Problem: \\computername\c$ returns "Network Name cannot be found"
I tried using \\computername\c$ as well as well as with the FQDN \\computername.domain.company.com\c$ and the IP address too.
net use * \computername\c$ /user AdminprivilegedUser --> returns "The network name cannot be found"
Computer's in question:
- WinXPSp2x86 (part of us.company.com on corporate network)
- WinVistaSp2x86 (part of us.company.com on corporate network)
- WinServer2003SPx86 (part of uk.company.com on corporate network) - \\computername\c$ -> works!
- #1WinServer2008R2SP1x64 (part of uk.company.com on corporate network) - \\computername\c$ -> works!
- #2WinServer2008R2SP1x64 (part of uk.company.com on corporate network) - \\computername\c$ -> doesnt work
[WinServer2003SPx86, #1WinServer2008R2SP1x64 are production servers, #2WinServer2008R2SP1x64 is a staging server]- in case that helps in any information
The computer (client) I am using to access the shares is WinVistaSp2x86.
Edit: Updated with more details
\\WinXPSp2x86 -- lists shared files. \\WinXPSp2x86\c$ -- returns network name not found [UAC - Not applicable | HKLM..LanmanServer.. Autoserver key unavailable]
\\WinVistaSp2x86 -- lists shared files. \\WinVistaSp2x86\c$ -- returns network name not found [UAC - Off | HKLM..LanmanServer.. Autoserver key unavailable]
\\WinServer2003SPx86 -- lists shared files. \\WinServer2003SPx86\c$ -- works! [UAC - Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer | HKLM..LanmanServer.. Autoserver key set to 1]
\\#1WinServer2008R2SP1x64 -- lists shared files. \\#1WinServer2008R2SP1x64\c$ -- works! [UAC - Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer | HKLM..LanmanServer.. Autoserver key set to 1]
\\#2WinServer2008R2SP1x64 -- lists shared files. \\#2WinServer2008R2SP1x64\c$ -- returns network name not found [UAC - Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer | HKLM..LanmanServer.. Autoserver key set to 1]
if I RDP to this 2008 server, and try \\localhost or \\localhost\c$ it shows me the share. However if I do \\servername or \\servername\c$ it would give me a credential prompt window saying 'logon failure or bad password'
I am trying to understand what makes this differenciation between a #1WinServer2008R2SP1x64 and a #2WinServer2008R2SP1x64.
- User Access Control is turned off. (wherever applicable on the above list of computers)
- File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks is enabled on the Network Properties on all computers.
- All the computers (as mentioned above) does show their shared files when accessed using \\computername. [They show the shared folders that are located accross multiple drives (C, D, E, F) on the computer.]
- User account used to access all these shares is a part of Administrator group across all these computers.
Firewall? I dont think it a problem here, since I am able to access the files shared on all these computers and what I am not able to access is the default administrator shares.
(more information? will be posted on request as I have posted everything related that Iam aware of)
Expected Solution: I want to be able to access the administrator shares across all the above computers. I want to be able to browse the hard drives in those computers via their driverletter$ syntax.
May be I am not understanding how an Administrator share is configured by the operating system or the changes that happen to file sharing when a computer joins a domain. I have tried my best to explain the situation, please request for more information if anything is vague.
I am not an IT Administrator, I do not manage any of them, I am a Developer that mananges applications deployed accross all these servers.
I have provided a subset of the servers, I do have more servers that my application runs on and I want to be able to access all of them using their administrative shares, and I dont want to manually share a particular folder for a particular user or for Aministrator's group, because the folder that I might access may vary. And I dont want to explicitly share an entire drive partition on a server as my IT Administrators will hate it as a prohibited activity. While I do understand their concers, I dont understand how that Administrator share work in some computers (including the production ones).
[Edit: Posting Solution]
tweaking the
autoshareserver
key on servers andautosharewks
key on workstations under the registry entryHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\
enabled the default hidden admin share on the servers and workstations.After setting this registry key value to 1, I had to restart the LanmanServer to view the admin shares.
For disabling them, after setting the registry key value to 0, I had to restart the Lanman server to see the changes.
However for disabling admin shares on the WinVistaSp2x86 workstations, after setting the
autosharewks
to 0 and restarting lanman server, I had to manually disconected these admin shares from'compmgmt.msc' | System Tools| Shared Folders| Shares
to disconected the admin shares and disable them. Else they kept showing up.Thanks everyone for paying attention to way too many details on this question.