XP pro & home printer sharing without password

[ma]

Hi there.
I am pretty sure this has come up before, but for
the life of me googling didn't help.

I have 2 PCs one XP pro & the other XP home.
I have shared printer connected to Pro.

File sharing works fine. Printer sharing is also
working but every time I have to use Windows Explorer
connect to Pro, asks for user ID & password, I type
those in and can see files shared, then I can print from XP
home. Other wise print job fails.

On the pro, I have not checked "simple file... sharing", and
I don't like to do so if I don't have to.

Also the "guest" account is disabled.

Is there any option to print from XP Home without having
to go through Windows Explorer authentication first?
(Just print jobs only).

I still would like to keep password & id requirement for files.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[Guest]

If you don't want to use "Simple File Sharing", then you need to explicitly
give permissions to users for access to anything that you share. One way to
do this is to ensure that the same user account / password exists on both
computers. Authentication on your Win XP Pro computer will be automatic when
that user connects to anything shared. Whatever files you want that person
to access you need to specifically grant access to. Same goes for the
printer.

If you don't want to grant access to certain things, you simply set up
multiple user accounts on both computers, and give access to each account on
your Win XP Pro computer as you wish.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[ma]

I was afraid of that.

Thanks

Mike

If you don't want to use "Simple File Sharing", then you need to
explicitly
give permissions to users for access to anything that you share. One way
to
do this is to ensure that the same user account / password exists on both
computers. Authentication on your Win XP Pro computer will be automatic
when
that user connects to anything shared. Whatever files you want that
person
to access you need to specifically grant access to. Same goes for the
printer.

If you don't want to grant access to certain things, you simply set up
multiple user accounts on both computers, and give access to each account
on
your Win XP Pro computer as you wish.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[Guest]

Hi Mike,

An alternative is to share your printer off your XP Home computer, and use
"Simple File Sharing" there.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[ma]

Thanks Kurosh,
But printer is directly connected to pro, and is the one used the most. XP
home is about two bedrooms away and uses the printer occasionally.

Is there really a "security" issue with "simple ... sharing" in XP Pro?

Mike

 

[Gordon]

Thanks Kurosh,
But printer is directly connected to pro, and is the one used the most.
XP home is about two bedrooms away and uses the printer occasionally.

Is there really a "security" issue with "simple ... sharing" in XP Pro?

AFAIK "simple file sharing" actually uses the guest account. The guest
account is NOT secure and if the machine running Pro has internet access,
then that does indeed pose a security problem, as the guest account would
seem to have greater access to the machine than a limited account. In fact
if you run the Microsoft Baseline security advisor, it notifies the guest
account as a security risk if it is not disabled.

 

[Guest]

Hi Mike,

These articles clearly explain the difference between Simple File Sharing
and XP Pro File Sharing:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

With Simple File Sharing, there is more security risk, but only if you do
not use a firewall (i.e. Windows Firewall in XP SP2, or a third-party
firewall; a router also acts as a basic firewall). Also, all users that are
"remote" (such as those connecting from your Win XP Home computer) will
authenticate as "Guest" on the Win XP Pro computer -- turning off the Guest
account only disables it from locally logging on to the computer that way.
Guest accounts are quite limited, so you needn't worry about that. Only
files / folders / printers you specifically allow access to (by checking the
appropriate boxes in their "Properties" screen) will be shared, but remote
users will not be prompted for a username / password.

All this (and more) is explained in the articles.

Hope that helps.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

 

[ma]

Thanks, I was afraid of that too.

Mike

AFAIK "simple file sharing" actually uses the guest account. The guest
account is NOT secure and if the machine running Pro has internet access,
then that does indeed pose a security problem, as the guest account would
seem to have greater access to the machine than a limited account. In fact
if you run the Microsoft Baseline security advisor, it notifies the guest
account as a security risk if it is not disabled.

 

[ma]

Thanks Kurosh.
I probably will enable guest account, because I have a router
with integral firewall, also ZoneAalrm and few other things.

Mike