W2K3 Security-how to share drive without login

Is there any way in windows 2003 that we can allow a drive to be shared out to someone without using Local Users and Groups?

 

Hi barrycohen and welcome to the forum.

Can you explain what you want to do in more detail please. For instance, a server should not need any user logged in to function properly - including sharing resources.

Also, domain or workgroup environment?

 

I want to share a directory/folder out to a particular user who'll be using SMB for linux machines. I suppose it'll be domain environment? since it's a web server. I suppose a user can logon using something like usernameassword@123.123.123, not sure how SMB works. And I'm not sure of how to go about doing that with Windows 2003 without creating Local users. If I'm not wrong if I create a local user, the user can login to the windows system.
Can I use the windows File sharing or some other stuffs?

Thanks.

 

Afraid at this point all I have are more questions since I'm still not comfortable that I know what your setup is or exactly what you want to do.

- Web server: so will the files be served up as web-avaialable content and the user getting them via a browser? If so, we are playing by one set of rules and you can ignore the below.

- If you have a folder on machine A and a user on machine B who needs to work with those files, you would set the folder on A to be shared and then the user on B could simply connect and work with the files as long as A was up and running. No logon to A would be needed. However, A would need some way to 'know' who on B wanted access.

The specifics of how A would 'know' who was using B will be completely different on a domain than in a workgroup setup so we gotta know which you are dealing with to give advice that is reasonable.

 

>Web server, the machine is a web server. I want to give User B full rights on a particular folder, User B will access via a username and password(I'm stuck here as I only user B to access the folder but will not be able to login into windows with the username and password.) User b will be using linux SMB to access. I don't know how SMB works.

>- If you have a folder on machine A and a user on machine B who needs to work with those files, you would set the folder on A to be shared and then the user on B could simply connect and work with the files as long as A was up and running. No logon to A would be needed. However, A would need some way to 'know' who on B wanted access.

I think it's something like this. But where should I create the username and password. Because if I do it at Computer Management, Local User and groups, then User B is able to login to the windows, but I only want to set up a shared folder for user B to access only.

Thanks

 

Heres a series of MMCs that you need to use

in computer management mmc:
Setup user account
Setup Group named "websharesusers "
add useraccount to that group

In Local Security Policy:
Add WebShareUsers group to Deny logon locally and Deny logon through Terminal Server

in my screen shots, i have a dummy user account named 'loser'.

 

I have followed the instructions and done that and given rights for that shared folder. How do I check if the particular user will only access to that folder and not other files in the pc?

Thanks

 

from another machine, try exploring your shared directories using his credentials (note you can override who you connect as with net use k: \\server\share /u:SERVERNAME\Luser)