Need help setting up networking

[ZhulickS]

I've just moved into a new house, and for the first time have a wireless network.

Previously all my four boxes where using wired networking. I have the drives i used mapped out between them and everythig works perfectly.

now that i have wireless, i need to add my wife's laptop into the mix. also my wife's sister and her husband rent an apartment downstairs, and would like to be hooked up to my network as well.

i'm a professional photographer, and the last thing i want is for my wife or her sister to rummage through my files. neither is very computer savvy, and opening up everything is just asking for disaster.

what i want to be able to do is to let them be able to connect to the "family picture drive" along to the music drive, and a drive where i dump my video's, but keep them out of everything else. when setting up a home/small office network in winxp pro, there is no option to setup up this type of a permission. you either see the whole network or none at all.

can someone please point me to a link or a tutorial on how to setup limited user permissions in a home network using a winxp home (wife and sister) and winxp pro (workstations).

thanks.

 

[ZhulickS]

oh yeah, i forgot, i still want to keep my shares going as they were for my workstations. meaning i don't want to have to enter passwords everytime i want to access a share drive on another box. what i basically want is for the system to recognize when someone other than me is logging in, and automatically assign reduced/limited access to only the network drives i specify.

 

[eDRoaCH]

This really isnt too hard. You can make it a bit easier on yourself if you have at least a dedicated file server (with all the files on it) or maybe even a domain (gives you the same effect across multiple computers) Though I think a domain is too much work to set up for what you want at this point

Anyway, right click on my computer->manage->local users and groups (youll have to go to the administrative tools section of the start menu to do this if you have a domain)

now, go into groups and make 2 groups. one called Me and the other called 'freinds' (whatever names you like)

then create users in the users area. after you create each user right click them, go to properties and the member of tab and add them to the appropriate group. each user WILL need a password to access over the network, might as well set them up to use a password at logon to make it easiest.

this all seems difficult, but it makes this next part much easier. groups are easier to set permissions on than regular users. if youre on xp, be sure to go to tools->folder options->
view tab and TURN OFF simple file sharing (at very bottom)

now go to the drive/folder in question (for multiple shares, youll have to repeat) right click on the drive/folder and go to sharing and security. make a new share hit the permissions button and give everyone full control.
(counter intuitive isnt it? but this is the right way to do it)

now go to the security tab and hit advanced. hit add and add the group for yourself then give yourself full permissions. then add the friends group and give either no permission, read permission, or full depending on what you want to do (i think itunes complains if it cant write to files so keep that in mind on the music) be sure to select the deny check for permissions if you dont want them to have access. this assures that even if the default 'users' group has access, they do not.

then select the 'replace permission entries on all child objects' and hit apply. itll take awhile but youll get there.

note that each user will have to have a password at logon to access, or theyll be prompted for it later. you can also use the same username for everybody in the friends group, but usually people already have that set up (and the purpose of the group is to make it seem like you are only setting permissions for one user.

it sounds difficult but once you do it its really not that hard. with luck, your wife will never find your porn! ^^

 

[ZhulickS]

thanks... i'll definitely give this a try...

will i have to punch a password as well, or is the "me" group automatically excluded? also, since everyone that's not "me" connects via wireless, and i only connect wired, is there a way to use that somehow.

i do have a pretty new dlink router, which i believe may be capable of setting up a real domain type logon, but i never had the need to try it.

 

[ZhulickS]

quick question... just tried setting this up and immediately ran into a problem... when setting up a new user, that user shows up on my logon screen on my workstation.

these users will never ever get their dirty filthy hands on any of my workstations, ever... so i don't need to see their names on the logon screen.. is there a way to just remove them from the logon screen, or am i better off just figuring out how to setup a domain and set appropriate user permissions.

 

[ZhulickS]

more problems... first i was able to get the other user name out of my logon panel by removing it from the users group, not sure if that's what's causing the next problem

i did a test run with a new folder, and set permissions as outlined before... everything looks ok, but i can't access this folder from another worsktation...

i previously setup my network with the winxp soho wizard... am i stuck, do i need to just re-run the wizard again so it pick's up the changes?

 

[ZhulickS]

after a bit of fiddling, everything seems to work ok...

one thing that slowed me down was the fact that i didn't use a password for my account before... once i setup same username/pass combo across my workstations the problem went away...

right now everything looks ok..