Locating expected User Name and Password

[Ray K]

My network consists of a desktop computer (W2k, SP4) cabled to a linksys
router, and two wireless laptops (a Toshiba and an Acer), both running
Win XP, SP2.

From either laptop, if I try connecting with the desktop, I get a
prompt for a user name and password. I'd like to eliminate this prompt
completely. (Only I use the computers.) If that's not possible, how do I
find the name and password that the laptops are expecting?

Thanks,

Ray

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My network consists of a desktop computer (W2k, SP4) cabled to a linksys
router, and two wireless laptops (a Toshiba and an Acer), both running
Win XP, SP2.

From either laptop, if I try connecting with the desktop, I get a
prompt for a user name and password. I'd like to eliminate this prompt
completely. (Only I use the computers.) If that's not possible, how do I
find the name and password that the laptops are expecting?

Thanks,

Ray

Win2000 is a secure operating system. If you try to access its
shares under an unknown account then you get challenged. It
is as simple as this.

The answer is equally simple: Make sure that the Win2000 PC
has the same accounts / passwords that you use when logging
on to your laptops. If they don't exist, create them!

 

[Ray K]

Win2000 is a secure operating system. If you try to access its
shares under an unknown account then you get challenged. It
is as simple as this.

The answer is equally simple: Make sure that the Win2000 PC
has the same accounts / passwords that you use when logging
on to your laptops. If they don't exist, create them!

Thanks for the prompt reply. At present, I don't have any accounts or
passwords on the laptops. This stuff is simple to you, but not to me.
Besides, I don't like making things more complicated when starting up
the laptops. But I'll give it a try.

Ray

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the prompt reply. At present, I don't have any accounts or
passwords on the laptops. This stuff is simple to you, but not to me.
Besides, I don't like making things more complicated when starting up
the laptops. But I'll give it a try.

Ray

I'm afraid this is not correct. Just because you do not enter
an account/password on the laptop does not mean you do
not have one. You do! It is likely that your password is
blank and you must now change it. Here is what you can
do.

General instructions:
- To start a Command Prompt, click Start / Run / cmd {OK}.
- xxxyyy is a password of your choice.

1. On Laptop 1: Set a password for your logon account.
- Start a Command Prompt.
- Type this command: set username
- Make a note of the user name. I assume it's AAAA.
- Type this command: net user %UserName% xxxyyy
- Do not forget this password!
- Close the Command Prompt.

2. On Laptop 2: Same as for Laptop 1.
I assume the user name is BBBB.

3. On the desktop: Create accounts AAAA BBBB.
- Open a Command Prompt.
- Type these commands:
net user AAAA xxxyyy /add
net user BBBB xxxyyy /add
- Close the Command Prompt.

You now have synchronised accounts on your desktop PC.

These are an administrator's shortcuts to create accounts and
set passwords. There are, of course, GUI methods to achieve
the same. Click Start / Help on each machine and type in
the appropriate terms (account, password) to find out how
it's done.

 

[Ray K]

I'm afraid this is not correct. Just because you do not enter
an account/password on the laptop does not mean you do
not have one. You do! It is likely that your password is
blank and you must now change it. Here is what you can
do.

General instructions:
- To start a Command Prompt, click Start / Run / cmd {OK}.
- xxxyyy is a password of your choice.

1. On Laptop 1: Set a password for your logon account.
- Start a Command Prompt.
- Type this command: set username
- Make a note of the user name. I assume it's AAAA.
- Type this command: net user %UserName% xxxyyy
- Do not forget this password!
- Close the Command Prompt.

2. On Laptop 2: Same as for Laptop 1.
I assume the user name is BBBB.

3. On the desktop: Create accounts AAAA BBBB.
- Open a Command Prompt.
- Type these commands:
net user AAAA xxxyyy /add
net user BBBB xxxyyy /add
- Close the Command Prompt.

You now have synchronised accounts on your desktop PC.

These are an administrator's shortcuts to create accounts and
set passwords. There are, of course, GUI methods to achieve
the same. Click Start / Help on each machine and type in
the appropriate terms (account, password) to find out how
it's done.

Thanks, Pegasus. I'll try it first thing tomorrow.

Ray

 

[Ray K]

I'm afraid this is not correct. Just because you do not enter
an account/password on the laptop does not mean you do
not have one. You do! It is likely that your password is
blank and you must now change it. Here is what you can
do.

