Network Backup Location Problems

I am running a Dell Inspiron 530 with Vista Home Prim. I have a home network set up that works fairly well but one of my computers is running XP Prof. and I have a 250G Western Dig NetCenter also. I have a HP 9800 printer connected to the WD Netcenter and can print to it from the XP computer. All can transfer files and I can see the WD netcenter on the Inspiron but...
I cannot add the 9800 to the Vista Machine nor can I set up the WD net as a backup location which is why I bought it in the first place.
I feel that Layer Link Topology is prehaps a culprit but even though I have service pack II on the XP it will not show up properly in my network map. When I try to set the backup location I get this message box

No mapping between account  names and security IDs was done (0x80070534)

I have mapped the WD network drive but what else do I need to do. Thanks

The various proposed solutions on the internet either weaken security on the Vista side or diddle with Samba on the NAS side.

I'm pretty much shooting in the dark; take these links with a grain of salt:
     Vista Backup & WD My Book World (NAS)
      No mapping between account names and security IDs was done
      Vista Backup and Restore center will not backup to Network Location
     Vista Tutorial - Backup won't connect to a NetCenter NAS
     Vista Backup to NAS error 0x80070534

Thanks for the input. I have gone to all the links you sent and drawn one conclusion from most of the info given, you need to adjust the registry or some other advanced scripting. I just got this computer and don't feel comfortable doing that. My question is, does Vista have problems with ALL external harddrives as a backup location or is just the ones running Samba. If so is there a harddrive that is known to work as a backup with vista. Thanks again.

I have no specific knowlege of Vista or Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, so I can't give you a definitive answer.  I suspect most NAS devices use an embedded Linux operating system with Samba because there's no licensing fees.  It sounds like this could be a problem if the Linux/Samba configuration (version?) doesn't support NTLMv2.

Although they appear to be giving "Everyone" access to the data, I thought the proposal at the end of the following thread looks simple and is worth a shot:
     VISTA Backup & WD My Book World (NAS)

Proposal was:

Give full access to the "Everyone" user option on the folder share you wish to backup to. After that, set vista's backup to that folder share you just updated and enter the user/password – Everyone/ (I guess your admin password, but maybe 123456 should work as well).

Since I don't run Vista, I'm not familiar with the "Backup" program; but I've got to believe you can backup to any "dumb" hard drive (internal or external) because there's no additional security layer involved.  However, please don't run out and buy an external hard drive based on what I just said.  There's got to be a way to test this.

Well as with most seemingly difficult problems there is always a not so obvious solution. I tried again based on something I read on one of the links you sent and low and behold I logged into the Netcenter as pretty as you please. I used guest as my login and the password I set for my user when I set up the unit, (Not Guest). Someone had mentioned that most NAS come with a guest login and that is what I did. How it transferred the PW for the other logon to guest I will never know but it obviously did. I am not sure how using guest will affect my security but with a password, router, and firewall I figure it is worth the risk. Thanks again and I hope anyone using the Western Digital Netcenter reads this and it works for them. Another job well done.

Any one reading this thread should also go to the Western Digital Web  Site for updates and very specific instructions.

http://www.westerndigital.com/     

Like most others whose posts I've read on the subject; whatever they had to do, they're just glad to be able to use the WDC NetCenter with Vista.

Perhaps I should "let sleeping dogs lie".  I was unable to find any reference to the WDC NetCenter access problem you were experiencing from Vista on the WDC website.  Very disappointing, since I can't believe WDC wasn't notified of the issue.

At any rate, they do list a "firmware" download as well as upgrade instructions on the website.  It's so old, they don't even list Vista as a supported operating system (maybe to provide cover for themselves?).  Upgrading firmware is always a risk.  You don't want the upgrade to be interrupted...

Many people subscribe to the belief "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!".

     NetCenter Firmware Version 1.1.0.0003 (updated January 8th, 2007)
     How to download and update the Firmware on a WD NetCenter

I'll leave you in peace now.