Netwoking with Windows 7

Question

I just want to inform any Macintosh users and Apple developers that there is a major incompatibility between OS X 10.5 and Windows 7. Windows 7 use higher security level for samba sharing and those features are not compatible with OS X 10.5. Those features should be added or, at least, a KB article containing the following instructions should be published and put in a visible place for every Windows 7 and Macintosh users.
Issue : A Windows 7 computer cannot access an OS X 10.5 computer. It return various error like network path not found (code -23) or incorrect password (code -50) if the computer name or IP address is use to browse the Samba share. In other case, the computer using OS X 10.5 will not show up in the Network view.
Why : The problem is that Windows 7, by default, will only use NTLMv2 for authentication, which is not supported by OS X's Windows Sharing service.
The other problem is the Minimum Session Security for NTVLM SSP based Clients.
Solution :
1)
In Windows 7, open the Control Panel
Go to System and Security
Click Administration Tools
Double-click Local Security Policy
OR
Search for "local" without the quote in the Start menu the pick up Local security policy
OR
Open Secpol.msc
2)
Expand "Local Policies" and select "Security Options"
Locate "Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level" in the list and double-click it.
Change the setting from "Send NTMLv2 response only" to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session if negotiated"
Click OK
3)
Locate "Network Security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP Based (including secure RPC) Clients" and double-click it.
Change the setting from "require 128 bit" to unchecked (No Minimum)
Click OK
There also have report that using long computer name for sharing on the OS X side caused problem.
Thanks for your attention.
Note : the original solution was found in the Technet forum and was written by a user named Dnegrich.

Answer 1

Thanks for your reply.
I know that not every body will react the same way and that's why I took the time to discuss it.
Furthermore, I now that Windows 7 is still in beta stage and yes there's still time for change. But I personally don't think that they will "break" it much further. In fact, from what I learn, they does not break that much. It is more because people who develop software or hardware for the Windows operating system does not think about the future that much. For instance, networking between OS X and Windows 7 is not broken in anyway. It still work perfectly. But you have to disable the "not so new" security features that I talked about in my first post. They where on Windows Vista too but disable by default, like was many other features in XP side by side with vista. People just don't update they software/hardware to fit them until there's no more choice. I really think that those settings will not change any further, Microsoft can only reset them to where they was in Vista.
I don't blame apple for not implementing them since they still have time to do so. But simply posting my solution in a KB is not the good solution to take. It is the "money wise" solution. While I think that implementing those security feature might be an nice add to 10.6, it is still very complex since they need the Samba 2.0 protocol and many other things witch, if I'm right, is not part of OS X yet.
So, it is always about good versus "money wise" solution. I just hope they will take, as they have countlessly done before, the good solution so that they can tends a bit more on the quality side.
I expect this solution to be useful but consider that this may be a temporary solution and that it may not work in later build of Windows 7 (this is still a beta, don't forget it) or even in a newer version of OS X (who knows what will apple do with smb sharing in the future).
This work for Windows 7 build 7000 and OS X 10.5.6, not tested any further.