General instructions:
- To start a Command Prompt, click Start / Run / cmd {OK}.
- xxxyyy is a password of your choice.

1. On Laptop 1: Set a password for your logon account.
- Start a Command Prompt.
- Type this command: set username
- Make a note of the user name. I assume it's AAAA.
- Type this command: net user %UserName% xxxyyy
- Do not forget this password!
- Close the Command Prompt.

2. On Laptop 2: Same as for Laptop 1.
I assume the user name is BBBB.

3. On the desktop: Create accounts AAAA BBBB.
- Open a Command Prompt.
- Type these commands:
net user AAAA xxxyyy /add
net user BBBB xxxyyy /add
- Close the Command Prompt.

You now have synchronised accounts on your desktop PC.

These are an administrator's shortcuts to create accounts and
set passwords. There are, of course, GUI methods to achieve
the same. Click Start / Help on each machine and type in
the appropriate terms (account, password) to find out how
it's done.

Pegasus,

Your procedure worked perfectly on Laptop 1, an Acer. When I tried it on
Laptop 2, a Toshiba, the net command resulted in the following:
The syntax of this command is:

I then tried:
net user %UserName% toshiba /add
Again, the same "syntax of the command" response.

Finally I tried:
net user %UserName% <toshiba> /add
The response was "Access is denied."

So now I'm stuck.

Additional questions:

1. How do I change the username on the Toshiba (DJ Ray)to match that on
the Acer (Ray), assuming it's okay on a wireless network to have them
match? I tried changing it through Control Panel/User accounts/Change
the way users log on or off. That changed the name from DJ Ray to simply
Ray, but when I issue the command set username, the old DJ Ray still
appears on the Toshiba.

2. Can both laptops have the same username and password? At my desktop,
if I double-click on My Network Places and then on Computers Near Me,
all three computers have unique names, with the laptops showing the full
model numbers. So even if the usernames and passwords are the same, the
desktop still has a way of distinguishing them.


Thanks for your help and patience.

Ray

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Pegasus,

Your procedure worked perfectly on Laptop 1, an Acer. When I tried it on
Laptop 2, a Toshiba, the net command resulted in the following:
The syntax of this command is:

I then tried:
net user %UserName% toshiba /add
Again, the same "syntax of the command" response.

You cannot have user names surrounded by % characters.
This command would work:

net user Ray toshiba /add

Finally I tried:
net user %UserName% <toshiba> /add
The response was "Access is denied."

You cannot have passwords surrounded by arrow heads.

So now I'm stuck.

Additional questions:

1. How do I change the username on the Toshiba (DJ Ray)to match that on
the Acer (Ray), assuming it's okay on a wireless network to have them
match? I tried changing it through Control Panel/User accounts/Change
the way users log on or off. That changed the name from DJ Ray to simply
Ray, but when I issue the command set username, the old DJ Ray still
appears on the Toshiba.

You would have to do this:
1. Create an account for Ray.
2. Log on under Ray..
3. Reboot, then log on as administrator.
4. Copy the "DJ Ray" profile to the "Ray" profile via the Control Panel /
System / User Profiles.
When you now log on as "Ray" then you will get much the same
environment as under "DJ Ray".

2. Can both laptops have the same username and password? At my desktop,
if I double-click on My Network Places and then on Computers Near Me,
all three computers have unique names, with the laptops showing the full
model numbers. So even if the usernames and passwords are the same, the
desktop still has a way of distinguishing them.

This is the normal way:
- Identify each machine with an meaningful name. Don't bother with
model numbers etc - they are hard to remember.
- Create and use the same account names/passwords
on each machine.

Thanks for your help and patience.

You're welcome.

 

[Ray K]

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

You cannot have user names surrounded by % characters.
This command would work:

net user Ray toshiba /add




You cannot have passwords surrounded by arrow heads.




You would have to do this:
1. Create an account for Ray.
2. Log on under Ray..
3. Reboot, then log on as administrator.
4. Copy the "DJ Ray" profile to the "Ray" profile via the Control Panel /
System / User Profiles.
When you now log on as "Ray" then you will get much the same
environment as under "DJ Ray".




This is the normal way:
- Identify each machine with an meaningful name. Don't bother with
model numbers etc - they are hard to remember.
- Create and use the same account names/passwords
on each machine.




You're welcome.

