I have this new notebook with Win 7 Pro which is no part of the domain. Normally I can access shared folders (from other Win 7 workgroup PC/not domain member PC) on the domain file server like \\10.1.1.10\Share using my domain user account [domain]\User.Name and Password on the network authentication prompt but with this new Win 7 notebook I cannot go past the network authentication stage. It keeps on asking me the username and password and after a few try it lock my domain account. OK, now on the other hand if I replace the IP address with DNS name of the server in the UNC like \\FS001\share as usual it asks for my credential and works fine in one shot. My other colleague got the exactly same notebook (in fact we bought together) which is also not part of the domain computer works fine both way straight out of the box. I have tried reinstalling Win7 all over again and changing network setting like Turning off and on – IP6, I/O mapper, Network discovery, Firewall, changing Network Locations “Home”, “Work” and “Public” and setting their individual setting to lest restrictive with no luck. Still I cannot access it by IP address. Because of this I cannot connect to VPN from outside as the server only has IP address and every time I dial VPN it goes up to “ Verifying User name and Password” and throughs error user name of password incorrect. All this happens only with this notebook my home Win7 desktop works fine and I tried everything on my colleague’s notebook everything works like a charm. Any thought why it is only my notebook??

You are absolutely right and you're not the first person to recognize this. Supposedly there is information in a KB @ http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.win2000.general but the link seems to be offline right now. Also if you look at an internet search https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%22windows+7+and+Server+2000+domain%22&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs= you will note that others have recognized the problem, too.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.