Networking/File Sharing With Windows XP Pro

[backslashmatt]

I have Windows XP Pro SP2 installed on both my desktop and laptop. I share the internet connection with my roommates through a Linksys 54meg WLAN router (which I think sucks terribly). I'm looking to network my 2 PC's together as seemlessly as possible. I have the usernames/passwords/workgroups setup the same. I know I can just set the file sharing to 'share this drive' and what not, but I'd really like to keep my roommate's prying eyes out of my disk space. If anyone can help me in the right direction, I'd be most appreciative!

 

[ktwebb]

Setup the share with a $ symbol. That will make it a hidden/administrative share. Make sure your NOT running simple file sharing and use the Security tab of the folder to setup your NTFS permissions.

 

[backslashmatt]

The share is already setup with a $ and I'm not using 'simple' file-sharing. However, when I go to set permission access, I can only view the users on that particular PC. I cannot add users from another (i.e. my laptop). Anything else I can do?

 

[Phaedrus]

well try using a different login password for each computer and add an account for the other computer on each computer at comp mngmnt/users groups. Then you have the other computer's account on the local computer...

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Your two PCs....say you log onto PC A with username "backslash"with a password of "matt"...and you want to access stuff on PC B...add that same exact user/pass to the local user group of PC B. Remove simple file sharing from PC B...set it up the old NT4/2K way of sharing...share to just admin/system/backslash. Now make sure your Administrator account on both PCs has a password unique to you...and different from your roommate. Also make sure roommate does not know the passwords.

 

[ktwebb]

However, when I go to set permission access, I can only view the users on that particular PC.

Um yeah? If the user on the remote PC is jon with a password of doe then setup Jon with a password of doe on the local machine. Set permissions accordingly. Welcome to workgroup networking with user level security.

 

[rodsfree]

Your two PCs....say you log onto PC A with username "backslash"with a password of "matt"...and you want to access stuff on PC B...add that same exact user/pass to the local user group of PC B. Remove simple file sharing from PC B...set it up the old NT4/2K way of sharing...share to just admin/system/backslash. Now make sure your Administrator account on both PCs has a password unique to you...and different from your roommate. Also make sure roommate does not know the passwords.

'Cat is absolutely right!!
But remember your roommates can't be members of the administrators group. If they are then they can see everything that you can see.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

'Cat is absolutely right!!
But remember your roommates can't be members of the administrators group. If they are then they can see everything that you can see.

]

My point was not to even allow his roommate to have an account on his two PCs. Then he will not see his two PCs shares at all, if setup correctly. This is assuming that his roommate has a different local administrator password than slash does...which is why I mentioned to make sure he sets an administrator password.

I am under the assumtion here that slash has 2x PCs..and his roommate as 1x PC...so behind this router, a total of 3x PCs or more.

 

[backslashmatt]

Thanks for the input guys, and yeah, I'm a newb to networking. Sorry if I get confused.

I unfortunately went a lil crazy in "Control Panel > User Admin > Local Security Policy". Is there anyway to set these back to default without reloading XP? Also, when you setup XP and choose your administrative password, I'm assuming that's for the "Administrator" account and not my (let's say) Matt account, correct? So if that's the case, all I have to do is setup Admin/Matt to be the only user allowed to view the drives?