Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team

Errors may be seen when attempting to access shares after installation of the update described in KB 968389

If you are unable to access shares on Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP or are being prompted for credentials, or are having authentication issues, then it might be due to an incorrect installation of the hotfix described in KB 968389. Please check to see if you have KB 968389 installed and if you see any of the below symptoms:

• When you access shares on a file server remotely from another workstation/server, you might receive permission errors or access denied errors.
• When you try to access shares locally on the file server itself, you might observe the following behavior:
• Start->Run->\\localhost – Returns error “ No network provider accepted the given network path”
• Start->Run->\\servername\share - Returns error “Access Denied “or “You do not have the permission to access this resource. Please contact your network administrator.
• Start ->Run->\\IP Address – Returns error “No network provider accepted the given network path”
• Start->Run->\\FQDN – Returns error “No network provider accepted the given network path”.
• If you attempt to map a drive letter using net use, you may receive “System error 67 has occurred. The network name cannot be found.”
• You might find that the shares are accessible from some workstations/servers and not from others.
• You have other file servers in your environment that are working properly with the update discussed in KB article 968389.
• You might also observe that the issue is intermittent when accessing shares on a workstation or server.

If you capture network traces while trying to access shared folders, you may see a response of Error, Code =(13) STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER from the server for the session setup:

192.168.0.2     192.168.0.1   SMB:C; Session Setup Andx, NTLM AUTHENTICATE MESSAGE, Workstation: WRK001

192.168.0.1     192.168.0.2   SMB:R; Session Setup Andx - NT Status: System - Error, Code = (13) STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER

This error code means that there is an issue with NTLM authentication. The update in KB 968389 introduces a new feature that enhances protection and handling of credentials when authenticating network connections by using Integrated Windows Authentication.

This behavior can occur if the update discussed in KB 968389 did not install properly. To correct the issue, please uninstall the update completely and then reboot the server. After the restart, you should find that the symptoms no longer occur. Reinstall the update from KB 968389 and restart the server again. The issue should not re-occur. You should be able to access all shares successfully locally and remotely.

- Shabana Vali