You may have a situation where you would like to abriviate the name of a computer, or make it more meaningful when connecting to file or print shares.
e.g:
from \\big-long-svr-name to \\shortname
To do this, you can setup a new DNS A record or CNAME in your Active Directory DNS and point it to the FQDN or IP address of the desired server.
However, you may run into trouble when trying to access the Windows Server 2008 share from a Windows XP Machine.
The following error appears:
You were not connected because a duplicate name exists on the network. Go to System in Control Panel to change the computer name and try again.
This is because Windows 2008 and Windows Vista support SMB 2.0. Windows XP uses SMB 1.0. In order to allow Windows XP clients to access the Windows 2008 server with an alias, you need to add a registry entry to the Windows 2008 Server.
- Locate and click the following key in the registry of the server:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters - On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: DisableStrictNameChecking
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value: 1