Creating an anonymous SMB network share

Today I needed to open a SMB share to be accessible outside of the domain, without asking for a password. Followed the instructions of Nikola’s blog and it’s done. Remark that Winodows is so intuitive that you need written instructions to achieve such a simple task:

1. Share a folder by opening folder properties, navigating to Sharing tab and clicking
   Advanced Sharing…
   
2. Enable sharing and click Permissions
   
3. Add Everyone (should already be there), Guest and ANONYMOUS LOGON and give them Read access
   
4. Open Group Policy Editor (hit Ctrl+R, type gpedit.msc and hit enter)
5. Navigate to Computer Configuration → Windows Settings → Security Options
   
   
6. Change following:
   • Accounts: Guest account status – change to Enabled
     
   • Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users – change to Enabled
   • Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares – change to Disabled
   • Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously – enter name of share you created in the text field
     

This let me access the share \\<MachineName>\Share without providing any login information.

Source: http://nikolar.com/2015/03/10/creating-network-share-with-anonymous-access/

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