Knowledge Base

Dial-up networking password is not saved

Article ID: 148925

Article Last Modified on 6/29/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 95

This article was previously published under Q148925

Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows registry

SYMPTOMS

When you are making a Dial-Up Networking connection, if you try to save your password by clicking to select the Save Password check box, your password may not be saved. This problem may occur even when you successfully connect to the server, and when your password has not changed. This problem may also occur if your user name contains characters that are not allowed in a file name; for example, the user name "user/name" may result in a .pwl file name of User/name.pwl.

CAUSE

This problem can be caused by any of the following situations:

Your password list (.pwl) file is damaged.
The Rna.pwl file (if it exists) is damaged.
Password caching is disabled.
Automatic logon is enabled.
One or more of the files that are associated with Dial-Up Networking is missing or damaged.
User profiles are disabled, but the ProfilesList key is present in the registry.

Note This problem can occur after you install the Windows 95 Password List update that is included with Windows 95 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

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

143003 Descriptionof Microsoft Windows 95 Service Pack 1 Updates

Note An additional cause is that the Client for Microsoft Networks is not installed. To resolve this: install client for Microsoft Networks.

RESOLUTION

Windows 2000

Verify that the Network settings of the Dial-up Networking connectoid are correct:

Right-click the Dial-up Networking connectiod, and then click Properties.
Click the Network tab, and then confirm that Client for Microsoft Networks is installed and that it is selected.

Windows 95 and Windows 98

Rename your .pwl file.

Note If you are using a personal certificate, export it before you rename your .pwl file. If you do not, the personal certificate may be unavailable when you send mail. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

190296 OLEXP: Unable to use Personal Certificates in Outlook Express

To rename your .pwl file, type the following line at a command prompt, and then press the ENTER key (where Windows is the name of the Windows folder and user_name is the user name that you use to log on to Windows):

ren c:\Windows\user_name.pwluser_name.xxx

After you rename your .pwl file, restart the computer.

When the Enter Network Password or Welcome To Windows dialog box appears, type the password that you normally use, and then click OK. When you are prompted to confirm the password that you entered, type the password again in the Confirm New Password box, and then click OK.

Note If there are no .pwl files present on the drive (for example, if you press the ESC key when you are prompted for a password when Windows starts) password caching is not enabled. You must first log on to the network to create a .pwl file.
Rename the Rna.pwl file in the Windows folder; to do so, type the following line at a command prompt, and then press the ENTER key (where Windows is the name of the Windows folder):

ren c:\Windows\rna.pwl rna.xxx

After you rename the Rna.pwl file, restart the computer.

Note The Rna.pwl file may not exist on the computer. This file is not required in some configurations.
Verify that password caching is enabled; to do so, you need to use Registry Editor.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.
View the DisablePwdCaching value (a DWORD value) in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network

If password caching is disabled, the DisablePwdCaching value has a value data of 1. To enable password caching, change the value data to 0.

Note If the DisablePwdCaching value does not exist, add this DWORD value with a data value of 0 to the preceding registry key. You may need to remove this value altogether and then restart the computer to make caching work.
Disable automatic logon. To do so, delete the AutoLogon value (a binary value) from the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Network\Real Mode Net
Remove Dial-Up Networking, and then reinstall it:
1. In the Network properties, record each Network component and its configuration information:
  1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network.
  2. Click a component on the Configuration tab, click Properties, and then record all of the component's settings. Repeat this process with another component until you record all of the component configuration information.
2. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Click the Windows Setup tab.
4. Click Communications, and then click Details.
5. Click to clear the Dial-Up Networking check box, click OK, and then restart the computer if you are prompted to do so.
6. Repeat steps a through c.
7. Click to select the Dial-Up Networking check box, and then click OK.
  
  Note You may receive version conflict error messages during this process. If this occurs, click No when you are prompted to keep a newer version of each file.
8. If you are using the Microsoft Network (MSN) version 2.51, reinstall the MSN program.
Even though user profiles are disabled, remove the ProfilesList key from the registry.For additional information about how to remove this key from the registry, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156826 How to Disable and Delete User Profiles

If you are running Windows 95, you may need to add Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to the Network properties. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network.
Click Add, click Protocol, click Microsoft in the Manufacturers box, click TCP/IP, and then click OK.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

141858 No Windows or network logon dialog box at startup

137361 Save Password check box is unavailable

Additional query words: ierelease outlook express

Keywords: dun kbdialup kbfaq kbnetwork kbprb kbtool kbwinme win95 win98 win98se KB148925

Microsoft KB Archive/148925

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