I want NO security -- will Simple File Sharing do it?

I have XP-Pro on my PC, others on my 3-PC home LAN have XP-Home and XP-Pro. I just upgraded my MoBo and RAM, so I reinstalled XP-Pro on the reformatted C: drive (well, partition) on my HD -- I didn't reformat the other drives (all are NTFS). I want the other PCs on my LAN to have absolute full access to all files on all partitions.

At first even I couldn't get to the other (non-C drives myself, but I figured out the take-ownership thing, so now that's good. But I'm having trouble getting access to the drives from the other PCs -- it asks for name and password (I created users on my PC with the names and passwords used on the other 2 PCs), and won't accept them (no error msg, just again asks for the name and password)). I've added full permissions for both on all drives, and not only was it a pain in the rear but it didn't work.

I've read the posts here explaining how to nuke Simple File Sharing so you can limit access for some users for some drives, but I need the opposite: I'm a simple fella with a simple LAN, and I don't need so much flexibility as Pro provides -- can I switch over to Simple File Sharing, and make everything available for all? Or can I just convert everything back to FAT32 and give up some efficacy to gain back simplicity? Help, please?

 

First thing I'd suggest is this:

- Map to the stuff you want to share on the other PCs. If you want the whole drives, make the mapping to C$, D$, etc. since those administrative shares are created when you install the OS.

- Assuming you have the usernames/passwords for each PC on every PC as users and have them added to the administrator group, try mapping as the machine-specific user. For instance,

.. if you have user IMA-USER on PC1 & PC2, then from PC2 you would map a drive to \\PC1\C$ and connect as PC1\IMA-USER

As long as the PCs have different names, the same workgroup name, and IP address/netmasks that put them in the same network, this should work fine.

 

Even easier, install NETBEUI from the Valueadd folder on the XP CD, on each machine. No more "permissions" and stuff to worry about, just share the root of C for all computers, and it's done.
You still retain some security as well, because NETBEUI is invisible to the internet, which uses TCP/IP.

 

Installing NETBEUI will not make NTFS permissions disapper. File/directory security will still be present regardless of the chosen protocol.

You're right about the internet using TCP/IP so your file and print sharing will be more secure provided it's not bound to TCP/IP in any fashion.

 

OK, I stated it a little too simply.
The idea is, that if you have NETBEUI installed on all the machines, and set the root of C and all subfolders as shared, with no permissions/passwords attached, it will work, and still maintain the security from outside the LAN.

 

Reboot - the root of each drive is already shared. Administrative share, set up at install time, can't be removed and requires admin rights for access.

So, unless the user wanted to have his admin account without a password, you'd still need a password to get in. And unless a user was logged on with the admin account, the username would still have to be in the administrator group.

 

I infer from the responses, none of which addressed my query about Simple File Sharing, that that is not the cure. Actually, I figured out from a M$ KB thingy that what's critical is how the other user logs on the first time, and if they click on the box that's supposed to be there for always-login-with-this-username, everything will be fine thereafter. Since the first time was long past (a circumstance not addressed by the M$ KB thingy which is why I'm not citing it), I deleted those users on my PC and then re-added them, and then went to the others and tried to access a drive on mine, which caused the name/password box to pop up without an always-login-with-this-name-and-password box -- but there was an option to login with another name/password, which I selected and used the same name and password, and now that info is no longer requested.

Whew!

I'm still curious to receive a clear answer to the query in my post about Simple File Sharing....

 

I have not used Simple File Sharing so I can't say for sure but from what I've read it supposedly just makes managing permissions easier for someone that's new to NTFS. The permissions are still there and can allow and deny access to resources but it's just not as granular as the standard NTFS permissions.

 

I think it is the "Intermediate" you list for experience that got us. With "beginner" I'll normally point them to the easily available online articles that pertain to their question if background is needed. With "intermediate" I usually assume the poster has already looked. But the following should help give you some answers:

Top line on your browser and click Help~online support~advanced search and help

Windows XP
simple file sharing
use exact phrase

12 articles dealing with the topic.

This is the first in the list and the most comprehensive overview.

The other 11 are mostly about side effects of Simple File Sharing.

****************************************

And if we had simply answered your original question as asked, I doubt it would have done you much good. But here goes:

- Yes you can switch to simple file sharing.

- Yes you can make everything available to everyone (with or without simple file sharing).

- Yes you can switch back to FAT32 (if you have the proper 3rd party software but no it will not automatically make everything available to everyone). And you might or might not be giving up efficacy by doing the reversion.

 

Sorry for the faux pas. With my previous computer I thought I'd gotten the hang of XP pretty well, but with the PC I put together last weekend I've had problems that defied previous fixes. I did searches of the KB -- I have several articles printed out here that I read (304040, 308418, 308419, 315231), which suggested various things that I indeed had tried, without success.

Another problem that has popped up twice in the last few days also seems to be caused by the complexities of sharing/permissions: being unable to install a program to the C drive, because "Error 1303. The installer has insufficient privileges to access this directory..." -- I found KB 228658, which gives a suggestion that did not work for me. (One (Picture It) I was able to install to another drive; the 2nd one (ACDSee) wouldn't install anywhere because it insists on writing some files to C and that was verboten.)

So, since I have no experience at all with Simple File Sharing, and I found no KB that answered the question re converting from non-Simple to Simple, I posted my simplistic question, because, having tried everything, I was not able to make everything available with non-Simple File Sharing.

Sorry again to have offended. If I convert to Simple File Sharing, will all of these permissions issues vanish?

 

As I posted above, your "permissions issues" won't vanish but the permissions themselves may be easier to manage for some.

 

OK, I'll give it a shot -- thanks. (This weirdness where I can copy, paste, delete, and basically do anything to files on a drive, but when I try to install software there the "installer has insufficient privileges to access this directory" has me utterly at a loss! I'm running the installer -- how can it have or need permissions different from what I have?!?)

 

Add yourself to the local Administrators group and that problem should go away.

 

Simple File Sharing indeed solved all of my problems.

 

No1UNo - glad you got things working for you.

And I don't imagine anyone else posting on here was upset/offended. I'm familiar with the posting styles of most of the regulars and can promise that you would have known it if any felt offended.