One of our Sharepoint servers is isolated from our network due to fact that it is accessed from the internet via Neoteris, so it is not aware of our Active Directory, etc.

This gets a bit messy when it comes time to add a new user to a Sharepoint site (even more when that user is not on our network and needs to be set up with remote access, but that is out of scope here).

The process includes creating a new local user account and then adding that local account as a user to the Sharepoint site. There are several headaches that come with the creation of a local user account mainly stemming from the fact that working with local Windows accounts is not as manageable as users in ADUC.

An issue I have seen a few times now is also possible in an AD environment, but probably isn't seen as often as the conditions causing the problem are less likely.

Issue - When you try to add a user to a 2003 Portal Server or WSS site, you receive the following error message:

Can not add the user because a user with that name already exists

Follow up:

This may occur when the following is true:

1. You create a user account in AD or as a Local User

2. You add the user to the Sharepoint site

3. You delete the user account from AD or Local Users

4. You then create a new user account using same logon name as the account you previously deleted

5. You try to add the new user account that you just created to the Sharepoint site

This has happened to me several times when I am asked to delete an account as it will no longer be in use - sometimes it is a generic logon like "siteXYZ-user" which might be requested again in the future.

It turns out that even though you may have deleted the account and removed the account from the users list on the Sharepoint site, Sharepoint still stores the username and SID in its configuration. The issue occurs because the SID stored of the old user account does not match the SID of the new user account.

Fix: Connect to the "Manage Site Collection Users" page by typing one of the following into your address bar:

http://YourServerName/_layouts/1033/Siteusrs.aspx - if you are trying to add the user to a Portal site.

http://YourServerName/SiteName/_layouts/1033/Siteusrs.aspx - if you are trying to add the user to a WSS site.

When you find the user, check the box next to the name and click Remove Selected Users. You will then be able to go back to the Add Users page and add the user.

One thing I think is interesting about Sharepoint is that they don't link to these management pages in the Admin Interface, you have to manually connect to the page - which makes administration like this an adventure!