MS SkyDrive: Trouble with Public vs. Private folders

I’ve recently started trying to use Microsoft SkyDrive as a way of sharing large media files with other people. I had no trouble setting it up and uploading files. I was also able to send an email to somebody with a link to my public folder where they could access the file. So far so good.

But then I did some tests to see if anyone besides me could access the private folders as well as the public folders. I sent a link to the public folder to another of my email addresses. Then I opened that link and instead of just giving me access to that one file in a public folder, it gave access to everything on my SkyDrive. Including remote access to my entire computer !!!:eek::eek:

In other words, the link, which would be sent to any person I wanted to share files with, brought up the same SkyDrive home page that only I should have access to. I’ve looked all around on the webz for a solution, but all I can find is instructions for privacy settings–how to designate which folders other people can, and can not, access.

I had already carefully applied those settings and yet I was still able to access my entire SkyDrive site from the outside. How in the world do I make it so folks I send sharing links to can’t access everything on my SkyDrive??

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

Were you still logged-in with your Skydrive account when you clicked the second link?

To do a fair test, you need to click that link while not logged-in. Even better, click it on a completely different computer you’ve never logged-in to. (SkyDrive might be able to use Single Sign-On.)

Hmmmm… good point. I should try that.

What I DID try, however, was turning off my normal DSL internet connection and then tethered my cell phone to my computer as a totally different ISP. This way, I assumed, my IP address is totally different so there wouldn’t be any “Well, you’re on the same computer so we’re just going to give you all the private rights.”

I don’t have any convenient access to a computer I’ve never used before… I was hoping changing ISPs was good enough.

Logins are typically stored in the browser, not with the IP. (Think about it-- wouldn’t it be irritating if you were logged-out of every website just because you switched wifi access points?) Some banks and other “super secure” sites might check the IP, but in my experience it’s pretty rare.

I wager the reason you had full access is because you had previously used “Keep Me Logged In”.

Yeah, changing IPs rarely matters. It’s most likely that you’re still logged in.

To check, just open a new Private Browsing (Firefox)/Incognito (Chrome)/InPrivate (IE) window, which will have its own set of cookies. Open the private link there and see if you can still access everything.

Thanks for all the help. It looks like it was some king of login / logout problem. I was signed into SkyDrive as one Hotmail user, and then I used another Hotmail account to check the privacy. I figured since I accessed a different Hotmail account I would have to be logged out of the first one (the SkyDrive one).

Apparently I wasn’t. Or, I was logged out of it but somehow since I was using the same computer I still had access.

Anyway… I’ve tried it again making sure I was completely logged out of the SkyDrive account and I had no problems. Geeeez… now I feel kinda dumb for even having to ask! Sometimes it just takes someone else looking at it to get to the (very simple) solution.

Thanks again