Computers on the same network. WinXP

[Guest]

I thought that what I had to do to make file sharing possible was to make
sure all the computers were in the same workgroup. Vice versa, to not allow a
computer share to be seen, just make a computer on the network part of a
different workgroup. But lo and behold, I had a pc that wasn't in my
workgroup but in the local network access my shares.

I was hoping someone could explain or point out how I can seperate the
computers so that some can share with some and not with others, like 2
computers in one group that can share with each other and 2 computers in
another group that share but that can't access that first sharing group. Is
this possible in XP?

What the heck is the point of workgroups if they see everything anyways?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I thought that what I had to do to make file sharing possible was to make
sure all the computers were in the same workgroup. Vice versa, to not allow a
computer share to be seen, just make a computer on the network part of a
different workgroup. But lo and behold, I had a pc that wasn't in my
workgroup but in the local network access my shares.

I was hoping someone could explain or point out how I can seperate the
computers so that some can share with some and not with others, like 2
computers in one group that can share with each other and 2 computers in
another group that share but that can't access that first sharing group. Is
this possible in XP?

What the heck is the point of workgroups if they see everything anyways?
Thanks in advance!

As you've discovered, workgroups have no role in access control. A
computer in any workgroup can access a computer in any workgroup.

Workgroups serve no useful purpose in Windows XP, where shared
disks/folders from all computers appear in My Network Places.

In Windows 95/98/Me, workgroups determine which computers are
immediately visible in Network Neighborhood, without having to click
Entire Network.

There's no easy way to control access based on computers. You might
be able to assign static IP addresses to all of the computers and then
use firewall settings to control access.

If you have Windows XP Professional, you can disable simple file
sharing and control access based on user accounts, as described here:

Windows XP Professional File Sharing
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/index.htm

The surest way to do what you want is to set up different physical
networks for the two groups of computers. If all of the computers
currently get Internet access from a broadband router, you can add two
more broadband routers to isolate the networks: connect each group of
computers to LAN ports on its own new router, and connect the WAN
ports of the new routers to LAN ports on the old router.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

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