vonschlieffen

I want to password-protect the shared folders on my network. Running XP Home, I know that the "normal" way (using permissions) is not avaliable the way it is in XP Professional. Searching the internet for a solution, I have come across only one, which takes advantage of the fact that XP Home authenticates all users attempting to gain access to shared resources as "guest." Essentially, it suggests that the Guest account be enabled, and then protected with a secure password. I tried that, and it does indeed come up with a box asking for a password, and will refuse access if the correct one is not entered when trying to open a shared folder from another pc.

This would all be great except that every "secure XP" guide that I have ever read always said that the Guest account should be disabled. As long as it is a good password (long, alphanumeric, mixed case, etc.) is it much of a security risk?

I plan to upgrade my notebook to XP Pro when I head off to college next year since I can get a copy at a steep discount, but I wanted something for right now.

ming

I'm also interested in this topic. If anyone knows how to 'password protect' a folder share, please let me know.
I don't want to know about using the permission to view thing in XP for users. Would prefer it to ask for a password (as if one was logging on to a network pc).

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j79zlr

AFAIK there is no way to do it. XP Home basically has no networking features, I have no idea why M$ decided that this was a good idea.

The guest account really isn't a security concern since it has very limited permissions and anyone logged in as guest probably couldn't do any damage.

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cpugeniusmv

if you boot into safe mode with XP Home, you will have access to the Security tab.

j79zlr

yes you will, but it does not matter, as XP home uses simple file sharing and all network connections are made with the 'Guest' account, not as the logged in user.

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LeeJend

You missed one under secure passwords.

A password should be alphanumeric WITH punctuation!

I've found "brute forcers" on the web that can blow away straight alphanumeric passwords in 10-20 minutes.

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JJB6486

Windows XP doesn't include the ability to password protect directories like Windows 9x did. XP Home only has the simple file sharing network ability, and XP Pro has Windows 2000 style username/password combination based permissions. A Windows 9x style password only restriction is not avalible in XP.

-JJB

Khayman

but if you look here, you can get past simply file sharing for XP Home
http://www.osnn.net/forum/showthread.php?t=605

There are many 3rd party products to password protect folders, don't use them so i don't know how good they are

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j79zlr

yes you can get the security tab, but as I posted earlier, it does not matter as all network connections made with XP Home use the guest account. This works fine on a machine but not across a network.

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leencaci

I found this. It may work for you. I have not used it but in theory it sounds cool.
http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/...HDH120LAN.html

leencaci

j79zlr

1) Thats $300
2) How does this solve that problem?

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