You attempt to create a long name for a File Sharing group and you get an error message

SYMPTOM

You attempt to create a custom File Sharing group using a long name, add the names of the selected members to the group and click OK. You receive an error message stating "Group names cannot be more than 8 characters in length".

CAUSE

The SMB protocol used for file sharing on the IT-100 uses an eight character limit for group names to be backward compatible with older Microsoft Windows computers such as Windows 98. A Windows 98 computer would be incapable of accessing file shares if the share name was more than eight characters in length.

SOLUTION

At this time, you must limit the length of the names of your File Sharing groups to eight characters. This means that while the name "admins" would be acceptable, the name "administrators" would not.

RELATED ISSUES

Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems are designed to be able to use file shares with long names under the current SMB protocol used by Microsoft. The current name length limitation only exists to accommodate networks that use Windows 98 or older computers.