Cannot Map to c$

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ed
  • Start date Start date
E

Ed

I have a small network and have no problem mapping c$
between Windows 2000 machines, but I can not map c$
between XP Pro machines. The XP machine can map to c$ on
the Windows 2000 machines, but the Windows 2000 machines
can not map to the XP c$ shares. If I create a share on
the XP machines then everybody can see them, but none of
the machines can see the admin c$ share on the XP
machines. Does anyone have an idea of something I have
missed while configuring networking on the XP machines?

Thanks
 
I don't know if this will be too much help, but I have had tremendous
problems sharing folders between Win2K and WinXP. The only way I was able
to get things to work was to create the same account on both the WinXP
machine and the Win2k machine (i.e., same login name and password). Then
the Win2k box could see the WinXP file shares and connect with no delays or
perceivable problems. Maybe another way to say this is that I couldn't
figure out how to turn "simple file sharing" on in Win2k (while WinXP has
"simple file sharing" by default).
 
I have a small network and have no problem mapping c$
between Windows 2000 machines, but I can not map c$
between XP Pro machines. The XP machine can map to c$ on
the Windows 2000 machines, but the Windows 2000 machines
can not map to the XP c$ shares. If I create a share on
the XP machines then everybody can see them, but none of
the machines can see the admin c$ share on the XP
machines. Does anyone have an idea of something I have
missed while configuring networking on the XP machines?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Ed,

The C$ share is called the Administrative share because you have to
have administrative access to a computer to use it, and the "$" makes
it invisible to the browser. It's part of the idea that if a resource
isn't visible, it can't be exploited by the bad guys (Security By
Obscurity).

So you probably can't "see" C$ on the network - that is, the browser
won't show \\computername\c$. If you can't map to it either, you
probably don't have administrative access to the computer in question.

If you're logged in to Computer A, using an account / password
identical to one setup on Computer B with administrative access, but
still can't map to \\computerb\c$, then you need to check the security
policy on Computer B.

Under Windows XP, you can log in to Computer A with an administrative
userid, but have only Guest access to network resources on Computer B.
If you disable the Guest account on all your computers (and you should
- it is a major security hole), Guest won't get you access to C$ or
any other administrative resource on Computer B.

Check your local security policy on each WinXP computer. Control
Panel - Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy gives you the
Local Security Settings wizard. Under Security Settings - Local
Policies - Security Options (in left panel of wizard), look for the
policy "Network access: Sharing and security model for local
accounts", and ensure it is set to "Classic - local users authenticate
as themselves".

The default value for that policy is "Guest only". I had the problem
of being able to see any shares (never used C$, though), but couldn't
run administrative utilities across the network against my WinXP
computers. Then I changed that policy to "Classic", and now I can run
administrative utilities against each of my WinXP computers.

Cheers,

Chuck
I hate spam - PLEASE get rid of the spam before emailing me!
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
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