Netserver Issues (Somewhat Long)

I have two users; both have Windows 7 Professional with current updates.
All of our PC’s are in a peer-to-peer environment, we do not have an Active
Domain server. The two users, call them Fred and John, sign on to their
respective PC (Windows sign on) using their first name and a password. Both
are i5 users and have IBM I Access for Windows. Their i5 user ID’s are the
same as their Windows 7 user ID. However, the i5 passwords are different
than their Windows 7 password.


There is a shared folder on the i5 called \\system\pdf<file:///\\system\pdf>.
The share is setup with public read rights and is in the QDLS directory. As
I understand it, when a user tries to access a share on the i5, Windows 7
sends the Windows user ID and password when it attempts to make the
connection. In this case, the user ID’s do match but the passwords are
different.


When Fred tries to access the shared folder, he immediately gets a Windows
user ID and password screen. If he enters his i5 credentials, it just
returns the same screen over and over again. As you would expect, the
system has disabled his Netserver user ID. When John tries to access the
shared folder, he too immediately gets a Windows user ID and password
screen. If he enters his i5 credentials, it returns a display of the folder
contents (PDF files) which he can access without issue. These two users are
setup the same (as best we can tell) on both systems. On Windows 7 they
have the same authority settings, as they do on the i5.


I setup Wireshark to watch the signon process. When John connects to the
shared folder, I see a number of access denied packets returned to his PC
(17 to 20 depending on the attempt we watched). The system does not disable
his Netserver user ID. When Fred tries it, I see a similar number of access
denied packets returned to his PC, but he is then disabled. This all
happens prior to either receiving a Windows signon screen.


QMAXSIGN on the system is set to 10.


Why does Fred get disabled when John does not? IBM support doesn’t have an
answer to this other than “it’s a Windows thing”. Has anyone else run into
this issue? What might we be overlooking here?


The i5 is at V7R1. We have tried going through a number of the available
checklists as well as numerous other suggestions for resolving access
denied issues with Netserver (acquired via Google searches and from IBM)
but have not yet resolved the disabling issue. Also, no changes have been
made to either PC to address the LM and NTLM issues introduced with Windows
7. They are setup the same.


For reasons outside of my control, the passwords cannot be the same on both
systems. However, there isn’t a problem with being presented with a user ID
and password screen when accessing the share, the problem is that Fred gets
disabled while John does not.


Thanks for any suggestions on this. I would be happy to supply any
additional information that might help.