[charliewykes]

Hi here's the situation. 3 PC's all running XP home on a workgroup. 1 and 2 are used by my wife and I and we share some document folders on each machine so we can edit documents from either machine and so on. PC 3 is used by the kids who have limited acounts on it but they can get into 'my network places' on 3 and see the shared folders on 1 and 2. I want a simple way to prevent this and I'm struggling...

I have played about with disabling simple file sharing in XP home and creating accounts on PC's 1 and 2 that have the same name and password as the kids accounts on 3 and setting permissions. This worked but this meant they could then log on to 1 and 2 which currently they can't.

I would pay for a software package that ran on PC 3 to stop them accessing 'my network places' and otyher things like control panel if such a thing exists or I'd install something on 1 or 2 that could password protect the shared folders but leave them visible on the workgroup - but I can't find anything.

Any thoughts welcome,

Thanks

Charlie

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Options:

1. When you share a folder, you can password protect it.

2. Make the shared folders hidden. Then, on PC1, map a drive to the shared folder on PC2 and vice versa. Now, you will have a drive letter, "X" for example, on PC1 that points to the shared folder on PC2. PC2 is set up in a reverse fashion with it's "X" drive mapped to the shared folder on PC1. If you are on PC1, you don't have to physically see the folder on PC2 because you have a drive mapped to it. You simply open your "X" drive from within "My Computer" to access it. On PC 3, the kids will still be able to snoop around the network, but they won't be able to see those hidden folders. Oh...note, it's easier to map the drives before you make them hidden. Sorry I typed it backwords like that.

To map a drive....open "My Computer". Click "Tools", and then "Map Network Drive". Select a drive letter and browse to the shared folder on the other PC. Then, click OK. Be sure "Reconnect at logon" is checked or you'll have the re-map the drive every time the system boots.

Hope this helps.

Magus

Edited by magusbuckley, 22 September 2007 - 01:01 PM.

[magusbuckley]

Options:

1. When you share a folder, you can password protect it.

2. Make the shared folders hidden. Then, on PC1, map a drive to the shared folder on PC2 and vice versa. Now, you will have a drive letter, "X" for example, on PC1 that points to the shared folder on PC2. PC2 is set up in a reverse fashion with it's "X" drive mapped to the shared folder on PC1. If you are on PC1, you don't have to physically see the folder on PC2 because you have a drive mapped to it. You simply open your "X" drive from within "My Computer" to access it. On PC 3, the kids will still be able to snoop around the network, but they won't be able to see those hidden folders. Oh...note, it's easier to map the drives before you make them hidden. Sorry I typed it backwords like that.

To map a drive....open "My Computer". Click "Tools", and then "Map Network Drive". Select a drive letter and browse to the shared folder on the other PC. Then, click OK. Be sure "Reconnect at logon" is checked or you'll have the re-map the drive every time the system boots.

Hope this helps.

Magus

Edited by magusbuckley, 22 September 2007 - 01:01 PM.

[charliewykes]

Yes thanks that will work I thank. Just one more question that I can't answer as one PC is currently offline. If I turn on PC 1 before PC 2, will PC 1 automatically conect to the mapped drive on PC 2 when pc 2 is turned on? If so then my problem has been simply solved! Many thanks

[dsenette]

Yes thanks that will work I thank. Just one more question that I can't answer as one PC is currently offline. If I turn on PC 1 before PC 2, will PC 1 automatically conect to the mapped drive on PC 2 when pc 2 is turned on? If so then my problem has been simply solved! Many thanks

nope....the host pc (the one that has the shared files on it) has to be on first in order to map the drive....you could create a batch file that would map the drives though

to make a batch....make a text file similar to the following...except put your info in there

net use G: \\<hostcomputername>\<SharedFolderName>

G: can be any available drive letter... <Hostcomputername> is the name of the host computer and <sharedfoldername> is the name of the shared folder

then when you click that it will map the drive

I would pay for a software package that ran on PC 3 to stop them accessing 'my network places' and otyher things like control panel if such a thing exists or I'd install something on 1 or 2 that could password protect the shared folders but leave them visible on the workgroup - but I can't find anything.

you can actually do this through group policy...

on the kids computer log on as the administrator and press the start button, then click run, then type "gpedit.msc" (without the quotes)

expand administrative templates under user settings then expand "Start menu and taskbar"

under this group enable the following:
Remove Network Connections from start menu
remove my network places icon from start menu

Expand desktop
under this group enable the following:
Hide My network places icon on desktop

If you really want them to not be able to get into control panel at all
Expand Control panel
under this group enable the following:
prohibit access to the control panel


if you ever need to disable any of these settings....just do these steps in reverse

[charliewykes]

Excellent! I also learned that if I give the guest acount on the computers to which I wish to restrict network acess a password then that pasword will be asked for when accesing a shared resource. Helpful except it meant the kids PC couldn't access the printers attached to the other computer...