Bypassing the logon password

[HyperHacker]

I've finally managed to get my Win98 and WinXP computers networked and able to access eachother's shares. Not easy (you should have seen how I transferred the network card driver onto the Win98 system ) but it looks like it's working. The only thing that bugs me is that when Win98 starts up, it asks for a network password. Is it possible to remove the logon prompt and automatically supply a given name/pass? Since my brother is going to be using it, I want things to be as simple as possible, and having a password prompt (even though the username is already entered and the password is blank) is just one more unnecessary complication.

Also, since both computers are connected to a router, which also has the cable modem connected, does this mean people on the Internet could access the shares as well? Because I certainly don't want them doing that.

[edit] Ran into a small problem. I hace C:\ shared on Venus, which means that Mercury can access anything on the drive (with a password of course). However, despite share settings it refuses to let me access \Windows. It says the directory name is invalid. If I tell it specifically to share \Windows, the folder shows up in both \\Venus and \\Venus\C, but trying to access it via the root path gives another error saying the network location was not found. I'm assuming this is some sort of built-in protection (maybe related to the fact that in the password prompt, the username can't be changed from Guest); how can I disable it?

Edited October 5, 2005 by HyperHacker

[HyperHacker]

Hm, another odd problem has appeared. On Venus, if I type \\Mercury in the Run box, I can access the directories (but if I try to open one, sometimes I get an error message, other times it works...). However, if I go to it in Network Neighbourhood, it says the device doesn't exist on the network. I can access all of Venus (except \Windows) fine from Mercury, though it lists an inaccessible 'shareddocs' that doesn't seem to exist.

Also, is it possible to not share a folder when the folder it's in is shared?

Edited October 6, 2005 by HyperHacker

[Mercury_22]

Hi!

Take a look here http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=33624

[HyperHacker]

That doesn't really answer my question. I already have the network set up, I just want to tweak it a bit. (I'd actually remove Network Neighbourhoood from Venus's desktop and just not use it.)

[epic]

Use both secpol.msc and compmgmt.msc to efficiently set the policy.

Edited October 9, 2005 by epic

[HyperHacker]

No such luck. They want a password to connect, and won't accept any.

[sandgrub]

I've finally managed to get my Win98 and WinXP computers networked and able to access eachother's shares. Not easy (you should have seen how I transferred the network card driver onto the Win98 system ) but it looks like it's working. The only thing that bugs me is that when Win98 starts up, it asks for a network password. Is it possible to remove the logon prompt and automatically supply a given name/pass? Since my brother is going to be using it, I want things to be as simple as possible, and having a password prompt (even though the username is already entered and the password is blank) is just one more unnecessary complication.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q152104/

Keep it for better network support.

Look at www.sysinternals.com for a program called autologon

Autologon utility will automatically pass user name & password values so Win98 PC or XP PC goes straight to the desktop.

Check out this link for a little more help

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxpwin9x.htm

Also, since both computers are connected to a router, which also has the cable modem connected, does this mean people on the Internet could access the shares as well? Because I certainly don't want them doing that

If you've taken the defaults on your router setup, no worries. Generally speaking, every DSL router has sharing features accessible to your INTERNAL network only. You have to TURN ON the sharing from the Internet to your PC.

Ran into a small problem. I hace C:\ shared on Venus, which means that Mercury can access anything on the drive (with a password of course). However, despite share settings it refuses to let me access \Windows. It says the directory name is invalid. If I tell it specifically to share \Windows, the folder shows up in both \\Venus and \\Venus\C, but trying to access it via the root path gives another error saying the network location was not found. I'm assuming this is some sort of built-in protection (maybe related to the fact that in the password prompt, the username can't be changed from Guest); how can I disable it?

Every Windows NT/W2K/XP/2003 machine automatically creates a share for each drive on the system. These shares are hidden, but available with full control to domain administrators. The drive letter, followed by the $ sign is the name, and it is shared from the root. When trying to attain a highly secure network, you may wish to address this potential security issue by disabling these shares, or at least restricting their permissions to specific users or services.

The default-hidden shares are:

C$ D$ E$ - Root of each partition. For a Windows NT workstation/W2K/2003/XP Professional computer only members of the Administrators or Backup Operators group can connect to these shared folders. For a Windows NT Server/W2K Server computer, members of the Server Operators group can also connect to these shared folders.

ADMIN$ - %SYSTEMROOT% This share is used by the system during any remote administration of a computer. The path of this resource is always the path to the W2K/NT system root (the directory in which W2K/NT is installed usually C:\Winnt and in XP it's C:\Windows).

FAX$ - On W2K Server, this used by fax clients in the process of sending a fax. The shared folder temporarily caches files and accesses cover pages stored on the server.

IPC$ - Temporary connections between servers using named pipes essential for communication between programs. It is used during remote administration of a computer and when viewing a computer's shared resources. This share can be very dangerous and can be used to extract large amounts of information about your network, even by an anonymous account.

NetLogon - This share is used by the Net Logon service of a W2K, 2003 and NT Server computer while processing domain logon requests, and by Pre-W2K computers when running logon scripts.

PRINT$ - %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\DRIVERS Used during remote administration of printers.

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_...s/wxppntsh.html

[HyperHacker]

Alright, thanks. That Autologin program says it only works on NT/2K though.