Restricting Access to shared folder

Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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Hi All :)

I'm not experienced in networking and even some common principles are bury to me so I could use some help :). I have two PCs networked diractly by LAN card to LAN card connection with a crossover UTP cable (the simplest thing :) ). My "primary" PC is connected to the internet through another LAN card. All the local hard drives of the primary PC are shared so I can access them through the "secondary" PC.

And now the problem: The system maintenance utility which I use recently shows me that all my hard drives have unlimited access rights and anybody can access them by simply typing C$, D$ etc ...

The utility suggests that I should remove the "Everyone" group from the users who can access the shared objects. But "Everyone" is the only group there is...
So I removed it and set my user instead, but after I failed to access the shared HDs through the secondary PC I've realized that I gave rights only to the local user of my primary PC :D!!! The sharing is completely pointless that way. The locations I can choose are limited to the users of the local (primary) PC, I can't choose the remote (secondary) PC user to have the rigts?!

So the situation now is: the HDs will be shared to either Everyone or No One!!! :D - Neihter of those suits me! ;)

Please tell me what to do? :)

And BTW what's the risk? Isn't the firewall supposed to stop any outside access attempts?

Thanks in advance! :)
 

retellect

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Nov 21, 2009
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Hi Ivan, go to the secondary pc, right-click My Computer then click properties. Look for the computer name and note it down, lets assume the computer name is "mysecondpc" from now on.

Go to the primary machine and make sure you can ping the secondary pc using the computer name. (eg - type "ping mysecondpc" in a command prompt). It is critical that you can ping the computer name. Now go the the "permissions" button in the properties of the folder you want to share. Give "Everyone" full control of the folder. Now go to the "Security" tab and click "Edit" and then "Add" in the new window. Now click "Locations" and in the new window select "mysecondpc" and press OK. Now type "Everyone" in the box and click "check names" then click OK. You should be able to access the files from the secondary pc now!

If this was too complicated to follow I'll make a video for you showing you how to do it. Good luck Ivan!
 

Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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Ouch!!! I forgot to say that I'm running Win XP on both machines. Sorry :( That's why the description doesn't quite match... I think.

Anyway I've successfully pinged the secondary PC by name, and even though the description is slightly different I did what you've meant to be done, but my problem (as the first time I've tried to fix this) is that the "Locations" dialog shows only the local PC the remote one isn't in the list?! ;)

If you can tell me how to fix that, the rest is easy. :)

But Of course thanks a LOT for the replay! :)
 

retellect

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Nov 21, 2009
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Ha Ha! I was giving you instructions for a Windows 7 machine!

You need to find out if the secondary pc is discoverable on the network. In XP, you do this by going to um.......oh yea.........Network Neighbourhood. Its been so long! Click "Entire Network" and see if you can browse for the secondary pc. If you can't find it there, it is not discoverable. Try turning windows firewall off while trying it too.

Btw, if you are running XP HE then you're outta luck!
 

Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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Just a little clarification "Network Neighbourhood" is in Win 98 :) In Win XP it's "My Network Places"... But only the names are different the rest is pretty much the same ;)

The secondary PC is discoverable I can see it in the "Entire Network".

Now I figured that the manualy configured IP addresses my have something to do with this. Also there is no DNS.

Are those things related or they shouldn't matter?

Thanks again!
 

retellect

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Nov 21, 2009
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Use the IP of the primary pc for DNS on both pc's, this should make it show up. If not, are they both on the same workgroup?