Windows 2000 non-admin account issue

Hi all

I have an edimax EW-7128g Wireless 802.11b/gTurbo Mode 32-bit PCI Adapter. My OS is windows 2000 service pack 4. I have WPA2 AES encryption enabled.

The problem is that everytime I login to windows with a non-admin account, I have to enter the passphrase for WPA2 through edimax network utility (on the system tray) to connect to the network.

There are no options available in edimax utility and the manual has no mention of this either. I also had a look at Wireless Configuration in Services, where the startup type is set to automatic and Logon option is set to Local System Account.

Does anyone know of this issue and how to resolve it?

Regards Yousaf

Reply to
yousaf.hassan
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I think it's a problem with permissions.

I had a similar issue on a W2K PC with the client software that comes with my Philips SNN6500 802.11a/b/g PC Card. The client refused to recognise that the PC Card was installed in the card slot and was not able to configure the card when run under a non-admin account. The solution I found was to run the client as admin under the non-admin account. You can do that two ways:

  1. using the W2K command "runas" in a terminal - in a batch file. You'll be prompted for the admin password.
  2. run the desk top icon as an other user - admin. Right click the icon as choose run as another user or something like that in the dialog-menue that appears. Again, you'll be prompted for the admin password.

I'm typing this from my Apple Powerbook and can't remember the exact wording, but when you know what to look for you'll find it.

I think no 2 is the best way to do it.

Reply to
Axel Hammerschmidt

There's a third - grant your nonadmin acct local admin rights temporarily, configure the card and then remove the rights. Hopefully it will now have all the details stored - with the additional benefit that you can't screw them up.

There's also a fourth - figure out which registry keys the s/w needs to write to, and grant your non-admin account write permissions to that branch of the tree. Regmon from NTInternals is a handy tool for monitoring what reg keys get fooled with.

There's a tool called "runasspc" which lets you store the required commandline and password in an encrypted file. This avoids the security hole of having to hand out the admin password. I use it to get The Sims to work on my son's PC (no way in the galaxy he's getting the admin pwd....)

Reply to
Mark McIntyre
[snip]

Yet there is another tool "DreamPackPL" that allows anyone to "log on into any local account without reset existing passwords."

By any local account ... of couse it includes admin account.

formatting link
Usually this tool is installed as a plugin into something called BartPE (bootable CD) and its variants (like UBCD4Win). Once you have created this bootable CD, you can hack into any PC as a local admin, and do whatever you want :-)

Reply to
Harry331

I tried that but it didn't work. When the user account has admin rights, the wireless client utility starts at bootup. When I remove admin rights and make it a restricted user again, it loses the WPA2 passphrase.

This is something I am working on.

I also e-mailed edimax and they told me to use the zero configuration instead. But since I use windows 2000, I don't have zero configuration. I do have Wireless Configuration in Services, but it doesn't give any options related to this problem.

Reply to
yousaf.hassan

I think you're making a mistake wanting to associate during the boot process. Wireless adapters are supposed to be able to (re-) associate when the client computer moves between access point coverage. In that way they work differently from cabled network adapters.

In my opinion, a wireless client should only associate with an access point under the control of the client, which runs under the OS, due to security issues (say with rogue access points).

Reply to
Axel Hammerschmidt

Something wrong there - it should not start at boot, only when someone logs in.

To answer your question sent by email:

Look at the menu items in regedit/regedt32.

Its been a while I used W2K. Are you sure the drivers are fully W2K compatible?

Reply to
Mark McIntyre

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