How To Enable DCOM to Work in a Peer-to-Peer Network (266625)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Transaction Server 2.0
  • Microsoft COM+ 1.0
  • Microsoft COM+ 1.5

This article was previously published under Q266625

SUMMARY

When you use DCOM in a peer-to-peer network, there is no Domain authentication available. You must turn DCOM authentication off or create equivalent username and password pairs to use remote components.

MORE INFORMATION

Turning Off Authentication

DCOM authentication must be turned off on both the server and client computers. Use the following steps to turn off authentication on the server (MTS/COM+):
  1. Right-click the MTS package or COM+ application, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.
  2. Clear the Enable Authorization Checking or Enforce Access Checks for this Application check boxes.
  3. Set the Authentication Level or Authentication Level for Calls to None.
To turn off authentication for the DCOM client application, you must set a custom value for the Authentication Level. You can do this either by calling CoInitializeSecurity during application initialization, or you can create an AppId in the registry that has a DWORD value set for AuthenticationLevel, and map this AppId to your DCOM client's EXE name.

For additional information about how to do this, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

239561 How To Use CoInitializeSecurity in Visual Basic

268884 How To Set or Retrieve the Authentication Level of a DCOM Client

Creating Equivalent Username-Password Pairs

If you do not want to turn off Authentication, you can create matching username and password pairs on the client and server computers. Authentication will work correctly if you have a local user on the MTS computer with the same username and password as the user on the client computer.

NOTE: When server components call back to the client, if your MTS Package or COM+ application components make calls into objects that reside on the client computer, then these instructions apply where the server computer acts as the client and the client computer acts as the server.

REFERENCES

182248 How To Use DCOM Config (DCOMCNFG.EXE) with Windows 95/98

176799 INFO: Using DCOM Config (DCOMCNFG.EXE) on Windows NT

183607 How To Configure DCOM for Visual Basic Using DCOMCNFG.EXE


Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:2/9/2006
Keywords:kbDCOM kbhowto kbSecurity kbSysAdmin KB266625