Cannot access Shared Folder (that was previously accessible)

[Mr Davo]

Hi Everyone,

I am running a single Domain Controller on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box.

Within my Domain there are about 40 clients; a mixture of Windows computers ranging in version from XP to W7.

On many computers I have enabled shares on various folders (for backing up email, sharing data directly between computers, etc).

On my personal workstation I have a number of folders shared with the rest of the Domain.

Recently colleagues of mine have not been able to access any of the shared folders on my workstation. When they attempt to do so through "Network" (from Windows 7) they see the following message -

Whilst colleagues cannot see my shared folders they are setup exactly as they were when they were accessible (and I have not made any changes in recent memory). Furthermore I am able to access shared folders on other computers from my workstation.

I have performed a fair amount of Googling before posting to this forum, and many of my search results indicated that I should use the Netdom.exe command to reset the "machine account password" for the Domain. However this seems like using a sledge hammer to put a tack in a wall, and I really don't want to mess with the Server if I can avoid it.

Further to the above I have also read a great deal about file encryption and setting the encryption in Windows 7 lower, but this only appears to be relevant when trying to connect from XP to W7 (which doesn't really concern me at this stage).

It is my expectation that "Logon Failure: The target account name is incorrect" is the crux of this issue.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to fix this issue they will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[chev65]

It may be worth checking that the time/date settings are all in sync on the server and the clients. Another common problem is people may inadvertently use their ISP or router as an alternate DNS server.

Your PC's and servers should only point to your internal DNS servers. If not you will often have name resolution and connection issues.

I've also read that Symantec Endpoint security can cause problems such as is being described. :sarc:

 

[Mr Davo]

SOLUTION: Unjoin & Rejoin the Domain

Hi Everyone,

I have managed to solve this issue. Previously I have encountered similar issues between a Windows Domain Controller and a client computer; however in previous cases the client computer simply wasn't able to logon to the Domain (even when using the Admin, or Administrator account). In those previous instances I would receive a "The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed." message at the logon screen (as pictured below) -

In the instance related to this post there appears to have been some kind of "partial mistrust" between my workstation and the Domain Controller (Windows 2008 R2 Server).

Before looking directly at the Domain as the primary cause of this issue I performed the following on my workstation.

1). Removed an "Alternate DNS" entry from the network adaptor
2). Flushed the DNS (using ipconfig /flushdns)
3). Rebooted

After the above steps there was no improvement, so I performed the following additional steps.

1). Unjoined the Domain from my workstation
2). Rebooted my workstation (and logged onto a local account)
3). Deleted my workstations entry from Active Directory User & Computers on the Server
4). Rebooted the Server
5). Rejoined the Domain from my workstation
6). Rebooted my workstation
7). Logged back onto my workstation with my Domain account

The above steps fixed the issue, and I am now able to view shared folders that are on my workstation from Windows 7 & Windows XP computers.

I should also note here that I could not access my Shared Folders from the Server before I performed the Unjoin / Rejoin Domain activities outlined above. The Windows Server simply showed the same message as other Windows clients (as pictured in the original post) when I tried to access shares on my workstation prior to performing the fix.

I must say that I am happy that I didn't start experimenting with Kerberos, or the Netdom command, both of these approaches could have had quite serious repercussions.

I hope that this helps others who are experiencing this issue.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[chev65]

I believe you have fixed the issue which is great, but solving the issue would involve figuring out why the trust relationship broke in the first place.

From what I have read this problem occurs on a regular basis.