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

GokAy, I thought this may have been the issue too, or part of it, but after trying so many things which still didn't work, I started to think of a corrupted file somewhere. After a while of reading reams of posts and tutorials, I became so confused with it all, I just had to call in help. That's where we are now and thanks to you and Pyprohly I see the possability of it becoming resolved. Then I can get back to my work

ozstar said:

I have left the folders as shown in your script until you tell me I can take put the folders back into the root of the drives as they were.

If that's how you'd like your folders arranged, please do so now as the first step in the following procedure:

1. Structure the folders you want to share to wherever you like and however you wish on your machine, no matter if it's on the root of a drive or placed down in the deepest of directories, move what you want to your liking now. You can forget that tech guy's folder arrangement suggestions too.
2. As to tidy everything up, I recommend you delete all of your shares and start from scratch. You can open an Elevated Command Prompt and use the command 'net share' to list all shares on the machine. To delete a share use the Command Prompt you may run the commmand,
   
   Code:

   net share "ShareName" /d

3. Now that the tidying is done, tell us here what paths are to be shared, and what the path's share name is to be, as a csv-like list,

E.g.

Code:

ShareName, Path
"Webmain Internet", "F:\Webmain Internet"
"Webmain AUDIO", "J:\"
"Webmain Graphics 1, "L:\"
"Webmain Graphics 2", "L:\Webmain Graphics"
"Webmain Programs", "I:\Webmain Progs"
...
e.t.c.

Make sure you type the paths correctly.

After completing the above, I'll write two batch scripts for you: one that creates all the shares for you, and the other one will set some NTFS permissions straight.

GokAy said:

I can think of permissions was not propagated properly, so you couldn't access the sub folders.

Does this script give an idea of such fine detail?

It does not reveal the permissions of subfolders, not that that's relevant right now anyway.

I don't have access to a computer at the moment, so forgive me if I am wrong :)

It seems you have given Everyone full control on Admin shares (the ones that have $ at their end).
These should only have an admin account with access, and hidden when browsed to that PC.

Try adding a $ at the end of drive letter in the address bar of explorer. So from another PC, open the address \\webmain-IP-address\c$
It should ask for a username/password (credentials), enter the admin account of webmain if different. If all your users are same across PCs then perhaps you won't be asked.

This can still fail for any reason I have not thought of so don't get discouraged if it fails.

Also browse to shares of webmain with another PC and then on webmain, right click Computer and manage. Expand shares and then sessions. What user is shown to be connected? If it doesn't show go into one of the shared folders.

ozstar said:

Hi.. From Comp Management - Webmain..
[...]

Just to confirm, no shares currently exist on the machine Webmain now, correct? I'm going to use that list you've provided to write a script that will create all the shares in one go. Make sure the none of the shares exist.

Also, would you prefer "WebMain" or "Webmain" for share names? There's a bit of an inconsistency.

Delete your shares. All of them.

Except for the "Users" share (this share comes default with the install). And you can ignore the shares that have a trailing "$" symbol too (if you delete them they'll just recreate themselves after a boot).


Edit:

ozstar said:

Do I ned to do this from the exts n: and M: which have been no problem ?

Yes, delete the shares associated with N and M drives too. I would like to fix everything in one go.

You may choose delete the shares from the Command Prompt, or you may simply untick the 'Share this folder' checkbox on the shared folder's share properties tab.

Okay unshared everything showing in Explorer tree under Computer except Local Disk C:

Alight, here's the final list of shares to be created. Please make sure this list is correct.

Code:

"ShareName", "Path", "Description"
"F",                  "F:\", "" 
"From Photos-265 Bubs XP", "N:\From Photos-265 Bubs XP", "" 
"N Photos 2TB Ext",   "N:\", "Backup Photos from Bub and also all recent photos - NOT ARCHIVE"
"Public",             "C:\Users\David\Dropbox\Public", "Public Sahing"
"WebMain C",          "C:\", ""
"WebMain Photos ext", "N:\", "Photos"
"WebMain-Audio",      "J:\", ""
"WebMain-Graphics",   "L:\", ""
"WebMain-Photos",     "M:\", "All Photos"
"WebMain-Progs",      "I:\", ""
"WebMain-USBEXT",     "M:\", "Seagate 2TB Ext"
"WebMain-Video",      "K:\", "" 
"WebMain-Word",       "H:\", ""

If you wish to make multiple changes, please edit this list and post back here the corrected version.

(btw, I believe you've made a spelling mistake in the description for the Public share: "Public Sahing". Should it be "Public Sharing" instead?)


Also, while you're at it, would you be able to copy-paste here the output of the command,

Code:

net share

Just so you and I can double check that no shares have been missed.