Connecting a Mac to a Windows 2003 file server

In the last couple of months, I've had the displeasure of trying to attempt to connect two Macs to Windows 2003 servers. No success either time. This is a record of what I've tried and what I think.

Let's start with where I started - a typical Windows 2003 server (in each case the AD controlled by an SBS 2003 box). No modifications for Macs at all.

You can try connecting via AFP (Apple Filing Protocol), but you can't connect. If you choose go -> Connect to Server and just put in the IP address or type AFP://123.123.123.123 - it won't be able to get to the server. If you try to connect via cifs://123.123.123.123 or smb://123.123.123.123 - it will give you a login screen with username, password, and domain/workgroup - but when you put in your info, it says that your login info is no correct. Interestingly enough, in the servers security event log (in my experience today at least) says that the user was authenticated successfully. And if you put in invalid credentials, the security event log will see your invalid login attempt and say so in the security event log.

So that's where we start. The first thing I tried was adding File Services for Macintosh:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/6f3ef0f8-b358-43b0-bbd3-6fbeba43d4d61033.mspx?mfr=true

But what that gets you is the ability to connect to the Microsoft UAM volume on the server using AFP, not any worthwhile shares which is what you probably want to get to. So that is no good.

One thing I came across was a reference to authentication type. Right click on My Computer. Go to manage. Right click on Shared folders from Computer Management/System Tools/Shared Folders. Choose "Configure File Server for Macintosh." In the Security section under Enable Authentication, the drop down box has "Microsoft Only" by default. Switch it to "Apple Clear Text or Microsoft" and hit Apply. Then restart the File Server for Macintosh service.

Unfortunately, for me, this did not help in today's issue. I'm still getting an error on the Mac when I - and error when I input the login credentials on the Mac, I get the error from the Mac about credentials being invalid - though the security event log still says that the login succeeded.

So my temporary solution has been to set up FTP for the Mac users - which works in the short term, but I'd love to get this solved.

One other thing I tried was this:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/12/09/active_directory.html

It added the Mac to domain. But even still, Go -> Connect to Server - it still doesn't connect.

You would think that everything you'd need would be here:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/04ee8e17-bd60-4a9f-bd8a-eb5d4e2cfec01033.mspx?mfr=true

It was written in January 2005, so it must take Server 2003 into account. I will play more with this tomorrow.