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How do I share folders securely in Windows XP

This documentation guides you how to share files and set up the proper level of security on a Windows XP machine on the OU Network. The first step is to create a folder to share and move files into it. If this has been done already, please skip down to Step 5. Click on the Start button, and click on My Computer.

1. Double-click C: Drive. (You should see a screen similar to Figure 1 below.)

figure1.png

2. Right click anywhere on the blank screen in Figure 1.

3.Choose New then click Folder as shown in Figure 2.

figure2.png

4. Type the name of the folder, and then press Enter. (The folder in Figure 3 below was named “Test” for this documentation.)

5. Right-click on the folder you just created.

6. Click on Properties (shown in Figure 3.)

figure3.png

7. The Test Properties screen should appear (see Figure 4).

  • figure4.png

8. Click the white circle named Share this folder.

9. Type the sharing name. you want to use.

10. For the Use Limit option, please select a Maximum number of connections allowed. Please remember that the more people who are connected to your files at the same time, the slower your machine may run.

  • NOTE: It is recommended to use the same name for the share as the folder. The share name used here is “Test”.

    TIP: If you add a $ to the end of your share it will hide the share so that it is not visible by browsing the computer name. Anyone you want to connect will have to be told the full share name to connect.

figure5.png

11. Click the Permission button. (You should see Figure 6 below.)

  • By default, you are sharing the folder with everyone. The big security risk is that folder is shared to everyone full control by default. There will be three boxes with check boxes in the Allow column. The permission will be specified to each user or group account Everyone should not have to have write access to your folder, highlight everyone and click the remove button.

    NOTE: Permission settings here control this folders and the folder and files it contains.

    • Full Control – enable a specified user or group to make changes and read files in this share. Once you check this box, it will automatically check change and read.

    • Change – enable a specified user or group to make changes any files in this share.

    • Read – enable a specified user or group to see the files only. If you check only this box then it will not allow user to make any changes to the files in the share.

figure6.png

12. If you would like to add someone to be able access this folder, click add button to add a user account to this sharing folder. You will need to know their User ID in ADMnet or Opennet to add them. In general, a person’s ID is the same as their email ID.

  • Figure 7 shows what the users and group list looks like.

figure7.png

13. Click the Location button and a list of domains should appear. Click Object types to specify what you are looking for.

  • NOTE: If your computer is on Opennet domain and you will see a long list of different domains. If your computer is on ADMnet domain, you will get only one domain list.

    figure8.png

14. Go down on the list to find the correct user account. Highlight the account that you want then click Add button. The name should appear in the lower window. (Shown in Figure 9).

15. Once you are done selecting your first user or group, press the OK button to add the accounts.

  • figure9.png

16. You will see a screen similar to Figure 10. Repeat steps 13-16 for each person.

  • figure10.png

17. Once you are done with selecting the permission for each account, press the OK button. If your folder is correctly shared, a hand will appear on the icon as showing on the Test folder example in Figure 11. You can now close that window.

  • figure11.png

18. Right-click on the My Computer icon then click on Properties as shown in Figure 12.

19. In the Full computer name section is the computer and domain name. In this example the computer name is OIT001 and the domain is opennet. You do not need to write down the whole name. OIT001 is the name you are looking for in this case.

  • figure12.png

20. Now you can use this computer name and the share name and combine as a network address. The address you should let other users know is \\OIT001\Test in this example. When others want to access your files, they should type this address into the Run window of the Start menu. If you had added the dollar sign “$” in the end of share name to make it hidden then the sharing address should be \\OIT001\Test$.

figure13.png


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