How to set network passwords in XP Pro?

[Borgholio]

In Windows 9x, it's simple to set passwords on my shared drives. I can set
a password for read only, full access, or both. Since I have a wireless
network, I prefer to keep my drives passworded as an extra layer of
protection. The only exception is my XP Pro machine. I can't find any way
to enable passwords on my shared drives. Is there a way to do this, or is
un-sharing my drives the only way to protect the files?

 

[purplehaz]

XP (and nt based systems) have a better way to protect shared drives. You
use permissions and security to deny or allow access to the users you want
to get in. You have to turn simple file sharing off to do this. Once you do
that you can access the security tab on a files properties and set your
users permissions there.

 

[davetest]

XP (and nt based systems) have a better way to protect shared drives. You
use permissions and security to deny or allow access to the users you want
to get in. You have to turn simple file sharing off to do this. Once you do
that you can access the security tab on a files properties and set your
users permissions there.

The simple way to get XP to ask for a password is to go
into control panel/administrative/comp. management/
local users and group/users
and disable the Guest account.

 

[Borgholio]

Ok, I found the security settings, but I can't find any space to enter a
password. What I want to do is be able to access files from any other
computer in the house, but have a password required to block casual browsing
(such as when I'm hosting a LAN party or something like that)

 

[Borgholio]

The simple way to get XP to ask for a password is to go
into control panel/administrative/comp. management/
local users and group/users
and disable the Guest account.

Will that get XP to ask for passwords when you try to access files from over
the network? Or is that only when you try to access files from the computer
itself?

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

Ok, I found the security settings, but I can't find any space to
enter a password. What I want to do is be able to access files from
any other computer in the house, but have a password required to
block casual browsing (such as when I'm hosting a LAN party or
something like that)

What is a "LAN party"?

 

[purplehaz]

Like another poster said you can get xp to ask you for a password if you
disable the guest account and set the users right, sometimes takes some
messing around. But it still requires you to set up users allow/deny access,
so you really don't need to password protect it. If you deny a user access,
when they try they will be denied and if you allow a user, when they try to
connect, they will have access to the share. If you had a lan party when
someone joined the network and you wanted them to have access to the share
you just add there user and there in.
I have in the past had xp asking me for passwords on a shared drive, but its
tricky. Disable the guest account and have matching administrator account
names on both machines. Share the drive and give the administartor user and
your normal user on that computer access on the share permissions tab,
remove everything else. On the security tab have admins, users, everyone,
system, creator owner(if it there, if not dont worry about it). Then when
you try to connect to the share it should prompt you for a user/pass, use
the administrator user and it's password and it should let you in. I have 4
xp boxes here and when I set it up this way, I only got three of them to
work, the fourth computer would not prompt me even though all settings were
the same. *shrug* Good luck.

 

[Borgholio]

What is a "LAN party"?

A LAN party is when you and a bunch of friends get together and hook your
computers up in a network for the purpose of playing games.

 

[Borgholio]

That sounds like a pain in the ass. Also, all the other machines in my
house are running Windows 98.

 

[purplehaz]

Yes it can be a pain especially when you bring win98 into it. If I were you
I would just add or remove users in the security tab as needed and
deny/allow access to those users as needed. Forget the password.

 

[Borgholio]

If I set up certain users here on WinXP, what must I do to set up the same
user on Win98?

 

[purplehaz]

I'm not the best person to ask about hooking in win98 with xp in a network
with shared drives involved. I did it once and I remember that when you try
to access the share from the win98 computer it tries to connect to user
ipc$(or something like that). You have to config something to let the win98
access the share. You might want to ask in the networking group:
news://microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web

 

[Borgholio]

Currently I have the Win98 systems accessing my XP machine just fine...all
I'm looking to do is password it.

 

[purplehaz]

Oh, when you asked about setting up users I thought they wern't even talking
to each other. Well then let me clarify here a bit. When I said you can get
xp to ask you for a password, this password is not a password protecting the
share, this is a user name/password to log into an existing account on the
xp machine that has been allowed access to the share. For example: here I
have an xp machine with a shared drive. I have given the local user and the
admin user access to the share. On my xp computer I have an admin user
account(name matches admin account on shared xp computer). I am logged into
my normal user account, but the admin account does exist on this machine. I
try to connect to the share xp says "which user are you trying to access
this share with" by prompting me with the user name/password box. I put in
the admin user name and password and since on the share the admin is granted
access it lets me in. Like I said you don't password protect shares like you
did in win98. That is an old and unsecure way to protect it. Password can be
cracked easily. You have to forget that way of thinking about passwords on
shares. Now it's users get granted or denied access and the user accounts
are password protected.
I think if you setup a user account on the xp machine to match the user name
on the win98 machine, password protect the account on the xp machine, give
that user access to the share, then when you try to connect it will ask you
for the password to log into that account to access the share. But like I
said I'm not the best person to ask when dealing with sharing in win98/winxp
combos. I have not used win98 since year 2000(went to win2k), so all my
sharing has been with win2k and xp boxes.
BTW - there may be a thrid party program that lets you password protect a
folder, if you really must have it set up that way.