IFS and mapped drive passwords

[Bill Howie]

Hello.....

We have an application set up that archives our invoices to the IFS as PDF files. We then have the particular IFS directory mapped to a Windows network drive. This works great, except when people change their network password. When this happens they lose connectivity with the mapped drive and have to reboot and change their iSeries password to sync the passwords back up and get the mapped drive back. I've seen this problem posted other places but haven't really seen a good solution to it. I'm hoping that is not because there isn't one.

Does anyone out there have experience with this? If so how did you resolve the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[jamief]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

You can map and "un" map drives via the green screen

maybe use this in some form

http://www.code400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1822&highlight=network

jamie

[Bill Howie]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

Jamie,

Thanks for replying. Right now our users click on a shortcut on their desktops to access the mapped drive that is connected to the IFS. So they don't really do anything through the green screen to get to it. How is this program currently used in your application? Does something trigger a call to it to map a drive?

[jamief]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

Yes ......... I actually have green screen programs writting directly to the IFS to create documents.....so I create the share for them to write or view then remove
as they leave the application.

I have other programs that list all documents in a specific folder and let a user
select a 5 to view,...



jamie

[Bill Howie]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

Jamie,

Do you think this would work with PDF files? Could I set up a green screen application that accesses these files on the IFS and opens them using Adobe Reader?

[jamief]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

yes.....using STRPCO and STRPCCMD.

search the tips section for the subfile program I think there is an image of what it
looks like. then just use PCO /STRPCCMD to open them......

[jamief]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

here it is

http://www.code400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103

and see attached image:



jamie

[Bill Howie]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

Jamie,

Thanks for the links to the samples. Do you happen to know of a way, simply within the authority setups between Windows and the iSeries, to set things up so that whenever we change a network password, and then try to access our mapped drive via our shortcut, that the Windows user ID and password would not be used to check the iSeries user ID and password?

What we are trying to do is prevent our users from having to contact us every time they change their network password and then immediately try to access our mapped drive, and they can't because Windows is using the new network password to try to authenticate to the iSeries. Because it appears that somehow the two user IDs and passwords are linked as far as what gets checked when accessing a mapped drive. Thanks.

[jamief]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

i would think the only way would be to release the drive
then remapit.....this can be initiated at ?? signon to Iseries or a menu option.

       *                                                                    
       * remove the mapped drive leave the share ;)                         
       *                                                                    
      c                   eval      cmdstring = 'strpccmd ' + Q +           
      c                             'net use '                              
      c                             + %trim(NetDrive)                       
      c                             + ': /delete'+ Q +' pause(*yes)'        
       *                                                                    
      c                   eval      cmdlength = %len(%trim(cmdstring))      
      c                   call(e)   'QCMDEXC'                               
      c                   parm                    cmdstring                 
      c                   parm                    cmdlength                 
       * 

[arrow483]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

You might want to look into using EIM and single sign-on. In this scenario, the iSeries password is set to *NONE and the iSeries checks with active directory to authenticate. The User ID's do not have to be the same. This way, when they change the network password, they are done.

The "down" side of this is that the application accessing the iSeries must be Kerberos-enabled. iSeries Access is enabled, but most 3rd party programs are not.

The other option is to setup the mapped drive with a "log on as" and specify another user name (such as a generic, or an alternate logon name) whose password doesn't change. Then they can map with that name. This is highly dependent on security concerns and/or the overhead of another set of user id's.

[Bill Howie]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

We've set up a generic user with a password that doesn't expire. We've mapped the drive with the "connect as a different user" option and given it the generic user ID and password. The problem we have now is that it asks for the password for the generic user each time we access the drive after a reboot. Is there a way around this, such that we enter the password when we first map it and then don't have to again? Please advise. Thanks for the help.

[arrow483]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

try adding this to their logon script or in their startup folder

net use Z: \\qsystemname\folder genpassword /USER:generic

There are other options available on the "net" command you can also explore.

[Bill Howie]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

Thanks for the suggestion. We are now exploring creating a login script. I will let you know what happens. Thanks.

[SG_FTL]

Re: IFS and mapped drive passwords

would be curious to see if your new script gives a solution to this problem...

as i have the same situation on my end, and everytime i 've to change my windows pwd, i keep changing my 400 pwds as well, inorder to access the drive. it can get painful.