"Share with -> Specific people..." shares all libraries

[DrLaban]

Hi all!

I'm on an all Windows 7 network except for a Win XP machine which is my girlfriend's. I chose to share one folder today, by using "Share with -> Specific people -> [Her name]" and all of a sudden she can access *all* my libraries apart from the one folder i chose to share with her.

How come she can access everything by me only choosing to share one folder? I checked the share status of folders within libraries and she is not listed in there.

Any help appreciated.

 

[chev65]

Homegroups isn't made to work with non Win 7 machines so that could be a glitch because of using the incorrect network sharing system, or it may be that way by design so you don't need to change the network location just to share with a different Op system when using Homegroups.

It is interesting that her name would show up on the list of specific people, it may be a built in feature to allow for file sharing when running a Homegroup with non Win 7 machines for temporary file access.

It's good to know that is possible by just adding the person from the list of specific people, although it seems like you should be able to share the file you choose instead of the entire Homegroup library's.

 

[brady]

you chose to share libraries instead of "sharing" a folder. Sharing a single folder is done by right clicking the folder you wish to share, then selecting "sharing and security".

 

[DrLaban]

Hmm, you both have valid points as I did use the Sharing option of a folder through a Library. It's weird how it affects all the Libraries though, but that's seemingly how things are.

Now, the intention was to share a single folder with her and I ended up sharing my entire library-structure. I'd like to "revert" the action of the share by going into the same library, backstepping my actions. When I do this, however, I'm not able to undo the whole thing. I removed her from the list of specific people to share with and I also double checked with a couple of libraries that she is not on the list of people granted access to these shares. I also confirmed that the source folders which are included in the libraries are not shared either.

Still, she's now still free to see the shares and change their contents. Could it be that she somehow became a part of the Homegroup (while not supporting the entire feature in XP, I still have the mindset of this new type of sharing as being just another way of handling regular shares) and gains the privileges of that?

Does anyone have a tip on what I should do to "un-share" all my libraries other than removing all the sharing of all libraries and recreating them?

 

[aem]

So basically, when you setup sharing and security permissions for individual folders within the libraries, your gf was able to access those folders regardless of what you set? This would imply sharing and security permision don't have any use within Libriaries.

 

[DrLaban]

Alright, as it is spelled out in aem's sig; I'll try and make sure I'm first of all using default settings before commenting about my set-up, there might have been something I've misssed and I'd like to do some more trialing with the input you all have given me here.
I'm pretty woo'd by the libraries and the ease of setting up sharing but I've been using Windows for so long that I know there are more ways than one to make mistakes.
If nothing else, I'll have a closer look by this weekend at the latest. Cheers!

 

[DrLaban]

So, I've been looking into this a bit further.

What I've done;

1. Removed the homegroup
2. Made sure all sharing was set to Nobody
3. Tried connecting from my gf's box to the now homegroup-disabled server through UNC-path

I can still access and browse more shares than the one I first intended to give access to but whether this is because XP might be caching the former shares or the fact that she has an account on the server (because it makes networking alot smoother). Can anyone fill me in on this and if there is any way to purge the cache of the shares, I'd appreciate it. It will make my testing much more refined.

 

[DrLaban]

Hmm, this is somewhat confusing. Looking at my desktop, laptop and my server box, I see the following shares available;

Laptop:
Users

Desktop:
Documents
Pictures
Users
PA2403 (A folder containing course material)

Server:
Users
LocalUser
Documents
Music
Pictures

Now, I've turned off the homegroup altogether. Could this be something of a residue from the homegroup shares? I'll look further into it but if anyone have comments about this, feel free to pitch in.

 

[brady]

You mentioned that she has an account on the "server". Can you give a little more detail on her account? Are you running in a domain environment? Or is that a local account on a separate box you call a server?

 

[DrLaban]

I'm running in a workgroup environment (same workgroup is set for each of the computers). Her account is created on my (so-called) server box with "Standard user" privileges.

 

[DrLaban]

Alright, I seem to finally have figured this one out. I've been creating, removing, joining and leaving Homegroups all the weekend and by the trial and error I've summarised my findings as;
When you share something within a Homegroup (be it the standard Music, Documents... in the Homegroup management tools or any library), the shares are also involving the Everyone group. Looking in Advanced Sharing I can see the Everyone group getting a permission setting of Full Control when sharing a library using right-click -> Share with -> HomeGroup (Read)/Homegroup (Read/Write). Setting the sharing to None, brings up a padlock on the folder within the library and noone has yet again access to the folder/library.

In effect, this means that my gf can access the shares in pretty much any manner she pleases, given that she can access my server box by ie. UNC-path. It's weird how this is getting set up by Windows when managing Libraries. Sure, it's easy as pie to create and remove sharing of a Library, but if Everyone gets the access Full Control, even when I set the Library to be shared as Homegroup (Read), why do I have the option to only set it to Read?