can't share some folders

[Jack MacDonald]

Home network with two computers: WinXP Pro and Win98. Simple File
Sharing is disabled on the WinXP machine, which is named Unger. Unger
has four user accounts, one of which is named "jack", and which has
administrative permissions.

Unger contains a folder named E:\Shared with the following properties:
- share name is "Shared"
- Permissions lists only one item named "Everyone"
- there are three checkmarks for Everyone: Full Control, Change, and
Read

The Shared folder contains subfolders named Documents, Music, Photos,
and System. None of these has any special properties (to the best of
my knowledge)

I start up the Win98 machine and log on as "jack". Then I can open
Windows Explorer and open the \\unger\shared folder. All the
subfolders appear correctly. I can browse through the Documents,
Music, and System subfolders properly -- create files, delete files,
etc

When I try to open the Photos folder, a message appears that
"\\unger\photos is not accessible. Access is denied". This message
does NOT appear for any of the other folders.

Return to the XP machine, and drilling down into the
\Shared\Photos\Nature folder. Right-click and share the Nature folder,
with full permissions to Everyone. I can subsequently access the
Photos\Nature folder and all of its subfolders. None of the sibliling
folders for Nature are accessible from the Win98 machine.

I have checked out the properties and ownership of each folder, and as
far as I can tell, each one is identical. What have I overlooked for
making Photos fully sharable, without having to share each of its
subfolders?

Thanks

 

[Roger Abell [MVP]]

Have you been checking both the Permissions in the Share
and the NTFS grants in the Security dialogs ?
Both must grant the access.

 

[Jack MacDonald]

Not 100% sure that I understand the question.

I've looked at the Properties of each folder from Windows Explorer,
and looked at all the items on the Sharing and Security tabs. As far
as I can tell, all permissions have been granted to Everyone.
Furthermore, all the subfolders appear to have identical settings. Is
that what you meant by "both the Permissions in the Share and the NTFS
grants in the Security dialogs"?

I am new to WinNT-based permissions, but quite familiar with Novell
Netware, so I understand the principles if not the implementation.
Netware has a concept of blocking permissions from being inherited,
and it appears to me that's what's happening with the Photos folder,
but I can't see where it is being blocked. (And I don't know if the
same concept even applies to WinNT-based permissions.)

I did an end-run to solve the problem -- created a new folder and
copied everything from the Photos folder into it. Then deleted the old
Photos folder and renamed the new one. Works exactly as required even
though I can't see any difference between the two folders' properties.
Dunno why the old one was not working.

Thanks anyway for the response.

 

[Roger Abell [MVP]]

Based on your saying

and looked at all the items on the Sharing and Security tabs.

indicating two different tabs, we know you are not using
Simple file sharing.
If you had only one tab and were using Simple sharing, then
no matter what account authenticated to the share
(matching a grant found - when not in Simple sharing - by
pressing the Permissions button on the Sharing tab)
the permissions at the NTFS level (matching a grant found
on - when not using Simple sharing - the Security tab) would
also have to allow the account or a group in which it is a
member.

When in Simple sharing, then the NTFS level grant would have
to match a grant to the Guest account or to the Guests or
Everyone groups.

If grants are not in place at both levels, the share and the filesystem,
then the access will not happen.

NTFS uses inheritance, and instead of blocking (something we often
refer to as blocking however) it allows any directory to be made a
new inheritance root. When that is done, nothing from above is
inherited onto it and its substructure from above, but only from
there on down. This is a checkbox in the security dialog (when
not using Simple sharing). Look in the Advanced view.