New at sharing network drive

[nfinity]

Right now.. Have my Desktop (Desktop-PC) which I have a drive I want to share with my laptop (Laptop-PC). Right click on drive, click sharing tab, “advance sharing” button, I’m sharing this folder and when I click on permissions, there is “everyone” user but I don’t want to give read/write/full control to everyone, that would include anyone on my network under my workgroup correct? I tried adding “Laptop-PC” as a user can can give permissions too but it won't take so I don’t know how to add a network user… advice please

 

[Aspect404]

Give access only to your user account on the desktop PC. When you access from the laptop, you will specify that user by typing "hostname\user" in the username field when prompted.

For example, your desktop's hostname is "Desktop" and the user is nfinity. You would go on the laptop, double click the drive and get prompted for a login. In the username, enter "desktop\nfinity" and then put in the desktop password to access your files.

 

[nfinity]

Give access only to your user account on the desktop PC. When you access from the laptop, you will specify that user by typing "hostname\user" in the username field when prompted.

For example, your desktop's hostname is "Desktop" and the user is nfinity. You would go on the laptop, double click the drive and get prompted for a login. In the username, enter "desktop\nfinity" and then put in the desktop password to access your files.

I don't think I understand, if I unshare the drive with network discover still on so I can see the desktop computer i just connect but see no drive. doesn't prompt for login, if I just do a basic share "default" which is the everyone has read permissions I get "you need permission to perform that action" no where does it ask for my login. I do have a password setup for my desktop.

 

[Aspect404]

You still want to share the drive, you simply remove access to the "Everyone" group and add full control to the desktop user and continue sharing just as you normally would.

So, on the drive, Right Click > Share with... > Advanced Sharing > Click Advanced Sharing (in the pop-up Window) > Check "Share this folder" and name it > Click OK

Now on the security Tab, remove the "Everyone" group and ensure that your Desktop user has full permissions.

That should do the trick.


** You will have problems accessing the drive if you ever reformat the Desktop PC. In that event, on the new installation, you will need to do a takeown and then icacls command against the drive to restore your new user account with permissions. I know that's probably a ways down the road but if it does happen, hopefully this tidbit will save some time.

 

[MisterEd]

I have a Homegroup set up. In the Network "Advanced Sharing Settings" you can will see Password protected sharing.
If password protection is turned on, the person you are sharing with must have a user account and password on your computer in order to access the files and folders you are sharing. You can turn password protection on or off in the Network and Sharing Center. This allows access to files using the user name and password as authentication automatically.

I did what was done in "Share an entire drive with a homegroup" but made a small change. I removed all permissions for "everyone" and then added my user and gave it full permissions. I could then read and write to the drive on the other computer. Note I use the same user name and password on both computers.

File sharing essentials
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/file-sharing-essentials

Share an entire drive with a homegroup
http://www.nkonecny.com/blog/2012/01/16/share-an-entire-drive-with-a-homegroup/

 

[nfinity]

I think I finally got Aspect404 idea to work. finally able to remove the "everyone" from the list and I can still access the drive, read/write. Somehow I got away with having homegroup password protection on, and my laptop doesn't have a password to login. Not sure how I made this work to be honest. I'm assuming I somehow have it setup that another homegroup user could see everything on the drive as well in that case, I'll have to test that later. I may have to take MisterEd advise in the future and have the same login name for both computers.

Is it just me, or is networking sharing on windows so much more complicated than it has to be. I feel like it would be easier if you could just add a username to the permissions for a drive even if that user didn't exist on that local computer, it should accept network usernames which you could control permissions

 

[Aspect404]

The reason you can't add other PC's to the ACL (Access Control List) is that falls into the Windows Domain services category... You could build a domain controller and then have domain users, but that's more for business/government environments.

So, you're not actually controlling the security of the drive on the 'network.' You are controlling security rights for the drive itself (hence my note about reformatting... those rights will go with the drive). What we did here was grant sharing (which makes the drive visible to anyone in the homegroup) and then modified the ACL on the drive to only allow a user account that is known to the sharing PC (the desktop login user).

Complicated networking? Kind of, but there is a lot of 'method to the madness.' The above solution is more or less a 'hack job' using the different security features included in Windows.

Glad you got it working

 

[nfinity]

Yeah, I guess I was thinking in terms of domain users. Didn't realize it . But yeah.. not sure how much sense that would make on a networking supporting just a handful of computers.

But it works even as an improvised solution. Thanks for the help!