How can I properly configure my network for sharing.

This is a question about both xp and vista to a lesser extent. I can't
find the proper english group for xp netowrking in the newsgroup list so
I am posting here.

I have 6 workstaions. a mix of xp and vista. I am hoping that I can
configure the vista machines in the same way I am doing xp.

This is a workgroup environment not a AD.

Let us say the 6 workstations are

1) alice (xp)
2) john (xp)
3) mary (xp)
4) Jack (xp)
5) roger (xp)
6) morgan (vista)


Lets look at alice.

What I have done is to create 5 user accounts (limited) on alice called
john, mary, jack, roger and morgan. I have set their password all to
network.

****QUESTION****: In order to share a folder(s) to these other 5
workstaions do I have to manually set up each user on the alice machine
or is there a way to see these users of the other machines listed in the
share permissons and just select them without having to set up physical
accounts for them on the alice machine.

I go into "tools -> folder options ... -> view" and disable simple file
sharing.

I right click on the folder i want to share and click on "Sharing and
security..."

I share the folder click on permissions under the sharing tab, add the
five users - I manually setup on alice machine locally with limited
accounts - and give full control to each of the 5 users . I remove all
other users that were in there previsously (like the everyone person).

I go to the security tab and remove again anyone that should not be
there like the users group. I again add the 5 local user accounts i had
created before. I set there allow permissions as necessary. I click on
advance uncheck inherit from parent and copy the permissions from the
parent to this folder.

At this point I am done but for one last question related to the 5 user
accounts I setup on alice.

****QUESTION****: After setting up these five local accounts on alice
that now means that these users can sit infront of the alice machine and
actually log in locally. I do not one this. I basically set them up on
alice for file/printer sharing purposes only. Is there a way to prevent
these five accounts from logging in locally and only allow network login
access to get to the share on the alice workstation?


Thanks for your help.

Hi
each user must have his own account and permission on any shares that you
want to allow. It does not matter thta they are coming from the same
computer if they are unrelated logon users they are so on the Network too.
If you have shares that you want to permit to all of them you can switch on
the Guest account, and allow guests on the folders that you would like to
act as opened shares.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"sefs" <sefsinc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:u6YPBDBeKHA.5568@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> This is a question about both xp and vista to a lesser extent. I can't
> find the proper english group for xp netowrking in the newsgroup list so
> I am posting here.
>
> I have 6 workstaions. a mix of xp and vista. I am hoping that I can
> configure the vista machines in the same way I am doing xp.
>
> This is a workgroup environment not a AD.
>
> Let us say the 6 workstations are
>
> 1) alice (xp)
> 2) john (xp)
> 3) mary (xp)
> 4) Jack (xp)
> 5) roger (xp)
> 6) morgan (vista)
>
>
> Lets look at alice.
>
> What I have done is to create 5 user accounts (limited) on alice called
> john, mary, jack, roger and morgan. I have set their password all to
> network.
>
> ****QUESTION****: In order to share a folder(s) to these other 5
> workstaions do I have to manually set up each user on the alice machine
> or is there a way to see these users of the other machines listed in the
> share permissons and just select them without having to set up physical
> accounts for them on the alice machine.
>
> I go into "tools -> folder options ... -> view" and disable simple file
> sharing.
>
> I right click on the folder i want to share and click on "Sharing and
> security..."
>
> I share the folder click on permissions under the sharing tab, add the
> five users - I manually setup on alice machine locally with limited
> accounts - and give full control to each of the 5 users . I remove all
> other users that were in there previsously (like the everyone person).
>
> I go to the security tab and remove again anyone that should not be
> there like the users group. I again add the 5 local user accounts i had
> created before. I set there allow permissions as necessary. I click on
> advance uncheck inherit from parent and copy the permissions from the
> parent to this folder.
>
> At this point I am done but for one last question related to the 5 user
> accounts I setup on alice.
>
> ****QUESTION****: After setting up these five local accounts on alice
> that now means that these users can sit infront of the alice machine and
> actually log in locally. I do not one this. I basically set them up on
> alice for file/printer sharing purposes only. Is there a way to prevent
> these five accounts from logging in locally and only allow network login
> access to get to the share on the alice workstation?
>
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
>

I did not understand your response. Which part of your answer responds
to which question that was asked.

Thanks.

On 12/09/2009 01:29 AM, Jack [MVP-Networking] wrote:
> Hi
> each user must have his own account and permission on any shares that
> you want to allow. It does not matter thta they are coming from the same
> computer if they are unrelated logon users they are so on the Network too.
> If you have shares that you want to permit to all of them you can
> switch on the Guest account, and allow guests on the folders that you
> would like to act as opened shares.
> Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).
>
> "sefs" <sefsinc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:u6YPBDBeKHA.5568@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> This is a question about both xp and vista to a lesser extent. I can't
>> find the proper english group for xp netowrking in the newsgroup list so
>> I am posting here.
>>
>> I have 6 workstaions. a mix of xp and vista. I am hoping that I can
>> configure the vista machines in the same way I am doing xp.
>>
>> This is a workgroup environment not a AD.
>>
>> Let us say the 6 workstations are
>>
>> 1) alice (xp)
>> 2) john (xp)
>> 3) mary (xp)
>> 4) Jack (xp)
>> 5) roger (xp)
>> 6) morgan (vista)
>>
>>
>> Lets look at alice.
>>
>> What I have done is to create 5 user accounts (limited) on alice called
>> john, mary, jack, roger and morgan. I have set their password all to
>> network.
>>
>> ****QUESTION****: In order to share a folder(s) to these other 5
>> workstaions do I have to manually set up each user on the alice machine
>> or is there a way to see these users of the other machines listed in the
>> share permissons and just select them without having to set up physical
>> accounts for them on the alice machine.
>>
>> I go into "tools -> folder options ... -> view" and disable simple file
>> sharing.
>>
>> I right click on the folder i want to share and click on "Sharing and
>> security..."
>>
>> I share the folder click on permissions under the sharing tab, add the
>> five users - I manually setup on alice machine locally with limited
>> accounts - and give full control to each of the 5 users . I remove all
>> other users that were in there previsously (like the everyone person).
>>
>> I go to the security tab and remove again anyone that should not be
>> there like the users group. I again add the 5 local user accounts i had
>> created before. I set there allow permissions as necessary. I click on
>> advance uncheck inherit from parent and copy the permissions from the
>> parent to this folder.
>>
>> At this point I am done but for one last question related to the 5 user
>> accounts I setup on alice.
>>
>> ****QUESTION****: After setting up these five local accounts on alice
>> that now means that these users can sit infront of the alice machine and
>> actually log in locally. I do not one this. I basically set them up on
>> alice for file/printer sharing purposes only. Is there a way to prevent
>> these five accounts from logging in locally and only allow network login
>> access to get to the share on the alice workstation?
>>
>>
>> Thanks for your help.
>>
>>
>

