problem with network

[rocoyanna]

have a workgroup network with:

have 1 computer running server 2003 = c1.

have 2 computers running xp x86 sp3 + c2 and c3.

all computers ping each other fine.

all drives in all computers are shared with permission to change files.

c2 and c3 can access each others' drives, folders and files fine.

c1 sees c2's and c3's drives and folders in network places but cannot access certain folders in them. when i click on certain folders to open them i get the message "...data is not accessible. you may not have permission..."

What is going on?

Thanks for the help.

[Tripredacus]

Well Server 2003 is a little more strict on the security. You'd find this out when you start trying to get files off the server from the clients. You should be using authentication on all the machines, although you could just turn on all the guest accounts but they are disabled for a reason.

Since you are running a workgroup instead of a domain, you need to add the local account of the server onto the XP machines. So it would be SERVERNAME\ACCOUNTNAME. You could add this account into each of the XP Administrators group, or just into the permissions of the shares. This way, the Server would authenticate onto the XP machines and just have it remember the password. YOU NEED A PASSWORD, I do not think Server will let you log into a system using an account without a password.

If this doesn't work out, you can create an account on each of the XP. They could be the same name and password. Then assign the rights for that account to the shares. If you try to access the shares, you get a credential prompt and type in that info.

Usually for these remote access accounts, you do not want them to work like regular accounts because typical users won't be using them. So when you create them, uncheck "User must change password at first logon" and check "account never expires" and "user cannot change password" and you should be set.

[rocoyanna]

A couple of points to clarify the situation:

1. The problem is not the xp client computers accessing the files on the server 2003 computer. They can access all shared files in the server 2003 computer fine. and also on each other.

2. Strangely, the problem is the server 2003 being unable to access some of the shared folders in the xp server computers.

3. This only started happening recently. For years I did not have any problems and all computers were able to access each other's files fine without any inclusion of user accounts in them or the like. I just shared the hd's and that was it.

I suspect that something is wrong with the server installation. but what?