Accessing Win2003 Server File Share?

[CJones]

I'm trying to access a file share on a Win2003 Server that is behind a different domain.

I have file shares set up on the server, which I can verify via Remote Desktop into the server from home (using server's domain login/password). If I do "Start -> Run -> \\ServerIPAddress", I get an empty menu with no shares listed. If I do "Start -> Run -> \\ServerIPAddress\Share" it tells me that the the share can't be found.

Looking at the shares on Remote Desktop, they are listed as "Servername\FileShare" and I'm trying to access them via "ServerIPAddress\FileShare". Is that the problem? The server does not have a DNS entry outside the domain.

How the heck can I get this to work!? Is the domain host screwing me over with firewall settings?

 

[mikea]

Not having a DNs entry would be the opposite problem. If DNS fails or not the IP address will work.

AFAIK, the syntax is \\nnn.nn.nnn.nnn\Share, though.

Go to the command prompt and type:

NET USE K: \\nnn.nn.nnn.nnn\Share

 

[CJones]

Not having a DNs entry would be the opposite problem. If DNS fails or not the IP address will work.

AFAIK, the syntax is \\nnn.nn.nnn.nnn\Share, though.

Go to the command prompt and type:

NET USE K: \\nnn.nn.nnn.nnn\Share

I tried mapping drives and just manually connecting to it with no luck. And yes, I was doing the IPv4 IP address syntax, not just a bunch of jumbled numbers together.

I'm starting to suspect it is the domain host's firewall preventing me getting in. Not surprising, they have pulled static IP's from us without the courtesy of letting us know, and we have a printer tied to a server that is God knows where, but it still prints - just can't find the server it's tied to to allow us to install it on new machines.

AhHA!! As I was typing that I had a brain hiccup and thought "Can I get to the share from inside the domain!?" So I remote'd in to my desktop which is on the same domain as the server. I can map drives and access the file shares with no problem from that machine, but I can't do diddly on my computer from home which is not on the server's domain. Darn. Guess I'll have to plead and beg for them to let me in somehow.

 

[Neal Howard]

If there is any kind of firewall between your client and the Win 2003 server, then CIFS/SMB/Windows filesharing ports are probably blocked by default. Any firewall worth its weight in dirt does that automatically by default these days. Also if your client machine is one of the "home" flavors of XP or Vista, then you might not get it to mount a network fileshare at all if the server is a member of an active directory domain and the server is also running MS's "Access Based Enumeration" add-on... since MS has deliberately designed W2K3 + ABE + AD to stop exactly what you're wanting to do. Your client workstation must be a member of the server's domain, or a member of a "trusted" domain to even see the shares then. And the "home" flavors of Windows desktop OS's are deliberately crippled to not be able to be domain members at all. Your best bet would be to use one of the pro or business versions of the Windows dektop O/S and see if they'll grant you some form of VPN access to the network upon which the server in question resides.

 

[jesse]

I would strongly discourage any attempt to just blast CIFS over the internet like that. There is a reason VPN was created. You should be doing this over VPN..

 

[CJones]

Thanks. I figured that out later last night. They do provide VPN access to the domain. My boss emailed me and said she tried to drop a file on the server from home and couldn't do it. I'll have to ask if she was able to do it before I started the job or if this is the first time she has tried it.

JOOC... Does MS Sharepoint provide any type of file share access capabilities? I really haven't looked at it much, but if it's worthwhile, I could set it up on our server.

Looks like I'll get the details on VPN access today.

Thanks for the help. I'm an idiot. I know just enough to cause trouble.

 

[mikea]

Besides anything else, Windows networking has a toggle to allow/not sharing on a different SUBNET, which of course, it assumes is /24. So the client PC would have to be on the same LAN.

 

[Ghery]

JOOC... Does MS Sharepoint provide any type of file share access capabilities? I really haven't looked at it much, but if it's worthwhile, I could set it up on our server.

It does. In fact, that's a major use I have for it. And I can set security so that only the people I authorize can access the files, or write files, or whatever.

But, ours is behind a firewall, so you have to be logged into the evil empire to get in. VPN is wonderful.