Samba shared drive won't auto-authenticate at startup.

Question

Hi All,

I have a samba network share on a FreeBSD box that I use for development.

I have it set up as a shared drive on my WinXP box, and it works fine.

However, if I reboot the xp box, the shared drive will not be accessible until I click on it and enter the password, even though I have set it to use the correct username and password and to connect at startup.

Does anyone know offhand what might be the issue? I can get version data, etc. if necessary, but wanted to hang this out there briefly to see if it might be a common samba issue.

Thanks!

EDIT:

So Sorry! I thought I had said I have XP Pro. I actually have the auth stored in the mapped drive, where it says "authenticate using user." I also use the same username for the samba share as the xp login, though not the same pw.

Answer 1

To force authentication on startup, run "net use" (by putting a link in the startup folder for example). Ie:

NET USE \\computer\share "password" /USER:user

This will authenticate you to the Samba server and make it possible to use it, without clicking on it first.

Answer 2

WinXP Home doesn't have the ability to store login credentials for network shares in the same way that XP Pro does.

As per Cd-MaN's response - create a batch file with the relevant NET USE commands in it and put a shortcut to that batch file in your Startup menu items.

Answer 3

Two options: set the login/password on the Samba share so it is the same as the username/password you use to login to Windows XP. Or can also set your XP Home to store the credentials manually:

MANUAL Keys are created in the following way:

1. Start the Stored User Names and Passwords tool in Control Panel.
2. Click Add.

3. Type the appropriate information in the boxes:

   • Server: Use the hostname, FQDN, wildcards, and so forth.
   • User Name: Domain\Username; Machine\Username; UPN.
   • Password: Type the password.

As for "WinXP Home doesn't have the ability to store login credentials for network shares in the same way that XP Pro does." this is incorrect:

DYNAMIC keys are created in the following way:

1. A user attempts to connect to \\server\share.
2. The user's logon credentials are attempted. If these do not gain access, Stored User Names and Passwords prompts.
3. Credentials are put in Stored User Names and Passwords after it successfully connects, or if Cancel is clicked on a returned error message.

For more information please see:

Behavior of stored user names and passwords - Article ID: 281660

Answer 4

to get it to map on startup, you can put this in a batch file

@echo off
NET USE \\computer\share "password" /USER:user

hide it somewhere... I couldn't find a way to get the literal credentials out of the net use string either..

then go into Start->Run->Regedit and find this key

\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

From there, you can add a call to that batch file so that it runs on startup....

right click under all the values and select

new->string value

name it something non-descriptive and then modify it by right clicking it and then just put the path to the batch file into the value data field

---

I also set up a samba share drive to be mapped automatically on startup by matching the login credentials on the computer to those used on the samba share...... it might be specific for Novell, but give it a shot