I have several computers networked and in each one I like to have one folder shared on the network so that I can transfer files between computers without having the entire drive open to the network.
I used to set it up so that I would go to the folder properties, select share, set a password and then the first time another computer would access I would type the password and from then on the computer would remember the password (until it was changed).
That is the way I liked it. But today I am trying to do the same in my Compaq Armada M700 where I have just installed Win-Xp-SP2-Pro and I get no prompt to set a password for the sharing. If I share the folder is open to anyone on the network. I do not want this. I want to share only with those who have the password.
Now, it may be that I am not remembering well and that that was the system only with Win98 but that it never was with XP. I am not sure about this. But I would think WinXP would have better security than Win98.
So I have tried to investigate a bit and it is quite complex. It seems XP has “simple file sharing”, which is what I am using, and “normal (complex, advanced?) file sharing”. When I uncheck simple file sharing I get something so incredibly complex that I don’t even want to start. It seems I have to designate groups and users and levels and permissions and a bunch of other things. (Is there a simple way to understand all this?)
So my question is: how can I share a folder on a computer running WinXP-SP2-Pro on the network with the old, simple, password system?
And, if that is not possible, what is the closest and simplest way to do it?
I don’t think that it needs to be that much more complicated. The best way of getting what you want is something along the lines of the following:
Create a new user on the local WinXP computer, with a password set to never expire.
Grant the appropriate level of access (read or modify, most likely) to that user on the share.
In this way, somebody needing to access the share will need to provide that particular username as well as the password, but that’s really the big difference.
They probably removed the ‘password-only’ option to make the file sharing system fall in line more easily with Windows Active Directory and NTFS file system permissions, but that’s just a blind-stab guess really.
Maybe I am misunderstanding but this looks much more complex than just supplying a password. I have been trying a bit and it looks mighty complicated. Let’s see.
Computer A, Alice is logged in with her password 1
Computer B, Bob is logged in with password 2
Alice wants to share a folder with Bob so she has to create an account on computer A with user Bob and his password? Bob has to reveal his password to Alice? Surely that cannot be.
And Alice would have to open accounts on her machine for Bob, Charlie, Dave, Ethel and the other 120 people in the office? Surely there has to be a better way. I would think there has to be a way so that people can just supply a password without needing to have an account on the machine.
I just tried using the Access Control List and when I try to access the folder from another computer I just get “access denied”, not any prompt for login or password. But if I want to create Bob as a user on my machine he needs to tell me his pw? No way.
It seems I may have to settle for opening the files with no password which I really do not like.
I suppose a solution might be to route all shares through a Win98se machine. If the only shared folder is on a win98se machine then those wanting to access it need to supply the password.
At 120 people, you should get yourself a server and set up a domain.
But in your example, what Alice should do is set up a user on Alice’s box called Alice’s Share and give that username rights to the share. Both at the file level and the share level. Then, when Bob wishes to connect to her share, he uses the Connect As option and plug in Alice’s Box\Alice’s Share as the username and the appropriate password.
I am afraid I still don’t get it and I have been searching the internet and trying things but just get nowhere.
I right click on the file I want to share and on the “sharing” tab I click on “permissions” and get a new window where I get to ADD and it says I can add “users, groups or built-in security principals”. It gives as examples a name and a computer name.
So I I try to enter “computer-5” but I get an error saying such an object cannot be found. So I suppose I would somehow need to notify my computer somewhere that there is such a thing as computer-5. A social introduction of sorts.
I cannot find anywhere online with a step by step description of how to do it.
I think that the key point is that you don’t need to access shares through the same username/password that you’re logged into your own machine with. Those ‘credentials’ will be tried as the default username-password when you click on the share, but windows will usually come back with something along the lines of, ‘your username and password did not work, want to try again?’ and give you a spot where you can enter a different username and password
So Alice can set up an account called G with password 9. When Bob clicks on a share, his computer tries to send B2 to computer A, and that gets regected. Then he can type in G9 as a second login, and that will get through. Does that help?
I also don’t think that ‘adding computers’ is a helpful thing to be doing.
I’ll try to remember to post some more detailed instructions from work tomorrow, if nobody else has done it by then. Here I only have access to XP home, with its insistence on simple file sharing, sigh.
Well, the machine trying to access the shared folder just displays an “Access is denied” error and no opportunity to do anything else.
And it seems I need to authorise the access at the host machine but I can’t understand how that is done either.
If XP home only has simple file sharing, with no password, then it seems to me WIn98se was superior in this respect.
While having a shared folder in each machine is convenient for sharing and transferring files, I may just disable the whole thing if I cannot get to to work with some kind of security.
I’ll agree with this sentiment, but then, file sharing security is probably the biggest feature crippled or left out of XP home simply so that people who need it will upgrade to XP pro.
For my home computers, I don’t really need it. My home router will not let SMB traffic in from the wider internet, (even if my ISP weren’t blocking that off itself,) so nobody who isn’t physically plugged into the router can access anything. I just use it to move files back and forth between the desktop and the laptop, really.
Don’t know if this will work for your situation or not:
Too0k everything I had in ‘shared documents’ and put in another folder on my XP box. Left one folder in the ‘shared documents’ folder on the computers file tree.
Now I can move stuff back and forth and hop skip and jump fro XP to 98se to LINUX boxes and the other XP boxes at will.
Now if you need only 30 of the 50 people to have access to the folder I don’t have any better ideas.
If you have an 98se machine on the network, why not just have everyone put the stuff they need in a folder and give you, the boss, the password they want on that folder. If they can’t trust you, you’ll never get it to work.
What is so secret that it has to be password protected from all users? Company secrets or finical info really does not belong on the network IMO. YMMV
Well I do have sensitive information in my computer. I suppose it does not NEED to be there but it is just more convenient if it is. And I often do the remote desktop think into my computer when I travel so I know that anything I may need is available.
I suppose I could just do the simple network thing and leave it at that but this is also a learning thing for me. I would like to know how to do this even if for now I could get by without it. But if I know how to do it I can use it now and maybe in the future when stronger need arises.
As I said, I am trying to know more and play around and develop knowledge of different tools and ways of doing things.
And, while we are here, I have another question. In Windows Explorer, directly under “My Network Places”, I see “Entire Network” and then “Folder X on Computer Y”, “Folder 3 on computer F”, etc. But I cannot see there the laptop in question so that I have to click on “Entire Network”, “Microsoft Windows Network”, “Workgroup”, etc, which is a waste of clicks. How can I get the shared folder in the laptop to appear directly under “My Network Places”?
From that page I gather that when sharing a folder on the network there is no password or identification, it is just shared with anybody and everybody on the network.
No option to discriminate users or passwords. So it seems I may be better off just sticking with simple file sharing.