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Any help with this will be appreciated.

At work our local internal network (no internet / external connection) has a Domain Controller running Windows Server Standard 2003 with SP2 update and workstations running XP Pro either SP2 or SP3.

To increase storage and provide a backup we have added a second server again running Windows Server 2003 Standard with SP2 update.
So far this is just a file server but the plan is to configure as a domain controller as a backup should the primary controller fail. The most important files will be copied to this secondary server each night to folders normally not shared with the plan to share these folders if the primary server is off-line.
(All files are backed up off-line so if a problem a delay in restoring to an accessible location)

I copied some folders to the second server and made them shared with full access. There is no requirement to need passwords or for any user to have be restricted access.

I can access the copied folders on the second server from a workstation running XP SP2 but not running XP SP3. All firewalls are off.
Both workstations can access all shared folders on the Domain Controller / Primary Server

I created a shared folder on a XP SP2 workstation and a XP SP3 one can not access this either.
I have not tried other combinations yet.


This thread explains the problem perfectly but no solution.

Have you tried accessing it via IP address directly, just to rule out Name resolution being an issue? i.e.

\\192.168.1.1\shared folder
instead of
\\domaincontroller\shared folder

Make sure the XP machine doesnt have any saved network logins anywhere, i cant remember where it saves these, but on win7, its control panel>user accounts>manage credentials.

Also can you print the error message that comes up when you attempt to login to the server.

Thanks for your comments.

We do not normally access folders using
\\domaincontroller\shared folder
but I will try this and by IP addesss
\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\shared folder

Because nobody can remember the computer and/or folder names let alone IP addresses from My Network Places we simply browse the domain for the computers, which have a internal serial number and a sensible names for those with shared folders e.g. Domain Controller, Backup, Backup Controller etc then select the computer to see and explore the shared folders.
For the main folders on the Domain Controller/Primary Server we then map them to a drive letter.

What I was getting was a box pop-up asking for a user name and password to log into the new Server (to become backup controller) and to the workstation running XP SP2 that I created a shared folder on.
I did not try entering a user name / password because it is not necessary for the primary controller/server.

When I first joined the company all workstations were running XP Pro with either no service pack or Service Pack one. At that time some else was dealing with our IT. He upgraded all workstations to XP SP2 which slowed them down and while I can't recall the detail stopped some access to folder on other systems that was possible before.

The first time we had a stand-alone PC to supply to a customer with XP Pro SP3 rather than SP2 we had file access problems. We normally create two admin accounts with passwords giving the customer the password to one and keeping one known only to us so (hopefully) we still have access when messes up the system and a Power User account with no password for the operators.

With SP3 we found the operators could not access files loaded when logged in as an Admin. We had to copy the files to a USB drive then delete off the PC then log in as the user and copy back then delete files off the hard drive. We found using move did not work as when logged in as the User we did not have permission to access to the files created as Admin.

Hence my thought is all related to permission changes from SP2 to SP3.

Try logging on via the UNC name or IP address as i mentioned, if a password prompt comes up, then that means that the machine lacks the credentials to browse the folder.

[quote]I did not try entering a user name / password because it is not necessary for the primary controller/server.[/quote]

It is always necessary to enter the network login details when connecting to a share

1. unless the local machine has them already saved (manage credentials in control panel)
2. the local machines user/pass are the same as an account on the server.
3. the guest account is enabled on the server.