Windows 2003 Server on a domain, XP client PCs on a workgroup - file share without authentication?

I have a windows 2003 server on a domain and client PCs running XP on a workgroup. I have created a file share on the server that should be accessible by the client PCs. I even set the security and sharing to 'Everyone' just to test.

When I try to access the file share from any of the XP machines, I get an authentication prompt that displays asking for credentials, even though 'Everyone' has full control currently (just for testing purposes). Why is it asking to authenticate? I need it to where it doesn't ask to authenticate.

I also made sure passwords were set on all XP machines since I found this could be one possible issue and they all were. Any ideas? Thanks!

Solution 1:

By default, the Everyone group does not include the anonymous SID. It did in earlier version of Windows, but was removed for XP/2003. You can restore this behavior with a registry change on the server. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278259

A better option would be to synchronize the user names and passwords on the XP clients and the server. Just create an account on the XP client and then create the exact same account on the server. When the server challenges the client for credentials, the client first tries the current user. As long as there is an account on the server that matched, it will authenticate into the domain and qualify as "Everyone" then. Setup auto logon on XP and your users probably won't even notice.