HOMEGROUP - Simple Access Question

[rcanino]

well, "simple" for someone else I guess - - I can't nail down an answer. I've read the Help sections a bunch of times but I still am not sure if the 3rd computer has access to my homegroup.

The situation is - there are 3 computers all sharing an internet connection. 2 are wired, 1 is wireless. I set up a Homegroup on the 2 wired computers. No problem.

My question is, how do I prevent the 3rd computer from seeing (accessing in any way) the files on the other 2?

Because they all share an internet connection, does that mean the folders are accessible to all 3?

It's a roommate situation where I can't simply check if that computer is "seeing" the other 2. Usually she's got her computer (it's running Win7) with her anyway.

[edit: All 3 computers are running Win7]

Thanks you guys!

 

[rcanino]

Is it as simple as turning off Public Folders?

 

[seavixen32]

You might find this tutorial and the related ones useful - you'll find the links to the related tutorials at the end of this one.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/24232-sharing-permissions.html

 

[Barman58]

basic option would be to both leave the homegroup then one of you re-create the homegroup with a new password, only give this password to the other who you wish to have access but not to the third person, the second person should then join the new homegroup.

otherwise ...

Assuming you are sharing via the libraries, which is the default, go to each of the libraries in turn

1. Right click on the library
2. Select share with...
3. select nobody and ok out of dialogues
   
   Repeat 1 & 2 above
   
4. Select specific person
5. Add the person you wish to share with and if you wish to give read or read/write access
6. Check that homegroup is not included
7. Ok out of dialogues

Repeat for each of the libraries and any other folders you may have added manually

 

[rcanino]

Thanks for the replies you guys -

So it sounds like the 3rd computer is automatically made part of the Homegroup because it shares the internet connection - is that right?

Don't they still need the password to see the folders? I thought you needed the password to join a Homegroup. That was the process on the 2 computers I networked.

The 3rd one I don't have access to, but I assume that machine can't see the Homegroup because it never got the password.

 

[Barman58]

The access to any homegroup is governed at the basic level by being a member of the Homegroup, to join a homegroup you need the password. If you are not a member you cannot see or access the homegroup content.

The access is further controlled by the permissions set by the person sharing the information with the homegroup. You can set folders, or individual files, accessibility to Read/Write or None on a homegroup wide or individual member basis.

The advantage of the homegroup over the traditional windows networking in a home environment is that the single password gives access to all shared content in a homegroup

In order to access the shared internet you must be on the same IP subnet controlled by the router a side effect of this is that it will provide basic shared access to the "public" folders on any system in the Network, without a password requirement. You can choose to switch off the public folders on your machine or you can choose not to place any files in the public folders. This second method gives the advantage that if at any time you need to share a file with the person not in the Homegroup you simply need to copy a file into a public folder

 

[rcanino]

Ah, thank you for that - thank you very much. I think I've got it.

There are 2 things I'd like to review - will you please correct me if I'm mistaken?

1.) There are basically 2 levels of access in a Homegroup - the Public Folders and the non-Public folders (for lack of a better term). I know it can get more complicated than that by setting individual permissions, etc. But a basic Homegroup has those 2 levels.

2.) No one can access (or even see) an existing Homegroup - either "level" - unless they've joined it. To join a Homegroup you need the password.

Thank you again for your help - it is much appreciated!

 

[seavixen32]

You are correct in your assumptions and you are very welcome.

 

[Barman58]

Although the public folders are included in the default Libraries and thus included in the default homegroup sharing scheme, and thus constrained by the need to be a member of a Homegroup to access that is not the end of it.

The default is for the "public folders" to be shared with everyone, at a Workgroup Level, without a password requirement for access. You would need to either switch off this sharing in the Network & Sharing Centre or as I suggested above leave the facility active, just don't actually put anything in the public folders, this would allow a guest that you allow access to the network to share files on the Public level without opening your security more that the minimum.

Only you can decide which way you proceed here, the public folders can be useful in academic scenarios for collaboration on coursework amongst students

 

[rcanino]

Thanks again - I think I understand everything pretty well now - but I've run into a new problem: the computer where I created the Homegroup won't sleep anymore.

The displays both dim - go black and into a standby mode - but the fans keep spinning.

I ran the powercfg query and the report, found the culprit I guess - the report says:

"The device or driver has made a request to prevent the system from automatically entering sleep
DRIVER NAME \FileSystem\srvnet

I see google turns up quite a few who've run into srvnet blocking the sleep function. I've run through a number of the solutions - drivers updated, graphics card especially, power options, etc. None of them I found seemed to occur right after setting up a Homegroup - I'm sure my problem has to do with that.

I understand I can override it with powercfg -requestsoverride driver \FileSystem\srvnet system but I assume that would disrupt the Homegroup..

The only thing powercfg -devicequery wake_armed returns is my keyboard and my mouse.

Thanks for any thoughts...!

-edit: actually I don't think the override will do any good - I just tried powercfg -requests and it returned nothing preventing the computer from entering a low-power state.

-edit #2 - ran another report from powercfg, this time srvnet didn't show up as a problem. I tried Sleep right away, no luck. Still the same, displays go dark, everything else keeps running.

 

[rcanino]

maybe I should start a new thread - just not sure what forum I should try.

...seems like a complicated subject - lot of variables in the power configurations and network configurations...