I spent most of the day installing Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and, well, it’s a good thing I got a buzz cut last Thursday or what little hair I have left would be gone.
One of the big deals with Service Pack 1 is the Security Configuration Wizard. With all the heat that Microsoft’s gotten about security issues, I figured this must be soup by now and installed it right behind Service Pack 1 (it’s an optional component; that should have been enough to warn me away). It recognized all the server roles for which I have the box configured, and even finds my ancient Retrospect backup stuff. And then it promptly turns off its file serving functionality. I can get in through Samba on my Ubuntu Linux development server, but not with any of our laptops running Windows XP. Oh, the irony; oh, the ignominy.
The SMB ports are open and although the shares can’t be browsed, when I try to Add a Network Place Windows XP appears to find the share, prompt for a username and password, and then promptly reject them with a “The folder you entered does not appear to be valid. Please choose another.”
One would think if Microsoft was going to turn something off, it would turn off the ftp server or the web server or something else exposed to the public internet. One would be wrong. Why would anyone need to leave a Windows file server open to the local network, right?
Feh. I’ve had enough. The nice neighbor lady brought homemade strawberry shortcake.
Update: 8:45PM CST: I managed to get the internal file server working after dinking around with the registry settings that Microsoft’s Security Configuration Wizard screwed up. Unfortunately, the process was so convoluted I have no idea which setting change did the trick. It’s a crying shame, but probably not surprising, that Linux is easier to configure for Windows file serving than Microsoft’s Windows Server product. And yeah, the shortcake was wonderful (thanks Diann).
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