Greetings,
I have two questions. The problem is this: I can?t log into an NT 4.0 server at boot up because of an incorrect Administrator password. Since the Administrator account is the ONLY user defined, I can?t log into that machine at all. Luckily, it still serves its function to allow LAN access to files on the shared drive, but gaining access locally is not possible without the Administrator password. Since I didn?t set up or change that Administrator account to include ANY password at all, my first question is this: How did it happen? Is it possible for NT to get ?weird? and suddenly expect a password even though there is none? Or is it more likely that someone was ?playing around? and either intentionally or accidentally set an Administrator password. It?s possible, I suppose, that it was I that set the password in some fleeting moment of getting more secure and I simply forgot what I did. They do say, after all, that with aging the memory is the second thing to go. (I forgot what the first thing was.)
The second part of the question is how to best solve the problem. I?ve researched it a bit and came up with some possibilities, but I?d like opinions nonetheless.
NTAccess: http://www.mirider.com/ntaccess.html
Another possibility: (http://is-it-true.org/nt/atips/atips262.shtml
And then there?s this utility: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge about any of these fixes? What are the other possibilities? Is there a way to ?retrieve? (without changing) that password?
Enough rambling. Does anyone have any opinion about either of the aforementioned questions? (And please, no comments about my security practices or lack thereof.)
Thank you
Maxwell