help with Securing shared folder on network

[associates]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone can help me out here. I know that there are a lot of third party software that allows to password protect folder or drives on the "LOCAL COMPUTER". Well, i have a different scenario here.

I have a small LAN set up at the office. There are 5 computers on the network. One of them acts as a fileserver where there is a folder that can be accessed by all the other computers. It stores all data as the name implies.

So my problem is if possible, i want to password protect the folder on the file server that is already made shared on the network, and hoping that everytime someone from other computers on the network trying to access the folder on the fileserver will be asked for password before allowing he or she to access it. In another words, i'm after a software that i can install on the fileserver to password protect the shared folder from being accessed by users from other computers on the network.

Thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you.

 

[vacunita]

Let me see if I get it, You want the 5 computers on the network to have to enter a password to access the folder right?

Firt off, what is your Server running? Windows XP? NT? 2K?
what are ther other 5 PC's running???

If you want to limit the access to the folder to only certain computers third party software is not neccessary. You can specify in the shared folders permissions which users can access the folder. if the specific user is not in the list then he/she cannot access.

But I still need to know wwhat OS they are running.


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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[associates]

Hi, Vacunita

Thank you very much for your reply.

All the computers on my network are running windows XP Pro.

Honestly, i have tried so many times to use the XP's file sharing permission features but without any lucks. That's why i was looking for other alternatives.

Say, we have 3 computers, compA, compB and compC. They are all running on XP Pro.

Please let me explain in a bit more detail(i hope you don't mind) how i set it up and do please check what i did wrong. For a trial and error purpose, i didn't touch anything on the fileserver. Instead, i tested it on compA and compB.

1. I unchecked the simple file sharing on these 3 comps in order that i can set security permission.
2. set up username and password on 3 comps ie. compA & compB. For example on compA, username: johns & it's got password, and on compB, michael is the username, and michelle on compC as username
3. On compA, i created a user by going to "computer management" -> add user "michael". There is a folder called "mydata" sitting on C:\mydata on compA. I made it shared on the network by going to "Sharing and Security" -> share this folder -> on the permission, there is everyone set with only read permission -> on the security, i add user by going to add -> change the object types to user -> i can't change the location so i use "compA" -> Advanced -> find now -> compA/michael. I did the same way for compA/michelle.
For security setting, i set michael with a full control and michelle with a limited control ie read only.

Then, after having done all that, i went to compB logging as michael and went to windows explore trying to find the folder thru network places. When i double clicked the folder, it actually let me in without asking any password. The problem was i couldn't change or save anything on the folder eventhough i set michael with full control on the security setting while everyone set with limited on the permission on compA. what's happening here? what happen to the full control i set on the security setting for michael?confused.

I hope i explained it well to you.

Thank you once again in advance and look forward to hearing from you

 

[vacunita]

When You created the User: Michael on Comp A, did you give him the same password as you had in CompB for Michael??

If you gave him no password then CompA can't authenticate Michael with PAssword from CompB to Michael without on CompA.

All users must have passwords for the permissions to function correctly.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[associates]

Thanks Vacunita,

The answer to your question is yes. When i added a new user for michael on compA, i used the same password i set for compB. So everything was the same.

I have tried all sort of different ways based on several advices i obtained from other people. I even removed the everyone from the list and added michael to the list only in the permission tab under sharing and security for that folder and in the security tab, the user "michael" added to the list. This time, i couldnot even access to the folder at all when double clicking the folder on compB thru network places.
However, if i put the everyone back on to the list on compA, then i was able to access to the folder from compB
So, in conclusion, i think the everyone is kinda important if i really want to be able to access to the shared folder on the network.
I'm wondering if this is opposite to what you know or experienced or windows networking theory. Because i'm confused some people say you have to remove "everyone or guest" from the list

I was also wondering if there is a clear step by step procedure as to set this file sharing up for a network, i'm keen to start from scratch again.

Honestly, my preference is to be able to lock a folder on compA regardless of anything else and it would prompt for password if there is anyone trying to access it ON THE NETWORK. This is what i want and i can forget about all this trouble with setting up file sharing things... because at the end of the day, what i would like it to happen is when somebody on the other computer trying to access to the folder made shareable on the network will be prompted for password before he or she be granted to access.

Thank you very very much for your time and patience and look forward to hearing from you

 

[vacunita]

Basically what you did was correct. If I follow your procedure everything works as expected. I'm leaning towards an authentication problem. Make sure the user michael is not a member of limited users group or Guest users group that by nature would not be able to alter anything.

Other than that, its very starnge why it is not working.




----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[associates]

Thank you Vacunita

Hmm... I don't think the user michael is a member of limited user group or guest because i didn't set it that way. I don't know if by default it's assumed to be a member of limited user group or other groups.

Oh... Another thing i'd like to know is that when i first add a user, michael on compA, i found it quite strange. It appeared to be "compA/michael". Is this mean that michael is a user for the local computer, compA.

Thank you very much

 

[vacunita]

Yes,CompA\Michael means Michael is a user in CompA.
I'm Stumped as to why it is not working.

Is Michael spelled the same way on both machines.
Have you tried logging out of CompB and Logging back in to see if it gets Authenticated.

Maybe someone else here knows why this is happening , I'm completely stumped.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.