XP Clients require password to connect to shared printers on 2003 Server

Daniel Farst

Hi,

As part of our transition away from a SAMBA based domain to a
workgroup we are setting up a new print/file server running Server
2003 R2. This server is a fresh install which has never before been
connected to the domain controller and our client computers are
running on cached credentials as I am one-by-one moving them to the
new workgroup. The server setup went smoothly and all the printers are
working fine from the server, however when an XP client (domain or
workgroup) tries to connect to the printer through the server it is
requiring server logon credentials.

Since we are moving away from a domain authenticated login to a local
login I can't see adding all the user accounts to the server. Ideally
the server would just accept any account for access to the printers,
however I cannot seem to get 2k3 to do this. I've tried activating the
guest account and adding guest to the printer ACLs but nothing seems
to work.

I'm not worried about security as the firewall restricts access to
everything but the local subnet and the server is only running
printing.

My understanding is that it is actually the IPC$ share that is
requiring the password and that since this is connecting before the
individual shares this is why I can't connect.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get around this?

Thanks!
-- Dan

Kerry Brown

"Daniel Farst" <> wrote in message
news:1181969005.416683.35250@k79g2000hse.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi,
>
> As part of our transition away from a SAMBA based domain to a
> workgroup we are setting up a new print/file server running Server
> 2003 R2. This server is a fresh install which has never before been
> connected to the domain controller and our client computers are
> running on cached credentials as I am one-by-one moving them to the
> new workgroup. The server setup went smoothly and all the printers are
> working fine from the server, however when an XP client (domain or
> workgroup) tries to connect to the printer through the server it is
> requiring server logon credentials.
>
> Since we are moving away from a domain authenticated login to a local
> login I can't see adding all the user accounts to the server. Ideally
> the server would just accept any account for access to the printers,
> however I cannot seem to get 2k3 to do this. I've tried activating the
> guest account and adding guest to the printer ACLs but nothing seems
> to work.
>
> I'm not worried about security as the firewall restricts access to
> everything but the local subnet and the server is only running
> printing.
>
> My understanding is that it is actually the IPC$ share that is
> requiring the password and that since this is connecting before the
> individual shares this is why I can't connect.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get around this?
>


Yes, don't go backwards from a domain based network to a workgroup. One of
the major advantages of a domain is the ability to use a single logon to
access domain resources. In a workgroup all the servers will need to have
all the accounts setup locally on the each server. If someone changes their
password you have to change it on every computer that has a shared resource.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User