Windows 7 Beta Networking tweaks

Image by Senpa via Flickr

If you have been following my Twitter, you would have noticed that I've been spending a bit of time with the Windows 7 Beta.  Overall, I have had a positive experience with the Beta, only having trouble with the normal things when using a Windows box.  One of the normal things is getting a Windows box to talk to the other non-Windows machines, and sometimes even Windows computers on the network.

The first issue I had was getting Win 7 to find the OSX machines on the network.  This was a  pain as all my files and music are on my Powerbook.  So I went looking for a fix.  I found the answer on the TechNet Forums under a question on "Networking with a mac", and here are the details (thanks to dnegrich):

Accessing Mac OS X Windows Sharing from Windows 7

Windows 7 will not work with Mac OS X Windows file sharing support by default.  If you attempt to access a folder shared from Mac OS X, Vista will display a log on error repeatedly.

The problem is that Vista, by default, will only use NTLMv2 for authentication, which is not supported by Mac OS X's Windows Sharing service.

The other problem is the Minimum Session Security for NTVLM SSP based Clients.

To get around this:

1. In Vista, open the Control Panel

2. Switch to "Classic" view
3. Double-click "Administration Tools"
4. Double-click "Local Security Policy" or "Secpol.msc"
5. Expand "Local Policies" and select "Security Options"
6. Alternate : Type "secpol.msc" to get the editor up then
7. Locate "Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level" in the list and double-click it
8. Change the setting from "Send NTMLv2 response only" to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session if negotiated"
9. Network Security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP Based (including secure RPC) Clients
10. Change the setting from "require 128 bit" to unchecked (No Minimum)
11. Click OK

 Basically the difference between Vista and Windows 7 is lines 10 through to 11.  Full post found here.

 The above works great on Win7 Beta, can't say for Vista but worth a shot.

Jason Remnant

"If it is Broken...it's probably an Alpha."

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