Resolving SharePoint Error Message: ”The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted”

Written by: InfinIT Consulting
Date Published: May 30, 2007

Issue:

During a routine day of password enforcement, your organization could have a number of people come across an interesting dilemma.  After changing their password they may come across an error message when they try to visit your corporate sharepoint site. 

The error message on the SharePoint site will read: ”The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted”

Reason:

The user may not have have added the SharePoint link to the list of Local Intranet links on Internet Explorer’s security tab.  If the user chose to save the password instead of typing in their username and password at each login, then the saved password will continually be used, thus causing the error message above.

Resolution

To solve this issue:

Go to "User Accounts" inside the Control Panel and select the option to "Manage Stored Usernames and Passwords".  You will find the stored passwords in this area. 

After you remove it, implement a global policy to add the SharePoint intranet link to your users intranet IE security settings and utilize the “gpupdate / force” command to enforce.  You can also manually add it as well. 

Once this is finished the client will utilize their current authentication on the SharePoint site and will not need to reauthenticate.