User Accounts: Password or No Password?
By default, a user account is created with no password. This means the user may sit down locally at the XP machine and log on without entering a password.
However, by default, Windows XP will not permit a network user to access the XP machine using an account set up without a password!
You have two options on how to proceed from here:
If you want any degree of security, assign user passwords. This will, however, require the users to log on to their client machines using a password.
Many people prefer to set up their Windows 95/98/Me machines using Windows Logon and no password, so the machine boots directly to the Windows desktop without a logon prompt. In this case, you need to make a Security Policy modification on the XP Professional machine to permit users without passwords to connect from the network.