Question Mapped network drives issue which now appears to have fixed itself ?

[yoji]

I have been logging into my Win 11 comp as a local account, but today decided to go with logging in with a MS account.

I had 3 mapped network drives.. all to my NAS, 3 different shares.. all working just fine. My NAS is a ReadyNas 102 (if thats important) and set up to allow anonymous connection. so not aware that I have ever had to authenticate.. it just worked.

SO today I made the change.. signed in with my MS account.. set up a PIN for login to Win 11 and thought it had all gone through fine.

HOWEVER... I then noticed that my mapped drives were no longer auto reconnecting when I logging in to Windows. It was giving (and apologies, I didnt record the exact message) a message along the lines of "You cant connect to the same share at the same time with different credentials"... I thought "WTH.. I never provide credentials .. so what is it babbling about?"

But to humour it.. I disconnected the 3 shares and set them up again... when I set up, windows network security (?) asked me to provide credentials.. As I said, my NAS set up to allow anonymous access, so I assume it windows insisting on credentials..

So I put in my local user name (not my MS account user name) and password for my Win 11 signin.. and it accepted it... and the next 2 maps didnt ask for credentials (assume it just reused what I have provided first time). The shares all worked... but when I rebooted, they all failed again with the same error mesasge.
So I assumed something getting very confused and my mapping with my old local account was somehow causing problems..

So I logged back in with my local account.... disconnected all the mapped drives.. re-logged in with windows account... remapped the drives (first one again asked for credentials.. and the second 2 did not - they just connected) and now all is OK... the maps survive a reboot and all working OK..

So although I dont have a problem.. I am very confused on what the problem was,.
Can anyone give me a (simple?) explanation on what happened here? what was the root problem..
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Cheers

 

[Viking2121]

Well I do know windows gets a bit strange with file shares with no passwords or users, wasn't like this in Windows 7 or 8 days, but as some point in Win 10 life and Win 11.

Also could have something messed up in the Credential Manager in windows, search for it and click on Windows Credentials and you may have to delete the nas login stuff in there and then reboot the machine, and then re add the network drives and log into it and see if the problem is still there. You may also have to make sure your network is set to private if its not that already.

Good Luck!

 

[BFG-9000]

"WTH.. I never provide credentials .. so what is it babbling about?"

But to humour it.. I disconnected the 3 shares and set them up again... when I set up, windows network security (?) asked me to provide credentials.. As I said, my NAS set up to allow anonymous access

Given that Microsoft are about to disable guest login entirely, some weirdness is probably to be expected. The other thing is they will also require SMB signing, to "improve security," by preventing man-in-the-middle attacks... from inside your house. Of course if you have that kind of problem then you probably have more pressing issues.

Unfortunately most people disabled SMB signing long ago on things like your 11-year old ReadyNAS, because it reduced performance by about 75% and that's a lot. And you can't have anonymous guest login with SMB signing, which is why they are pushing both at the same time. They are even talking about removing SMB1 binaries entirely. Looks like they really want you to get a newer NAS, and you'll have to login to it.

The biggest thing with logging into Windows using a Microsoft Account is the first time you do it, it applies Windows Device Encryption (aka Bitlocker) to your disks, since 1703. Yes, even to Home when Bitlocker is only "supported" on Pro or Enterprise. That just means your 48-digit recovery key won't actually work on Home so you get to lose your data!

 

[yoji]

The biggest thing with logging into Windows using a Microsoft Account is the first time you do it, it applies Windows Device Encryption (aka Bitlocker) to your disks, since 1703. Yes, even to Home when Bitlocker is only "supported" on Pro or Enterprise. That just means your 48-digit recovery key won't actually work on Home so you get to lose your data!

Thanks for the insight re plans on SMB access.. my NAS is old.. but support only ended about a year ago - so may be I can configure to a standard supported by Windows if they change (though I am happy with its performance/behaviour right now.. simple access.. simple DNLA server, raid 0)

Are you sure about the Bitlocker thing? that would be VERY annoying, and has not happened since I have logged in via a MSA... I am Win 11 Pro and have just double checked... all my drives are still not bitlocker encrypted (thankfully).

Cheers.