Mapped drives not responding

11 Oct 2006 6:43 PM

ML from the IP

Hello, I have a drive mapping problem which doesn't respond to standard
tshooting, apparently. Here are the symptoms...
Verify remote connections between home PC and office PC (both systems are
running Windows XP Pro with SP1). From the home PC, can ping and RDC to
office PC, but cannot access shared drives c$ and f$. No Event Viewer errors.
Flushed DNS, added entries into hosts file. CLI release of mapped drives OK,
but GUI still shows mappings which are inaccessible. GUI remapping does not
help either. I was able to map the same drives on the office PC using the
same credentials from other PCs, both internal and external to the network.
Drive mappings from the same home PC to office server (ie - any other machine
than the aforementioned office PC) work normally.

This has been a real stumper. Please share any thoughts!

Thanks,
ML

11 Oct 2006 6:54 PM

ML from the IP

Sorry, the systems are fully updated, including SP2.
-ML

11 Oct 2006 9:29 PM

Ian

C$ and F$ are only accessible to users with admin priveleges. Since the home
user is highly unlikely to have admin priveleges to the office computer this
won't work.

I really think you should review your security policies in any case. Sharing
data by way of C$ is VERY indavisable. If the user can access C$, then by
definition he can also hack/trash the OS of the computer, because he must
have full Adminstrative rights over it.

The correct approach is to create a share for your data within the
folder-structure of the server, never the root. Then create a group for those
who need access. Grant share-permissions to this group. Add the users who
need access to this group. (Note that the change won't take effect until the
users log off and back on)

Hope this helps,

Ian.

11 Oct 2006 11:48 PM

ML from the IP

Ian,

Thanks for responding. The user is merely sharing his drives as
administrative shares because he is local admin on both machines, one at the
office and one at home. Regardless, the issue is not security at this point,
it is the fact that simple network mappings are being denied access.

It turns out the cause for this is Windows Small Business Server 2003's
native GPO for all workstations in its domain, which configures Windows
Firewall to block incoming File and Printer sharing requests from all other
subnets. The fix to this is to enable an exception in the GPO. In my case,
I entered an exception that applied specifically to the host in a separate
subnet. The path in the GPO Editor is as follows:

SBS Windows Firewall
   Computer Configuration
      Administrative Templates
         Network
            Network Connections
               Windows Firewall
                  Domain Profile
                     Windows Firewall: Allow file and printer sharing
exception

Thanks to my cohort EJ, this was resolved.
-ML