Win 10 to 7 VPN and UNC CWD

[vefatica]

I have a VPN connection between a Win 10 Pro laptop (client) and my usual Win 7 Pro wks (ZZ, server). ZZ is known to Win 10 via entries in HOSTS and LMHOSTS. My plugin SHELLEX is just a wrapper for ShellExecuteEx.

When (in TCC v23) I "SHELLEX \\zz\c$", an Explorer window showing that folder opens immediately.

But if I try an automatic directory change with "\\zz\c$" (with/without a trailing '\') it takes about 20 seconds (and works). Once that happens I can change to other admin shares on ZZ aa long as I do it very soon; if, say a minute has elapsed since my last change to a ZZ directory, it will take 20 seconds again. FWIW, PowerShell can CD there instantly.

I did this VPN thing for years with two Win7 machines and earlier TCCs and it always worked very well ... no delays at all. I haven't done it in a year and a half so there might be something I've forgotten. And I'm not blaming TCC c23, I just want some help.

 

[samintz]

When I want to start Explorer in the current directory from TCC, I usually just do "Start ."

I've never had any issues with that. Since I can CDD to a UNC path, it works there as well. And if I want to start Explorer from Windows itself, I just hit Windows+R and enter the UNC.

Do you run any kind of keep-alive?

 

[vefatica]

When I want to start Explorer in the current directory from TCC, I usually just do "Start ."

I've never had any issues with that. Since I can CDD to a UNC path, it works there as well. And if I want to start Explorer from Windows itself, I just hit Windows+R and enter the UNC.

Do you run any kind of keep-alive?

Same here (START and Win+R). No keep-alive.

 

[vefatica]

Regardless of the CWD, I can always

DIR \\zz\c$

without delay.

 

[AnrDaemon]

Sounds like authentication issue. Is the target system managed by Active Directory?

 

[vefatica]

Sounds like authentication issue. Is the target system managed by Active Directory?

No. I'm at home where both machines are on a private network. The VPN is the built-in Windows one. When I first connect, I must give credentials (for the server, Win7) and Win10 tells me it will remember them.

 

[AnrDaemon]

Try

net use \\target.host\IPC$

first in the same console.

 

[vefatica]

Whew! It took a while but I have it working nicely. First, I ditched the VPN since both machines are connected to my FIOS router (one ethernet, one wifi). On each machine I made HOSTS and LMHOSTS entries to the other machine's router-assigned IPs. But it was no better than the VPN ... on the Windows 10 end, SLOW ... on the Windows 7 end, ACCESS DENIED. Then I made my passwords the same on both machines ... got rid of the slowness but still couldn't do anything from Windows 7. Finally, after a lot of Googling, I discovered that a policy was needed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
(DWORD) LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy = 1

That overrides the crippled (by UAC) adimn token when it comes to accessing the default administrative shares.

Now it's as it was for many years between home and work. I can instantly use UNC paths to the other machine in both TCC and explorer.

... happy camper

 

[AnrDaemon]

Oh, so, you were accessing administrative shares? That explains it. Also makes it quite wrong, on multiple levels.

 

[vefatica]

Oh, so, you were accessing administrative shares? That explains it. Also makes it quite wrong, on multiple levels.

Yes, I suppose it would be better to share every drive on each computer with a visible name!

 

[AnrDaemon]

No, I suppose you would be better sharing what you actually need to share.
And use administrative resources for administrative access only.

 

[vefatica]

No, I suppose you would be better sharing what you actually need to share.
And use administrative resources for administrative access only.

I am the (only) administrator of both computers.

 

[AnrDaemon]

So do I.