You’ve got a Windows 2003 machine, it’s on a workgroup, why must it be so difficult to share a folder? Windows 2003 Server operates on the assumption that you’re in an enterprise environment with a need for user authentication and access control. It’s understandable that the OS should be most secure out of the box in these cases, it saves a door accidentally being left open.

So, can you share files and printers and have them accessible by everybody on the LAN like you could with Windows XP etc? Yes, you just need to enable the guest account. Everybody has to be authenticated in some way on a Windows server. Anonymous users can be authenticated as “guest” with a blank password.

To enable the guest account with a blank password on Windows 2003:

1. Click Start->Run and enter gpedit.msc

You’ll see this:

2. Locate Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Accounts: Guest account status and set it to Enabled

3. Now we give the guest account access to all the rights assigned to “Everyone” for file and folder permissions. Be warned, once we’re done here file and printer sharing on this server will have about the same level of security as file and printer shares on Windows 98 (none) – so don’t do this on anything accessible from outside a home or small office network.

In the same part of the tree as Guest account status, set the following:
Network access: Allow anonymous SID/Name translation to Enabled
Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users to Enabled
Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares to Disabled
Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts to Guest only – local users authenticate as Guest
Network security: Force logoff when logon hours expire to Disabled

4. Still in the Group Policy Object Editor, locate Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment\Access this computer from the network and add ANONYMOUS LOGON, Everyone to this group.

You should now be able to access the shares on this Windows server from other PCs on the same workgroup by using Start->Run and entering \\yourservername

The server may still be hidden from the Microsoft Computer Browser, this can be hit and miss.  Sometimes you can only access the server via a network path only, so if you can’t see it in My Network places on one of the desktop machines, go to a command prompt on the server and type net config server /hidden:no . That fixes the problem in most cases.

Again, once you’ve done this your server will have no security or user authentication at all on shares, the only thing keeping anybody out will be access to the network it is connected to. Make sure your LAN is behind a NAT/Firewall router and you don’t have an open wireless network.