Wednesday, June 8, 2011
File Sharing
A Lot of Times Especially With More than One Computer on the Network you Want to Share Files But you Want to Do it in a Easier Way a Easier and More Efficient Way of Shareing Files Would be to Share them on the Network
What You Need
Computer running the Windows operating system
One or more files needing to be shared
A functioning local network or wireless network
Steps
Ensure Windows XP Simple File Sharing is enabled.
Open Windows Explorer (or My Computer)
Navigate to the file, folder or drive folder to be shared, and click once on its icon to select it.
From either the File menu or the right-click menu, choose the "Sharing and Security..." option. A new Properties window appears. If this option did not appear on the menu, ensure that a valid file or folder was selected in the previous step
Click the Network tab in the Properties window. If no Network tab appears in the window, but a Sharing tab appears instead, close this window and ensure the Simple File Sharing option was enabled in the earlier step before proceeding.
Click the Share This Folder option in the Properties window to enable sharing of this resource. This allows all other computers on the local network to access file(s) but not modify them. To grant others permission to modify these files, click the "Allow Network Users to Change My Files" checkbox to enable this option.
Alternatively, if the Network tab is not enabled, make required settings in the Sharing tab to configure the equivalent sharing. Choose "Share this folder" to enable sharing.
Click Apply or OK to save these settings.
Its a Little Bit Different For Vista
The workgroup name in Windows Vista
To configure the workgroup name for a computer running Windows Vista:
In the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings section of the System window, click Change settings.
On the Computer Name tab of the System Properties dialog box, click Change.
In the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box, type the name of the workgroup being used by the other computers on your network in Workgroup, and then click OK. Figure 3 shows an example.
When you are prompted with a welcome message box, click OK. When prompted with a message box to restart your computer, click OK.
Click Close. When prompted to restart the computer, click Restart Now.
Setting the Network Location Type
The network location type in Windows Vista is a setting that allows Windows Vista to automatically configure security and other settings based on the type of network to which the computer is connected. The Windows Vista network location types are the following:
Domain The computer is connected to a network that contains an Active Directory domain controller for the domain to which the computer is joined. An example a domain network type is an organization intranet.
Public The computer is connected to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. Examples of public network types are public Internet access networks such as those found in airports, libraries, and coffee shops.
Private The computer is connected to a network that has some level of protection from the Internet and contains known or trusted computers. Examples of private network types are home networks or small office networks that are located behind an Internet gateway device that provides firewalling against incoming traffic from the Internet.
For small office or home office networks, you want to make sure that the network location type is set to private.
To view the current network location type, do the following, click Start, right-click Network, and then click Properties.
The Network and Sharing Center window displays the network location type in parentheses after the network name.
Enabling File and Printer Sharing Options
By changing your network location type to private, network discovery is automatically enabled in the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window. The following additional file and printer sharing options must be manually enabled:
File sharing
Public folder sharing
Printer sharing
Password protected sharing
When all of these sharing and discovery options are enabled, your computer can:
Locate other computers and devices on your home network and have other computers locate your computer
Share its folders
Share its Public folder
Share its printers
Require user names and passwords for other computers that connect to the shared folders and printers of this computer
To enable file sharing, do the following:
In the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window, click the down arrow next to File sharing.
Within the File sharing settings, click Turn on file sharing, and then click Apply.
To enable public folder sharing, do the following:
In the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window, click the down arrow next to Public folder sharing.
Within the Public folder sharing settings, click one of the following:
If you want to share the public folder so that other computers on the network can access the Public share to open files, but not create or change files, click Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open files. This is the default setting.
If you want to share the public folder so that other computers on the network can access the Public share to open files and also create or change files, click Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open, change, and create files.
Click Apply.
To enable printer sharing and share all of your connected printers, do the following:
In the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window, click the down arrow next to Printer sharing.
Within the Printer sharing settings, click Turn on printer sharing, and then click Apply.
To enable password protected sharing, do the following:
In the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window, click the down arrow next to Password protected sharing.
Within the Password protected sharing settings, click Turn on password protected sharing, and then click Apply.
Password Protected Sharing
With password protected sharing enabled, other computers on your network will not be able to access your shared folders, including the Public folder, without a user name or password that corresponds to a user account on the computer with the shared folder. When a user on another computer tries to connect to the shared folder, they will send the user name and password of the account that they used to log on to their own computer. For example, if they logged on to their computer with the “Bob” account and a password, then the “Bob” name with its password is sent when connecting to a shared folder on another computer.
If there is a “Bob” account with its password on the computer that is sharing the folder, the shared folder connection will be successful (provided the "Bob" account is specified as one of the accounts that can access the share). However, if there is no “Bob” account on the computer that is sharing the folder, the shared folder connection will fail and the user on the other computer will be prompted with a dialog box to type in a user name and password. At this point, the user on the computer attempting to connect can type the name and password of an account on the computer sharing the folder that is specified as one of the accounts that can access the share.
To prevent shared folder connection failures, you can do one of the following:
Add the same accounts and passwords to all of the computers on your network
For example, if you have three computers in your home and four family members that use them, add all four accounts with their passwords corresponding to your family members to all three computers. When this is done, each family member can access the shared folders of the other computers, regardless of which computer they are using. This is the recommended method, which provides protection of shared folders and prevents shared folder connection failures.
Disable password protected sharing
When you disable password protected sharing, the computer sharing the folder does not require a user account or password. Anyone on your network can access the shared folders of the computer (provided the folder was shared for the Guest or Everyone account). This behavior is equivalent to simple file sharing in Windows XP.
To disable password protected sharing, do the following:
In the Sharing and Discovery section of the Network and Sharing Center window, click the down arrow next to Password protected sharing.
Within the Password protected sharing settings, click Turn off password protected sharing, and then click Apply.
Sharing a Folder or Printer in Windows Vista
To share a folder in Windows Vista, do the following:
Ensure that file sharing is enabled
Click Start, and then click Computer.
In the Computer window, navigate to the folder containing the folder that you want to share.
Right-click the folder that you want to share, and then click Share. The File Sharing window is displayed.
If you have password protected sharing enabled, use the File Sharing window to select which users can access the shared folder and their permission level. To allow all users, select Everyone in the list of users. By default, the permission level for a selected user is Reader. Users cannot change files or create new files in the share. To allow a user to change files or folders or create new files or folders, select Co-owner as the permission level. Figure 5 shows an example of configuring users and permission levels in the File Sharing window.
If you have password protected sharing disabled, use the File Sharing window to select the Guest or Everyone account. This is equivalent to simple file sharing in Windows XP.
When complete, click Share, and then click Done.
