties shows 2 long numbers (eg. s-1-5-21-7893360588-1682526488-195794488-***) as members of the Administrators group, and one such number for the Users group.

I have not created such users or groups.

Also, under Security Settings/ User Right Assignment, these numbers are givin the right to "access this computer form the network" and "log on as batch job"

Is this some type of system generated account?

At one time I was using my router for a DNS, but then I switched back to a workgroup. I still use it for DHCP.
Could this be something to do with my router?

Not a big deal. I was just curious if anyone has seen this, before I try to remove them.

 

[Saltin]

These Alpha-Numeric strings are known as SIDS (Security Identifier).
Each account is associated with a SID. Infact, the username is generally not used by the computer to identify your account, it uses the SID. The username is a human friendly method for identifying user accounts. Computers use SIDS.
The situation you are describing leads me to believe that you have created, and subsequently erased some user accounts since you installed the OS. Is this the case? Once in a while, the account will be erased, but the SID will remain in say a group or on a folder permission sheet.
Also, on slow networks, when you are pulling up security sheets for files and folders, you will sometimes see the SID listed and not the username. This is becuase your computer hasnt had time to resolve the SID to a proper username. It's not anything to worry about generally.

My guess is that the actual accounts are erased, but there are references to those accounts on some of your folders/files, and in some of your groups. Because the account is actually erased, the computer shows the SID, it is unable to find the username to associate with it.

You can safely remove these SIDS if this is indeed the case.

 

[flyfish]

Thanks Saltin!
I have deleted some accounts just recently.
Your explanation was educational and informative.

 

[bagaki]

I too have seen them and wondered what they were. Thanks for the clarification.