Sharing files in win 7

Hi everyone,
I have a computer with windows 7 home premium. I intend to use it to share files with other 5 computers. The 5 computers have win 7, vista and winxp.

Considering that the other five computers are used by other people, how can I maintain control over the datas and provide security?

I've found the following solution on the internet:

1. I create a workgroup associating all the computers
2. I create five users on the computer "server" win 7 home premium
3. I create a folder with shared resources giving permissions to 5 users

First question:
Is this the correct solution? Can be improved?

Second question:
Can I control who access to resources in the computer "server" win7? Can I check if someone deletes some files?

Third question:
There's around some free software to manage all these elements in a better way?

Thank You!

lorenz77 said:

First question:
Is this the correct solution? Can be improved?

I would not say there is something like THE correct solution. Different options make sense for different scenarios. I think that at least for the proposed usage, the solution is reasonable at least when working in a LAN environment.

A point about security:
Step 2 says to create 5 users on the server. I would say to create one user for each person using it, not one for each computer on the network, if by any chance they don't match. 5 users means 5 different passwords which in turn will be given to 5 different people using the shared folders on the server from their computers. With that in mind, step 3 can be refined by creating as many shared folders as needed, and giving permissions on them to each user who needs it and not anything more. Having separate accounts make this possible.

lorenz77 said:

Second question:
Can I control who access to resources in the computer "server" win7? Can I check if someone deletes some files?

Access control is easy once you have separate user accounts for everyone as I pointed out before. On the shared folders you give read or write access to each individual user as they need to use the files there, effectively controlling to any detail level you want who can do what.
After everything is configured, be sure to test it afterwards. Try to connect to the shares using each user password and see how much you can really do, just to be sure. At least, test copying files back and forth, creating new ones, modifying existing ones and deleting them.

lorenz77 said:

Third question:
There's around some free software to manage all these elements in a better way?

For managing Windows shares, user accounts and file access permissions, Windows itself contains everything needed, and in fact the built-in tooling is very good at what it does. Extra software claiming to make it easier will only put in some bloat and fancy colors, but nothing you can't do otherwise.

For a more advanced scenario, however, the buiilt-in shares may not suffice (for example, sharing files over internet). Extra server tools may prove handy there if you need to use more serious protocols like HTTP/FTP/SFTP, but for the common case try the shares first.

Thank you Alejandro85!

An extra question: how can i record the action users do on the server? (For example: opened file, modified file, ext.)

Thank you!

No idea really with simple Windows shares. At the very least you can place strict access rights that would prevent improper operation, but I don't remember of any audit that tracks when those permissions where effectively used.

lorenz77 said:

Thank you Alejandro85!

An extra question: how can i record the action users do on the server? (For example: opened file, modified file, ext.)

Thank you!

The best you could probably do is use the Audit File Share

Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy > Advanced Audit Policy Config > System Audit Policy > Object Access > Audit File Share