safely accessing my documents remotely

[Guest]

Is it possible to enable network sharing of my documents while still keeping the security of user name and password? I want to be able to access my files from school or any other network without broadcasting my personal stuff to anyoe and everyone. I use XP Home.

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi -

What you're asking is a little beyond the capabilities of
XP Home - all access to shared resources on an XP Home
machine is through the Guest account.

My suggestion? Upgrade to XP Professional and disable
simple file sharing - then you can secure your documents
on a per-user basis.

Hope this helps -

-----Original Message-----
Is it possible to enable network sharing of my documents

while still keeping the security of user name and
password? I want to be able to access my files from
school or any other network without broadcasting my
personal stuff to anyoe and everyone. I use XP Home.

 

[Bob Willard]

Hi -

What you're asking is a little beyond the capabilities of
XP Home - all access to shared resources on an XP Home
machine is through the Guest account.

My suggestion? Upgrade to XP Professional and disable
simple file sharing - then you can secure your documents
on a per-user basis.

Hope this helps -



while still keeping the security of user name and
password? I want to be able to access my files from
school or any other network without broadcasting my
personal stuff to anyoe and everyone. I use XP Home.

I agree. A cheaper and riskier solution is to park your files in
a folder with a hidden sharename (like SECRET$), and don't tell
anyone the SECRET. Note that such hidden shares are not very
securely hidden, so don't stick any personal data in that share.

Going the other way (to more security), you may want to set up a
VPN: with a Virtual Private Network, the transmissions across the
network are encrypted. I don't remember if VPN can be set up on
a XP HE PC; you may need a better flavor of Windows.

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi, Bob -

Unfortunately XP Home doesn't do hidden shares :-(

But it will let you do the VPN thing - and that's a great
idea. Wish I'd thought of it ;-)

Thanks -

 

[Bob Willard]

Hi, Bob -

Unfortunately XP Home doesn't do hidden shares :-(

Gee, it seems to. On each of the XP HE PCs on my home LAN, I have
created folders which are shared and have sharenames like FOLDER$.
Those folders are not listed from other, XP HE or W9X, PCs when
I use NET VIEW \\PCNAME or when I drill down from NetNeighborhood
to \\PCNAME. So, in what sense does XP HE not do hidden shares?

I realize that those XP HE shares are not password-protected in
the style of W9X, but they are hidden in the sense of not being
advertised, right?

What XP HE does not support is hidden administrative shares. But, it
seems to me that the FOLDER$ shares I created are just as hidden
as XP PRO's hidden administrative shares. Do you have a different
perspective?

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

I stand corrected, Bob - the default admin shares don't
exist but you can do hidden shares. First time I've been
wrong since about ten minutes ago ;-)

Thanks for keeping me straight - I appreciate it.

allan

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Hi, Bob -

Unfortunately XP Home doesn't do hidden shares :-(

Hi, Bob and Alan. Both XP Home and XP Pro do hidden shares.

For example, I just created a hidden shared folder on XP Home. The
computer name is Dell, and the share name is Download$.

I typed this in the Start | Run box of another computer:

\\Dell

The result showed the other shared folders on Dell, but not the hidden
one.

I typed this in the Start | Run box:

\\Dell\Download$

The result showed the contents of the hidden folder.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com