XP Home and Home Network Security Poser

buglawton

Let's imagine this home scenario:

PC A - Main Home PC
PC B - Hubby's laptop
PC C - Kid's PC

All on one network at home via a shared Router.
Now, Hubby needs to map a drive to PC 'A' to do techy jobs or share data on PC 'A' occasionally and this works fine. Hubby has noticed that he needs no pwd in order to map to that drive. Tried a few options on PC 'A' but you either get unrestricted pwd free access or no access at all. XP Home does not allow anyhing more sophisticated.

Hubby & Wife are careful about spyware etc but Kid's PC is much more unpredictable.

How to have a password protecting the mapped drives so that spyware/viruses from C cannot ever access A or B from C? Not possible with Windows XP Home?

Looked at some options on the Router instead but any access restrictions on the 'home LAN' seem to be governed by ip address not by computer name. Only the Firewall settings go by MAC address. Since the Router may occasionall dole out new local IP addresses via DHCP, you can't predict the local ip address of paticular PCs so no dice there to my knowledge.

Any suggestions?

albertross_2

Most routers allow you to reserve an ip address, so that each PC gets a fixed ip address.

Chippy_Minton

The reason why no password is required is because Simple File Sharing enables the Guest account which doesn't have a password. On PC A, disable SFS and create a user account on it, e.g. 'Hubby'. When PC B attempts to map a drive to PC A a username/password prompt will appear; enter Hubby and the pwd.

Disable Simple File Sharing in Windows XP Home - http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-Simple-File-Sharing-in-Windows-Xp-Home-Edition

Configure file sharing in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

buglawton

Whew! Had a look at the Configure File Share Link and it's Microsoft gobbledygook that would put your local council bylaws to shame!

I think maybe I need Level 5 as I need write & modify permission - but with a Password - a sample of the text: "The only exception is if you have a folder (SampleSubFolder) that is shared at Level 4 inside a folder (SampleFolder) that is shared at Level 5".


Is there an option to allow Network Users on the LAN access to a drive or folder but only with pwd? And is a Local User (in Microsoftspeak) someone in the LAN network/Workgroup or someone on the actual PC itself?

Chippy_Minton

buglawton wrote:

Is there an option to allow Network Users on the LAN access to a drive or folder but only with pwd? And is a Local User (in Microsoftspeak) someone in the LAN network/Workgroup or someone on the actual PC itself?[/COLOR]

A Local User is a user account on the local computer (Control Panel - User Accounts). For your 1st question, not with only a pwd, but a user name and pwd. See this thread for more.

buglawton

Thanks. It looks as if I'm going to have to get into Safe Mode then access the Security Tab on the folders in question - Ugh! Will study that thread some more. Does this not show how kludgy Windows is and how awkward it is to get a balance between convenient & security?

Chippy_Minton

buglawton wrote:

Thanks. It looks as if I'm going to have to get into Safe Mode then access the Security Tab on the folders in question - Ugh!

Yes, or use the tool in the Doug Knox link in that thread - http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_home_sectab.htm

buglawton

Just realized that the link above points to an MS download, not a 3rd party add-in, so looks safe to use. Thx for the tip!

UPDATE: Got it working now thx for the help on this thread.