This situation might seem a little odd. Alot of questions deal with trying to get rid of that log on box when accessing a network share, where me, I need it to come back.

I got a 15 user workgroup network at a church/school office. All computers are Win 2000/XP Pro. All files that are shared are stored on one XP PRo computer. The guy before me who set things up, had everyone authenticate to the file server by using the guest account. That was fine at the time, but now there are some folders being put on the server that I need to use NTFS permissions to allow only certain users access too.

Problem is, the first time a computer tries to access a shared resource on another computer, you get the username/password prompt. Like I said, they used the guest account, and checked the save password box. So the username/password prompt no longer comes up. How can I get that prompt to come back up so I can have a user connect to the file server under a different username?

If you can, right click the shared folder, and select run as, or

If you disable the guest user account, then create new accounts that allow people access to certain folders, that should work.

Tip, always have Guest accounts disabled, and also rename the admin account for good security. Brute force hacking software will easily be able to access the server, especially if the passwords are not strong passwords.

Hello,

It might be time to look at a dedicated server, either a Linux box with Samba, or a true Windows 2000 / 2003 Server. Why? Because workgroup sharing only allows 10 connections at a time, and with 15 at your location, you will run into a problem running out of connections available. You should also be considering the management of the workstations in terms of patches and updates. If you put together a server, consider SUS to do that for you.

Also remember that there are differences between share permissions and NTFS permissions. Make sure you configure them properly.

As you recently took this position over, I would also check the backup scheme, and make sure that things are working properly. Do some sample restores too.

Christian

Just going to bumping this up with a follow up to what Chrisitan wrote.

If I go with a Win2k3 server, what would be decent specs for the system that will host the domain controller eeping cost in mind? Currently 15 users, if I think ahead, I do not foresee that expanding beyond 40-50 in the next 5 years.

Would a RAID 1 mirror be acceptable fault tolerance for this size of a network?

The server roll would be:
domain controller
DNS name server
file and print server

Anything else I might be missing?

Thanks

me too
I've seen some great prices on HP servers and I find their disk arrays to be pretty reliable. I've been using the DL380 Rack mount servers and they're pretty much bullet-proof.

...dhcp server and maybe VPN server? Plus for easy management I always setup with Terminal Server in Remote Administration mode.

Only license what you need to; I would look into MS Open Licensing for non-profit, if eligible. Regardless of what you choose for licensing I would look into Small Business Server as a complete package for your org. Windows update is easily distributed via Group policy or simple scripts via the domain and you could even add a modest Exchange server in the mix. I've used SBS a few times and it seemed to handle the domain roles nicely keep in mind that for each role you'll want to ensure you have:

Decent CPU and HD Array and plenty of RAM. For a domain that small you really don't need much. Spring for RAM and reliable disk array and good backup solutions.

Raid 1 would be good - don't forget to check the arrays because if one goes bad and the other disk takes on the load - you know when it rains it pours. No matter what you do keep spare hard drives on hand and disk level backups and you'll have no worries.