Allow access to shared folder anonymously on Windows 10

These days we tried to mount a shared folder on RHEL5 but always got below error:

[root@olinux511 /]# mount -t cifs -v -o guest,ro  //192.168.56.1/Tools /tmp/test
 
mount.cifs kernel mount options: unc=//192.168.56.1\Tools,ip=192.168.56.1,user=root,ver=1,ro,guest
mount error 13 = Permission denied
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)

It was clear that the issue was about permission, and in fact it is about how to create a shared folder and allow other clients to access the shared folder without the username and password.

I could not believe it took me several hours to make it work!

Most posts are similar with below one:

Creating network share with anonymous access

But after I followed the steps one by one I just found it did not work for me, so I had to do more research and tests to get the workable solution.

Below is my final summary and I hope it could be helpful for others.

1. Enable the Guest account
2. Turn off the 'Password-protected Sharing'
3. Grant the needed permissions on the target folders to the Guest user, and also add them to the 'Share permissions'.
4. Remove the Guest user from the 'Deny access to this computer from the network'. After these settings, I could mount it without password finally.
   [root@olinux511 /]# mount -t cifs -v -o guest,ro  //192.168.56.1/Tools /tmp/test
    
   mount.cifs kernel mount options: unc=//192.168.56.1\Tools,ip=192.168.56.1,user=root,ver=1,ro,guest
   [root@olinux511 /]# mount
   /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 on / type ext3 (rw)
   proc on /proc type proc (rw)
   sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
   devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
   /dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
   tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
   /dev/sdb1 on /oracle type ext3 (rw)
   /dev/sdc1 on /oracle/oradata type ext3 (rw)
   none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
   sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
   //192.168.56.1/Tools on /tmp/test type cifs (ro,mand)
   [root@olinux511 /]# umount /tmp/test