Windows 2000 Networking

[Mirai]

Alright, this is a friends' problem, and she isn't exactly network saavy, so clear explanations would be nice.

Basically, she tried to make a network with a hub and all. Seems easy, right? But now she can't log into her other computer. Before, it would ask for a password, but you could just cancel the screen and get in. But not now.

All she wants to know is how to log in. I tried to help her, but I'm not exactly the greatest in microsoft products either.

So what's wrong, and how does she fix it?

[Structural Integrity]

Did she try to log in as administrator?
I have a hunch that this comp is set to auth users on a central server.

/me looks through his settings if he can find something about that

[edit]
Cannot find anything that disables this. Not in the setting or in my book. She needs a user/pass to log into the comp.
If she doesn't have that, then she should try unpluging the comp from the network and hope she can get in again by pressing cancel.
Win2k is built as a network OS, and I think that it automatically tightens security when it's plugged into a network.
[/edit]

[CjC]

What SI was saying. You have three boxes on the login screen if the computer has been joined to a domain. The user, password and a logon to box. In the logon to box make sure that the computer name is selected and not the domain.

Not sure how pressing cancel lets you in, that should get you back to the "Press CTL-ALT-DEL" to login window - only win9x/Me lets you thru that way.

[warrmr]

i dont know if i shoudl post this as it can be used to compromise network security by removing all local passwords. if this is used on any workstation that you do not have permission to doso on then i cannot be held responsible for any actions caused by useing it.

first if the disk is Fat32 (most are unless converted on install) then use a win 98 boot disk to geto the command prompt then locate this folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\
just incase you dont know DOS commands (im not sure on how computer savy you are so ill list them incase

c: [enter]
cd.. [enter] till just c:\ is displaing
cd windows[enter]
cd system32[enter]
cd config [enter]
now you should have a blank screen with this on c:\windows\system32\config

now type
del sam [enter]
when it asks you if your sure press y followed by enter
boot into windows and type in administrator as username then leave passoword blank press ok

the procedure is the same if its an NTFS disk but you will need a bootdisk with NTFS dos on avalable from www.bootdisks.com

now you have admin rights therfore having the run of the pc.

i must stress that you must only do this on workstations you have permission for as it can get you in alot of trouble if you dont have permision to do this


EDIT: after a quick google serch i found this i think tis what i jus sed exept more detailed and a slightly differetn way http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

[Raging.Retard]

The URL you posted does not relate to your deletion method.

I would not delete your SAM database unless you know what you are doing. Deleting your SAM database is effectively the same as deleting ALL local user accounts on the machine. All documents and settings will no longer map back to their respective users even if you recreate them with the same name. This is reversable, but a pain to do (neet to remap suids).

You could do it to FAT32 or NTFS, the drive system is irrelevant (Although i disagree that most systems are converted to FAT32, the more popular option is NTFS). Deleting the database on an ecrypted drive would leave the drive unusable as the user keys are used to augment the drive encryption keys.

There is also no reference to the network topology in the original post. If she has a domain controller processing auths, then this method will not recover anything anyway as the accounts are not stored locally.

Mirai more information would be helpful. It *sounds* like she has upgraded from Win98/ME to an NT based system like 2k/XP. However it would be good if you could confirm this.