Every Windows 2000 (actually NT or later) maintains its own security
database. Built in Groups such as Everyone and Authenticated Users only
includes user accounts that are known on that computer. User accounts on
other computers are not "known", and thus are not included in these groups.
If the computers are in a Windows 2000 (Active Directory) domain, then user
accounts known in the domain can be used to grant access to resources (e.g.
shares) on other domain member computers (centralized user account
management - a major benefit of Domains).
If the computers are not in a Domain (sounds like yours aren't), then you
have some choices. For convenience, the computer that has the printer
defined as a local printer that is shared is called the server. The other
computer, that wants to use the printer on the first (server) computer is
called the client.
1. create a user account on both computers that have the same username and
the same password - by default this will be in the built-in Group called
Users and the special groups Everyone and Authenticated Users. Then, logon
at the client computer with the username and password that is common to
both.
2. enable the Guest account on the server computer- this considerably
weakens the security on that computer, but may be acceptable in a small
network where there is no Internet access or there is an adequate firewall.
Then, a user name that is not known will be automatically authenticated as
Guest. By default, Guest is included in Everyone, but not Authenticated
Users. Note that if the client computer is logged in with a username that
is the same as one on the server, but has a different password, the Guest
account will not be used and authentication will fail (wrong username or
password).
3. on the client computer open a Command Prompt and key this command:
net use \\ServerComputerName\IPC$ * /user:ServerUserName
/persistent:yes
you will get a prompt for the password for the ServerUserName user account's
password.
ServerComputerName is the computer name of the server computer and
ServerUserName is the username for a user account defined on the server
computer.
This command will use the ServerUserName to do an "authentication" on the
server computer. After that, when the currently logged on user (at the
client) accesses any share (folder or printer) on the server, the
ServerUserName and password will be used to authenticate the user.
The "/persistent:yes" makes this "setting" permanent for the currently
logged on user so the user does not have to issue the command after each
logon (unless the password for the ServerUserName is changed!). This
setting is user specific, not computer specific.
--
Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
