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I'd like to have a share on a Windows Server Domain Controller (2012 R2) with Mac software for folks on my company to install from. Not everyone who will have access to this share will have a domain account on Windows.

On the Windows Share I gave Read permissions to Anonymous, DOMAIN\Everyone and Guests. On the Folder, I gave read permissions to the same account.

From my Mac I go to Finder and try to access the server using smb://[servername]/share and I get an access denied.

On the Mac OS "Connect to Server" dialog, if I click on Browse the server does appear on the Network list, but if I double click the server I get "Connection Failed".

Either I want to fix this, or have an easy way for folks from the office to be able to easily grab software from a main share. Least desirable is to create domain accounts for everyone.

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Folks, be CAREFUL with domain level guest access. It opens your entire Windows network up to anyone who can access the network (Microsoft leaves this off for a reason).

If you have to share the folder on your DC then your best bet is to make an account, (call it MacGuest or whatever you want). Assign it a password that doesn't expire and can't be changed and give it to anyone who needs access to that share.

They can click on the "remember this password in my keychain" option and never have to enter it again.

Just my 2-cents...

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Yes, you can do what you are doing. You need to enable the local "Guest" account on the server that you are sharing from in order for guest authentication to work.

I tried initially with sharing the folder with "Guest" and trying to access as a Guest from Mac OS X, but was met with the permissions issue that you describe.

However, if you enable the Guest account through lusrmgr.msc:

Guest

You can then share the folder with "Guest":

Guest access

Then, connect to the share as a guest...

Connecting

Authenticate as Guest

You will be able to see the shared folders:

Finally!

And finally mount the one that you want:

Mounted

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  • Thanks, but I'm trying to do this from the Domain Controller, and the Domain Controller doesn't have a local user account for Guest. Maybe I can't do it from a DC.
    – Marcelo Calbucci
    Commented Jul 14, 2014 at 22:13
  • Ah, so there's no way to enable the guest account on a DC? That makes sense from a security standpoint, I guess. I'll dig around and see if I can help you any more.
    – aglasser
    Commented Jul 14, 2014 at 22:37
  • I just tested this using Active Directory Users and Groups instead of lusrmgr. I enabled the domain guest account and I am able to authenticate as guest to a share on the domain controller from Mac OS X.
    – aglasser
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 13:32
  • aglasser, careful, opening guest access on your AD Domain is A Bad Idea, see my comment above...
    – Steve Chambers
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 18:24
  • You aren't wrong. However, he asked if it was possible, and it is.
    – aglasser
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 18:36

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