Re: Question about passwords

James,

NetServer is the IBM software that's used for Windows networking. When someone uses Windows Networking to access the IFS (such as mapping a drive letter to an IFS location.) With NetServer, your IBM i system looks like another node on the Windows Network.

There's also QNTC, which allows IBM i to connect to other windows machines on the network. Although this technically isn't NetServer, it does share a lot of code with NetServer, and often uses NetServer settings (I suspect the password is one of them.) If all is configured properly, you can access a windows server from the IFS under /QNTC/servername/sharename/path/to/file.ext

Anyway, since Windows Networking uses a different form of encryption, et al, from what IBM uses for it's passwords, when you set/change your password, under the covers it will encrypt it according to the NetServer style and save it as a "net server password" (in addition to the normal encryption and storage used by IBM i itself.)

Certain password levels delete the netserver passwords for security purposes.




On 7/3/2014 6:22 PM, James H. H. Lampert wrote:

Regarding the odd-numbered password levels, something keeps bugging me:

What exactly IS a "NetServer password," how does it differ from a user's
normal password, and why are there password levels that appear to do
nothing but get rid of them?

The help text on the QPWDLVL system value bandies the term about as if
it were common knowledge.

--
JHHL
(A bit pleased with myself, having managed to avoid having to ask the
"Bare Metal" list for help figuring out how to call the V5+ version of
QSYCHGPW from a program compiled under V4R2)