file sharing questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike I
  • Start date Start date
M

Mike I

Hi,

I'm trying to determine the best way to secure files on my local network.
Here is my setup.
Primary XP pro computer connected via CAT5 to linksys
Wireless laptop (802.11g, AES encrypt, mac filtering, ssid disabled)

I have my wife and I using both these computers, we have user accounts on
both.

My goal is to have a 'central' folder on the primary computer that files
from the laptop are sync'd with and i can set this up fine. The problem is
if someone comes over with a laptop for example and are given an address on
our network, they are now able to see the shares with all the files. Is
there some way to restrict these files/folders to only specific users. I
know i could do all this if i had a domain setup, but how can i accomplish
something similar using xp pro.

Thanks in advanced for your time and response.

--minnoce944
 
With XP Pro you can do it. (XP Home would be a much bigger pain for this!)

First, read through here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

Read the whole article, but to do what you want, you are going to have to
disable "Simple File Sharing" (Instructions and even a little movie clip are
in the article.)

You are then going to have to make sure that both you and your wife have
accounts on each machine (regardless of whether you physically log on to
both machines-- you still need to make sure you have an account on each)...
each of your accounts on each machine will need the same name and same
password. If you ever change the password on one machine, its up to you to
manually mirror it on the other one. Sometimes Windows XP Control Panel
hides the true account names from you and instead shows you the descriptive
but useless "first and last" names, so create them with the more advanced
tool by running lusrmgr.msc from Start---> Run.

Once you have these accounts created and Simple File Sharing is disabled,
you can right click on the folder you want to share (through Explorer) and
you will see a tab called Sharing. Click Share This Folder (if its not
already Shared) and then click Permissions. Click Add and type USERS and
hit OK. You could also type the names of your account and your wife's
(separated by a semicolon.) USERS is a group that contains everyone who has
an account on the system-- in this case its probably just you and your wife
anyway. You will likely want to assign the "Full Control" permission here.

Click ok and you should be good to go. This assumes that both you and your
wife already have full access to the folder in question if they physically
log on to the machine (at the keyboard.) If not, you can use the Security
tab to give this access. For network access, any permissions you assign in
the Security tab will combine with permissions you set in the Sharing tab to
form the most restrictive set. Keep that in mind if you start playing with
both tabs. The Security tab will always apply, even when you are sitting in
front of the computer so don't block yourself out (it can be fixed but its
just another hassle.)


--
Colin Nash
Microsoft MVP
Windows Printing/Imaging/Hardware
 
Define accounts on the sharing-out machine.
Disable the Guest account.
People then need to provide the username/password
of their account on the sharing-out machine in order to
access the shares.
For this to work as expected, use the permissions button
on the Sharing tab, and make sure the NTFS permissions
grant the desired permissions to the accounts.
With Home edition, the NTFS permissions still need to
provide for access by Guest, Guests, or Everyone, even
though the people will provide an individual account when
establishing the network share access.
 
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