Help to create a regular LAN to share drives/folders - not Home

Okay here is the new file of drives.

I am not sure if the entry WebMain C: is correct here, however I do need to access it and all the folders in it, the same as all the other drives. So please change it to reflect that, or tell me how to do it.

Hopefully this is what you need.

Many thanks.

"ShareName", "Path", "Description"
"Public", "C:\Users\David\Dropbox\Public", "Public Sharing"
"WebMain C", "C:\", "CDrive"
"WebMain-Internet" "F:\", "Internet"
"WebMain-Word", "H:\", "Documents"
"WebMain-Progs", "I:\", "Programs"
"WebMain-Audio", "J:\", "Audio"
"WebMain-Video", "K:\", "Video"
"WebMain-Graphics", "L:\", "Graphics"
"WebMain-BACKUP_EXT1","M:\", "Backup"
"WebMain-PHOTOS_EXT2","N:\", "Photos"

I really have no answer for why it has been working earlier, maybe the permissions was somehow changed - perhaps by a security software. Or perhaps (this is more likely if you ask me) Password Protected sharing was turned off, hence changed the sessions to Guest instead of your Admin account which has Full Control NTFS permissions already.

Giving Everyone Full Control is not the best practise, but solves problems. In my own systems, if I face any issues, usually give Everyone Full to diagnose and later adjust the permissions to the correct account. Since you are comfortable with it I won't bother with that last step.

Can you then please:
- Open Explorer - Computer - right click C - properties - security
- Edit - Add - write Everyone -Ok - and click Full Control
- Apply - OK

Try accessing the Webmain from another PC now. Lets see where this will go :)

OKay maybe there is some reason here..

I just added 'everyone' as requested but after OK I had many panels referring to AdwCleaner and Access Denied,Quarantine etc

This does not show up in 'Uninstall Progarms', however I see the folder on C:\AdwCleaner.
Inside the folder is only a Quarantine folder and 2 text files with data of what has been deleted.

I suspect it has been downloaded with something else and installed itself even though I can't find it on my Start Menu even.

Noticed an autoexec.bat file on C:\ and inside was blank except for just this... REM Dummy file for NTVDM

ALso C:\Boot

Anyway it is showing me all the files I cannot get access to on C:\ correctly I guess.

Images are one AdwCleaner Panel after OK and when the panels stopped the Share value of everyone.

Yes after this I can access C: folders and files now from Lenovo2.

I will reboot Webmain now to see if anything I deleted was a problem.

Well, yes C is a special case though - since OS is installed there. Sorry to have used that one as example, that's entirely my bad.

Please don't mess with C :)

Instead give Everyone Full Control on the other drives D - E - etc
Keep C for last and lets only give permissions to the necessary folders.

The reboot went fine and I am sharing everyone with F: Internet now.

It has a panel 'Windows Security'.. 'Setting security information on:' and a zillion files racing by going through all the files on the drive..

So we will see how that goes.

Then I will do all the rest of the drives.

BTW I eventually found the AdwCleaner and uninstalled it.

Looks like there is light at the end of the tunnell.

Thanks so much

AdwCleaner is a well known and often used malware cleaner - AdwCleaner Download

Bring back good news! :)

Yes I see what the program is now. Just couldn't recall getting it myself and that alwasy worries me.

I use Malwarebytes and Avast so I am not sure how it got on this box altho' vaguely I recall a potential virus threat and maybe got it down from Bleeping. Anyway don't need it now so uninstalled it.

I have now shared all drives via Security and Share tabs and at last everything can be accessed now from the 2 other boxes I have on.

It is still mystery how this all happened but your help did not only fix it but gave me a better understanding of Win 7 Networking. I hope the change in 8.1 and 10 isn't too different :-(

Can't thank you two guys enough.. Angels fo' sho' !

Now, I would grab that IT person you brought in and get 200 $ from him (yeah 100 more than what you paid ). What he missed is so basic he should get another job. ><

Regarding Win8 and 10, these are the same since XP at least. Just the Guest account have changed a bit (now part of Everyone).

For future reference, when you want to access a share you need 2 types of permissions. Sharing and NTFS. These work together so the most restrictive one takes precedence. Knowledge of how these work allow for very fine control of what any user can access, what he can do etc.

All in all, I am glad it is fixed for you. :)

Well...

ozstar said:

The reboot went fine and I am sharing everyone with F: Internet now.

It has a panel 'Windows Security'.. 'Setting security information on:' and a zillion files racing by going through all the files on the drive..

So we will see how that goes.

Then I will do all the rest of the drives.

I've attached below the script would have done this entire process for you, for all drives, with a single click.

ozstar said:

I just added 'everyone' as requested [...]

I advise against setting the Everyone group full access anywhere, especially on the root of an operating system. Along with the security issues it may happen to expose, in a theoretical sense, setting Everyone will the fullest access will give you less control over who gets what permissions...

As you might have guessed, permissions assigned to the Everyone group will apply to everyone and everything, always. This means that if you wanted, for instance, local users to have full read/write to something, and then have remote users read-only, you could not easily do so. Not without granting denies, which is best practise to avoid. With the permissions of the Everyone group in play, local users will, mostly, be subject to the same permissions as remote users.

I guess it doesn't really matter too much in this scenario though, given that you, Ozstar, being the only one on your network. But abusing the Everyone group, like assigning it full access to the very top of a directory structure is far from professional. You should have at least used the 'Authenticated Users' group and prevent any guest account from, say, deleting every folder in your C drive (which by setting Everyone Full access you effectively are doing).

Ozstar, if you want wish to set up permissions properly for your HomeGroup, I've included the scripts below for you to do so, as promised. I've just added a few lines to the script that will remove the Everyone group from your drives and instead replace it with a safer option: the group 'HomeUsers', a group designed especially for HomeGroups.

If for whatever reason (which I assure there are zero) you do not want to remove the Everyone group from your drives, you may delete the last For loop in the "set_ntfs_permissions.bat" file; but just so you know, in doing this, you'll not be able to grant permissions to local and remote users separately, and editing permissions later in the long run, if you ever need to, will likely give you a headache.

If you plan to use the scripts attached, Ozstar, please make sure the list of shares you've submitted do not exist when you run the "create_shares.bat".

The batch files may be run in any order.

After running the scripts, you may control exactly what permissions remote users have at any time by simply viewing the security tab of a share and editing the permissions that the HomeUsers group has. This group will represent all the remote users in your HomeGroup.

GokAy said:

Now, I would grab that IT person you brought in and get 200 $ from him (yeah 100 more than what you paid ). What he missed is so basic he should get another job.

Agreed. They charge ridiculous amounts and the help they provide is not more informative, or as varied, or just plain better than what a forum can.

GokAy said:

Regarding Win8 and 10, these are the same since XP at least. Just the Guest account have changed a bit (now part of Everyone).

Also it's worth adding, since Windows 8, Admin Shares are disabled and inaccessible by default, raising a very misleading error when attempting to accessing one.

Pyprohyl, you are absolutely correct in everything you said about Everyone group, and Guest access.

I would rather have a password protected share going with the appropriate account/s given just about enough rights but unless authenticated access is somehow enabled, removing everyone will stop the shares once again because as it is the session is a guest one. And no matter what other permissions you apply won't change this.

If I was there, I would try:
- Enable password protected sharing (Advanced sharing options - Network and Sharing Center)
- Create a password for my account
- Connect with the account from other PCs and make it remember the credentials
- No tempering with the NTFS permissions should be needed this way
- Sharing permissions can be Everyone though, as it doesn't grant Full Control by itself anyway