Password protected file sharing... is it possible?

[Ruahrc]

At work we have logbooks to keep track of who uses what equipment and such. Right now it is in hard copy form, but we have talked about getting computerized versions which would be easier to manage and also to access (we have equipment spread out throughout our building, so the logbook is not always next to the equipment).

I was thinking of just using one of the computers and putting a shared Logbooks folder on it, but then in order for people to access and modify it via other computers I would have to enable full write access, not to mention the fact that anyone could browse to and view the logbook.

I was wondering if there was any way to password protect a shared folder such that whenever someone browses to that folder, they need to put in a username and password or something, that way the folder would be secure.

The other option is to set it up such that only a select group of computers (computers with the same workgroup as ours, for example) would have access to the shared folder. I have been playing around with this option and think it can be done but I have not quite figured it out yet.

Does anyone know how to do this or that can point me to a website which has info/tutorials? Thanks.

Questions about what I'm trying to set up? let me know

Ruahrc

[bailey]

xp-pro has the features you need

[Ruahrc]

forgot to add- the computers we have do run xp pro- so that's good that it has the features I guess. Now to the next question- how do I set it up?

Ruahrc

[bailey]

I was afraid you would ask that.

well I'll give it a shot

first its a network and there has to be a network adminstrator that has full control of the whole network,
then you have each computer set up user account so only that user can do things on it with proper passwords to login.

then as the adminstrator, you can set up user profiles for each user and give them the rights and permissions they need.
then you password protect the file (files) thit rights for the users.
then only the proper user will have the ability to read, change and write to that fils per the way you set it up as the adminstrator

it would be a lot like a client server network would work.
you might have to do some home work to decide how you want it to work

[Cyclone2]

I believe you need to be formatted in NTFS for sharing to be secure, but you can look up sharing files in Help in your XP Pro machine. Also right click the file you want to share and click on sharing to see available options such as permissions and allowing groups etc access to the file.......Search Help........its your friend

[Ruahrc]

I looked around in the sharing files for help, and from what I read it seemed like that it would only work for multiple users on the same computer. Will all the permission stuff work over the network though?

Ruahrc

[bailey]

yes
it will

[Starfury_2260]

first thing you have to do is turn off simple file sharing (in folder options). then you get all the options for file sharing that you need to do what you want.

[Ruahrc]

I have simple file sharing turned off- but I am confused as to which users/groups I need to add in order to give the other computers access. From what I've tried so far, only users or groups on the local computer can be set in the permissions window. I cannot browse for users or groups on other computers.

Furthermore, I am having trouble even accessing an all-access shared folder from the network. Every compter has the same workgroup- yet only 2 out of the 3 can see the other computers when browsing via My Network Places. None of those 2 can access the shared folder(s) on the computers they can see, either. It comes up with a window saying that I cannot access this computer and that I might not have proper permission to view this shared resource. But when I set the permissions on the shared folder I gave the "everyone" group read-only access to the folder, which means I should at least be able to browse it right?

Ruahrc