Sharing folders in a LAN

In a small local area network ( consisting of 7 PCs ) I've shared some folders of a machine running on WinXp pro. Anyhow, when other machines try to access the shared folders, They receive a " you have not the permission " message. The folders are shared and a HAND is shown under the icons of the folders.

If I drag the folders to the Shared Documents folder, the other machines can access the folders.

Is there any way to share some folders without moving them to Shared Documents folder?

thanks for any kind of help.

MnInShdw

 

In addition to sharing the folders you have to give permission to specific users to access the folder. Right click on the folder and select Properties then click on the Security tab and set the permissions in there.

 

Also a thing you need to do with XP/2K is to have some way for each PC to identify the various users. Unlike earlier OS versions, XP wants to know who is trying to connect.

In a domain, the domain controllers maintain a domain users list and the PCs use that for authentication. Workgroups have to do it manually. You have basically 3 options but each of them requires that all users log on to their PC with a username and a NON BLANK password. After that you can do one of the following:

1. Have all users log on with the exact same username password. In that case, nothing more is required. It works fine but isn't suitable for all situations.

2. Have all users log on with some username/password and then place a copy of that username/password in the local users folder on each of the PCs. right-click My Computer~left-click Manage~Users and Groups~Users. This gives you the most options for security and is the most secure way to do things.

3. Have all users log on with some username/password and enable the Guest account on all PCs. It's placed there at install time and by default is enabled on XP-Home and disabled on XP-Pro. The users can then do most of the work with file sharing but they will be somewhat limited. This is less secure than option #2 but is fine for many situations where security isn't a real concern.

Note that with NTFS you have a number of security options available that you won't have with FAT32.

 

Hi Newt

thanks for your detailed explanations.

The first thing I did was following your suggestion and set a password for the machines without passwords.

then it was the time to accept one of the three method you had suggested.

I thought over the three ways and chose the second one, since it's the most secure and possible one for me. Though I have the permission to change the passwords and the user names, It's better to let the users decide their own User Name and passwords.

You suggested me to place a copy of that username/password in the local users folder on each of the PCs by right-clicking My Computer~left-click Manage~Users and Groups~Users.

Would you please explain how can I do it? I have the list of all the local users there. How can I change the passwords or add a password to blank password users?

I simply went through the process of adding a user with the exact user name and password in the Control Panel's User Account.

After adding the username and its password, I was able to access
the shared folders in both PCs.

I appreciate your help.

With regards
MnInShdw

 

Hi KevinSaul

thanks for your help. Problem Solved.

I appreciate your help


MnInShdw

 

After adding the username and its password, I was able to access
the shared folders in both PCs.


MnInShdw - I read that to mean you have the problem licked.

 

Newt, Thanks for your assistance

MnInShdw