Windows 7 cannot access a shared folder located on a Windows 2000 server

After upgrading several workstations for a client, who still has a Windows 2000 server, the Windows 7 workstations would no longer connect to the shares on the Win2K server. To resolve this issue we made several attempts.

System Time

The first thing we looked at was the system time on the server. It was off by about 15 minutes. Normally this is not the cause, but to be sure we updated the server time to be in sync with our workstations.

NTLM Security on the Server

Several technical articles suggested that the NTLM version that may have been used on the Windows 2000 server was incompatible with the Windows 7  systems that use NTLM2 by default. We made the registry change on the Win2K server just to be sure.

We used Microsoft's Knowledge base article to enable NTLMv2 authentication on the Windows 2000 server following these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor. To do this, click Start, click Run, type Regedit, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and then click following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA
3. Locate the LmCompatibilityLevel registry value.
4. If the registry value is not present, follow these steps to create it:a.Select the registry subkey that is listed in step 2.
   b.On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   c.Type LmCompatibilityLevel, and then press ENTER.
5. Set the DWORD value to 1. To do this, click Modify on the Edit menu, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

Local Security Policy

After making the above changes we were still having issues. We then found a tip about changing the Local Security Policy on the Windows 7 workstation.

1. Search for the Local Security Policy control panel from the Start menu and run it.
2. Navigate to Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security Options >> Local Policies
3. Double click the policy 'Network security: LAN Manager authentication level'
4. On the drop down menu choose: Send LM & NTLM Responses  and then Click OK

Then we made another attempt to connect to the Windows 2000 server share and it worked.

We hope that this information is helpful. Please let us know how this has helped you or if you have additional questions. As always Firestone Technical Resources, Inc. is here to help with your computer support issues - "Providing personal service for your impersonal technology."