Basic Newbie networking question

Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a home network I have a
server running Windows 2003 Standard edition and two XP Professional SP2
client machines. So far I have created two users on the server and given
them passwords, added user accounts on the clients with identical
passwords as the server, and made all three boxes members of a common
workgroup. The problem I have is with authentication , when I logon to
one of the clients I thought this would automatically log me in to the
server but , it doesn't. If I then open up explorer ( on the client )
browse to "Entire Network" I can see the server listed but when I click
on it, it prompts me for a name and password - saying one of the two is
incorrect , which I know is not the case. If I then enter the password
I'm logged in with no further ado - what am I doing wrong ? do I need to
create a domain for such a simple network ?

regards

Pete Kane

Have you configured AD and joined the workstations in the domain ?

--
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Johan Engdahl
CCSA, CCSE, CCA, MCP | johan AT firewall1 DOT nu | http://www.firewall1.nu

"Pete Kane" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tKRIh.35534$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a home network I have a
> server running Windows 2003 Standard edition and two XP Professional SP2
> client machines. So far I have created two users on the server and given
> them passwords, added user accounts on the clients with identical
> passwords as the server, and made all three boxes members of a common
> workgroup. The problem I have is with authentication , when I logon to
> one of the clients I thought this would automatically log me in to the
> server but , it doesn't. If I then open up explorer ( on the client )
> browse to "Entire Network" I can see the server listed but when I click
> on it, it prompts me for a name and password - saying one of the two is
> incorrect , which I know is not the case. If I then enter the password
> I'm logged in with no further ado - what am I doing wrong ? do I need to
> create a domain for such a simple network ?
>
> regards
>
> Pete Kane

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:29:29 GMT, Pete Kane <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a home network I have a
>server running Windows 2003 Standard edition and two XP Professional SP2
>client machines. So far I have created two users on the server and given
>them passwords, added user accounts on the clients with identical
>passwords as the server, and made all three boxes members of a common
>workgroup. The problem I have is with authentication , when I logon to
>one of the clients I thought this would automatically log me in to the
>server but , it doesn't. If I then open up explorer ( on the client )
>browse to "Entire Network" I can see the server listed but when I click
>on it, it prompts me for a name and password - saying one of the two is
>incorrect , which I know is not the case. If I then enter the password
>I'm logged in with no further ado - what am I doing wrong ? do I need to
>create a domain for such a simple network ?

If you want to logon to a server then yes, you have to create a domain. The
workgroup paradigm isn't designed for logons.

If you want to stick with the workgroup paradigm, just create shares on the
server and grant permissions to the users on the clients. You can then
access the shares (with a username and password if you want.) You can also
map drives to the shares.

Johan Engdahl wrote:
> Have you configured AD and joined the workstations in the domain ?
>
Hi there, no, I thought I could achieve this without a domain and AD

Spender wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:29:29 GMT, Pete Kane <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a home network I have a
>> server running Windows 2003 Standard edition and two XP Professional SP2
>> client machines. So far I have created two users on the server and given
>> them passwords, added user accounts on the clients with identical
>> passwords as the server, and made all three boxes members of a common
>> workgroup. The problem I have is with authentication , when I logon to
>> one of the clients I thought this would automatically log me in to the
>> server but , it doesn't. If I then open up explorer ( on the client )
>> browse to "Entire Network" I can see the server listed but when I click
>> on it, it prompts me for a name and password - saying one of the two is
>> incorrect , which I know is not the case. If I then enter the password
>> I'm logged in with no further ado - what am I doing wrong ? do I need to
>> create a domain for such a simple network ?
>
> If you want to logon to a server then yes, you have to create a domain. The
> workgroup paradigm isn't designed for logons.
>
> If you want to stick with the workgroup paradigm, just create shares on the
> server and grant permissions to the users on the clients. You can then
> access the shares (with a username and password if you want.) You can also
> map drives to the shares.

Oh I see ( I think ) thanks very much

Pete,

If you wish to connect to resources on your network without initially
entering a username and password, you can use the following method to store
usernames and passwords in your user profile. I use this for a media center
I have at home; it connects to my repository of media files:

Open Control Panel/User Accounts
Click "Manage my network passwords"
Click "Add"
Now enter the server name, username, and password.

There may be security implications related to storing usernames and
passwords, as I'm not sure of the internal processes going on (I assume
they're stored encrypted, rather than in plaintext).

Hope this helps a little.

Regards,

Shaun

"Pete Kane" wrote:

> Spender wrote:
> > On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:29:29 GMT, Pete Kane <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> >> Hello all, I'm in the process of setting up a home network I have a
> >> server running Windows 2003 Standard edition and two XP Professional SP2
> >> client machines. So far I have created two users on the server and given
> >> them passwords, added user accounts on the clients with identical
> >> passwords as the server, and made all three boxes members of a common
> >> workgroup. The problem I have is with authentication , when I logon to
> >> one of the clients I thought this would automatically log me in to the
> >> server but , it doesn't. If I then open up explorer ( on the client )
> >> browse to "Entire Network" I can see the server listed but when I click
> >> on it, it prompts me for a name and password - saying one of the two is
> >> incorrect , which I know is not the case. If I then enter the password
> >> I'm logged in with no further ado - what am I doing wrong ? do I need to
> >> create a domain for such a simple network ?
> >
> > If you want to logon to a server then yes, you have to create a domain. The
> > workgroup paradigm isn't designed for logons.
> >
> > If you want to stick with the workgroup paradigm, just create shares on the
> > server and grant permissions to the users on the clients. You can then
> > access the shares (with a username and password if you want.) You can also
> > map drives to the shares.
>
> Oh I see ( I think ) thanks very much
>