Everything is now okay with the Acer. I can swap files all ways from
either the desktop or the Acer.

At the desktop, when I tried net user Ray toshiba /add, I got a message
that an account with that name already exists, try a different user
name. Without trying a different user name, I returned to the Toshiba
and tried connecting to the desktop. Again, I'm prompted for a username
and password, and I don't know what to enter.

If at the desktop I type net user, I get three columns.
1. Administrator (the only entry being Ray)
2. Any Body (no entries)
3. Guest (no entries)

Part of the problem may be that originally my Toshiba username was DJ
Ray; note the space between the J and R. If I try the following command,
I get the syntax error message:

net set DJ Ray toshiba /add

probably because toshiba looks like an extra parameter.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ray

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:


Everything is now okay with the Acer. I can swap files all ways from
either the desktop or the Acer.

At the desktop, when I tried net user Ray toshiba /add, I got a message
that an account with that name already exists, try a different user
name. Without trying a different user name, I returned to the Toshiba
and tried connecting to the desktop. Again, I'm prompted for a username
and password, and I don't know what to enter.

If at the desktop I type net user, I get three columns.
1. Administrator (the only entry being Ray)
2. Any Body (no entries)
3. Guest (no entries)

Part of the problem may be that originally my Toshiba username was DJ
Ray; note the space between the J and R. If I try the following command,
I get the syntax error message:

net set DJ Ray toshiba /add

probably because toshiba looks like an extra parameter.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ray

Your reply leaves me confused rather than enlightened. Time
to nail this down. Type these commands from a Command
Prompt on the desktop PC, then paste the contents of c:\test.txt
into your reply.

echo User=%UserName% > c:\test.txt
net user >> c:\test.txt
net user Ray 1>> c:\test.txt 2>>&1
net user "DJ Ray" 1>> c:\test.txt 2>>&1
notepad c:\test.txt

 

[Ray K]

Your reply leaves me confused rather than enlightened. Time
to nail this down. Type these commands from a Command
Prompt on the desktop PC, then paste the contents of c:\test.txt
into your reply.

echo User=%UserName% > c:\test.txt
net user >> c:\test.txt
net user Ray 1>> c:\test.txt 2>>&1
net user "DJ Ray" 1>> c:\test.txt 2>>&1
notepad c:\test.txt

Pegasus,

The name of my desktop computer is Clone.

User=Any Body

User accounts for \\CLONE


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrator Any Body Guest
Ray
The command completed successfully.


User name Ray
Full Name
Comment
User's comment
Country code 000 (System Default)
Account active Yes
Account expires Never

Password last set 5/18/2006 8:17 AM
Password expires Never
Password changeable 5/18/2006 8:17 AM
Password required Yes
User may change password Yes

Workstations allowed All
Logon script
User profile
Home directory
Last logon 5/18/2006 8:18 AM

Logon hours allowed All

Local Group Memberships *Users
Global Group memberships *None
The command completed successfully.


The user name could not be found.

Thanks, again.

Ray



More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2221.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Pegasus,

The name of my desktop computer is Clone.

The logs tell me that you have these accounts on Clone:
- Administrator
- Any Body
- Guest (which you should disable for security reasons)
- Ray

It is therefore hardly surprising that you cannot create an
account called "Ray" - it exists already! You can change
its password to toshiba if you like:

net user Ray toshiba

 

[Ray K]

The logs tell me that you have these accounts on Clone:
- Administrator
- Any Body
- Guest (which you should disable for security reasons)
- Ray

It is therefore hardly surprising that you cannot create an
account called "Ray" - it exists already! You can change
its password to toshiba if you like:

net user Ray toshiba

Pegasus,

That worked! Now I'm going to try all 12 combinations of sending and
receiving files from each computer. I should be done within 30 minutes.

Ray

 

[Ray K]

Pegasus,

Finally, all is working. Do you live anywhere near central NJ? I'd like
to treat you to a dinner.

Thanks so much.

Ray

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Pegasus,

Finally, all is working. Do you live anywhere near central NJ? I'd like
to treat you to a dinner.

Thanks so much.

Ray

Try Melbourne, Australia!

 

[Ray K]

Try Melbourne, Australia!

Wow, what a shock. Actually, Australia is a place I would like to try.
But only if I can order koala, kangaroo and wombat burgers at your local
McDonald's. (I hope I'm not being gross.)

Regards,

Ray