Environment: Window7 Home Premium, Windows Server 2003 (no domain controller). When trying to logon to the server get invalid userid. Logon window shows computername\userid (computer name of the Win7 machine). Also, the dialog says domain computername. What do I have to do on the server to allow the Win7 user to logon?

For you to successfully access the server resources, you will need to create a local account on the server. This account must be the same name and password as you created on the Windows 7 computer. Then simply apply the correct permissions to the Windows Server resource to allow that server local account to gain access. Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Since it is not part of the Domain, you need to create local accounts on the server. You can’t share the user name or password. Instead of the Domain\UserName, you can use servername\username. Santhosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX http://blogs.sivarajan.com/ http://publications.sivarajan.com/ This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

When you try to logon to Windows 2003 from Windows 7, it will try to use the current user account and password to logon. If failed, you will get an error similar as invalid user name or password. Jorge's method should help you logon to Windows 2003 automatically as there is a local account on Windows 2003 which use the same user name and password. Or you can just create an admin account (let's say Test as user name) on Windows 2003. Remember give it a password. When trying to logon to Windows 2003, just type Test as user name and its password should help you logon.

After you create the account on the Windows 2003 Server and try to login again, the format for login will be servername\userid then the password you gave the account on the server. servername=Name of your Windows 2003 Server. userid=The account you created on the Windows 2003 Server. Make sure you give that account share and NTFS rights to the data you're trying to access.