Unless you have stuff you really need to hide (undeclared income, kiddie
****):
In a simple, closed peer to peer network like yours there are not pressing
security reasons to require you to set up user passwords for every user on
every other computer on the network. In the real world this adds
un-necessary complications and no more safety than the Vista UAC, presuming
you have the usual internet firewall, etc (nothing special is required).
To save yourself aggravation you can use the "public" folders which are
already configured by Microsoft for open sharing.
You can create new folders with open sharing or allow sharing of any
specific folders on any computer.
If all the shared folders are only in the public folders (or similarly
configured folders) then no one has access to any other folders on another
computer unless permission has been granted by the user of that computer.
The computer owner can specifically name who has access to what folder and
what they can do with it in terms of reading/changing the file.
I guarantee you will spend more time hunting down lost or inadvertently
changed or incorrectly recorded passwords than any security you will get
from using passwords on a network the size you describe. If you are going to
use a universal password like "network" why even bother? That is not going
to stop anyone who has physical access to your computers.
You can add to that the aggravation that Vista does not always hold on to
share settings and occasionally refuses to share a properly configured file
that it has shared in the past.
Passwords are an option. If you are going to bother then do it right.

Hi
It might be that misunderstood your long post, Sorry.
I think that there is some mix up in your logic between User Accounts
concerning Network access, and User Accounts as per individuals sitting in
front of the computer and logging in to individual accounts. It is two
different things.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

"sefs" <sefsinc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23hOkr4ReKHA.5608@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I did not understand your response. Which part of your answer responds
> to which question that was asked.
>
> Thanks.
>
> On 12/09/2009 01:29 AM, Jack [MVP-Networking] wrote:
>> Hi
>> each user must have his own account and permission on any shares that
>> you want to allow. It does not matter thta they are coming from the same
>> computer if they are unrelated logon users they are so on the Network
>> too.
>> If you have shares that you want to permit to all of them you can
>> switch on the Guest account, and allow guests on the folders that you
>> would like to act as opened shares.
>> Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).
>>
>> "sefs" <sefsinc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:u6YPBDBeKHA.5568@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> This is a question about both xp and vista to a lesser extent. I can't
>>> find the proper english group for xp netowrking in the newsgroup list so
>>> I am posting here.
>>>
>>> I have 6 workstaions. a mix of xp and vista. I am hoping that I can
>>> configure the vista machines in the same way I am doing xp.
>>>
>>> This is a workgroup environment not a AD.
>>>
>>> Let us say the 6 workstations are
>>>
>>> 1) alice (xp)
>>> 2) john (xp)
>>> 3) mary (xp)
>>> 4) Jack (xp)
>>> 5) roger (xp)
>>> 6) morgan (vista)
>>>
>>>
>>> Lets look at alice.
>>>
>>> What I have done is to create 5 user accounts (limited) on alice called
>>> john, mary, jack, roger and morgan. I have set their password all to
>>> network.
>>>
>>> ****QUESTION****: In order to share a folder(s) to these other 5
>>> workstaions do I have to manually set up each user on the alice machine
>>> or is there a way to see these users of the other machines listed in the
>>> share permissons and just select them without having to set up physical
>>> accounts for them on the alice machine.
>>>
>>> I go into "tools -> folder options ... -> view" and disable simple file
>>> sharing.
>>>
>>> I right click on the folder i want to share and click on "Sharing and
>>> security..."
>>>
>>> I share the folder click on permissions under the sharing tab, add the
>>> five users - I manually setup on alice machine locally with limited
>>> accounts - and give full control to each of the 5 users . I remove all
>>> other users that were in there previsously (like the everyone person).
>>>
>>> I go to the security tab and remove again anyone that should not be
>>> there like the users group. I again add the 5 local user accounts i had
>>> created before. I set there allow permissions as necessary. I click on
>>> advance uncheck inherit from parent and copy the permissions from the
>>> parent to this folder.
>>>
>>> At this point I am done but for one last question related to the 5 user
>>> accounts I setup on alice.
>>>
>>> ****QUESTION****: After setting up these five local accounts on alice
>>> that now means that these users can sit infront of the alice machine and
>>> actually log in locally. I do not one this. I basically set them up on
>>> alice for file/printer sharing purposes only. Is there a way to prevent
>>> these five accounts from logging in locally and only allow network login
>>> access to get to the share on the alice workstation?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help.
>>>
>>>
>>
>

> If you are going to bother then do it right.

And use Active Directory with a domain controller server.