Win7 Ultimate as File Server: few issues

[zapp22]

I'm redoing my whole network here and liberating one machine which I'll sell on c'list or ebay. The system I've been using as daily driver is an older P4 3.4ghz machine that gives excellent service but for my personal use I've moved to a netbook/notebook.
I want the old desktop, which has Ultimate x64 and as much disk as need be, to serve the whole network as file store/retrieve. I have a few questions:
- Power-saving. Will the system awake from sleep via a request from the LAN? is there anything I need to do to enable this or should it "just work"?
- Security: the way I imagine this will work is simply that that machine owns its own homegroup, and the others must join it by inputting the correct password. Otherwise, the network is a couple of dd-wrt routers bridged to form one common AP, with some clients cabled and others not. access to the routers is protected. What other security measures should I take?
- I should have first mentioned that the clients here are the usual mix: some xp home, [one actually], xpp, win7 home premium, and once in awhile a visiting Vista. a few cellphones/handsets thrown in for good measure
- I'm fuzzy as to how printing might work. I know how ignorant this sounds, but if I pop open a file that physically resides on the 'server's volume, edit it, and print, is the spooler handling the job the remote one and if so must all clients then have the particular printer driver loaded? is there a way to force the server to handle the print job if this is not the norm?
I would rather not RAS in to that machine as it just opens another security issue that I'd have to manage....

thanks for your advice

z

 

[Darryl Licht]

I want the old desktop, which has Ultimate x64 and as much disk as need be, to serve the whole network as file store/retrieve. I have a few questions:
- Power-saving. Will the system awake from sleep via a request from the LAN? is there anything I need to do to enable this or should it "just work"?

Wake On LAN support usually must be enabled via BIOS

- Security: the way I imagine this will work is simply that that machine owns its own homegroup, and the others must join it by inputting the correct password. Otherwise, the network is a couple of dd-wrt routers bridged to form one common AP, with some clients cabled and others not. access to the routers is protected. What other security measures should I take?

Since you state further down that your network is a mix of XP, Vista, and 7... homegroups are out!

- I should have first mentioned that the clients here are the usual mix: some xp home, [one actually], xpp, win7 home premium, and once in awhile a visiting Vista. a few cellphones/handsets thrown in for good measure
- I'm fuzzy as to how printing might work. I know how ignorant this sounds, but if I pop open a file that physically resides on the 'server's volume, edit it, and print, is the spooler handling the job the remote one and if so must all clients then have the particular printer driver loaded? is there a way to force the server to handle the print job if this is not the norm?
I would rather not RAS in to that machine as it just opens another security issue that I'd have to manage....

What PC is the printer attached to and shared by? You can specify where it spools! Yes you need drivers on all PC's!

Hope this helps a little...

 

[zapp22]

Right about the bios switch. I'll try it and see if it works. So, you're implying that any sort of demand placed across the LAN to that system will wake it, not A particular command?

The printer is wireless, standalone.

why are 7 Homegroups out?
I currently have it setup so that all systems/resources on the net are visible on the net to all clients. the hitch is that I wouldn't want just anyone having the main administrator account/username and password to the serving Win7 machine.
so it would seem that I need to create a different User Account on the 'server' machine, move the more public files [the movie stash, personal pictures etc to share, links, that sort of thing] into that user account, then hand out that set of credentials to the other users.
Right?

what about the iphones and macbook [one of those] and android devices?

I want the old desktop, which has Ultimate x64 and as much disk as need be, to serve the whole network as file store/retrieve. I have a few questions:
- Power-saving. Will the system awake from sleep via a request from the LAN? is there anything I need to do to enable this or should it "just work"?

Wake On LAN support usually must be enabled via BIOS

- Security: the way I imagine this will work is simply that that machine owns its own homegroup, and the others must join it by inputting the correct password. Otherwise, the network is a couple of dd-wrt routers bridged to form one common AP, with some clients cabled and others not. access to the routers is protected. What other security measures should I take?

Since you state further down that your network is a mix of XP, Vista, and 7... homegroups are out!

- I should have first mentioned that the clients here are the usual mix: some xp home, [one actually], xpp, win7 home premium, and once in awhile a visiting Vista. a few cellphones/handsets thrown in for good measure
- I'm fuzzy as to how printing might work. I know how ignorant this sounds, but if I pop open a file that physically resides on the 'server's volume, edit it, and print, is the spooler handling the job the remote one and if so must all clients then have the particular printer driver loaded? is there a way to force the server to handle the print job if this is not the norm?
I would rather not RAS in to that machine as it just opens another security issue that I'd have to manage....

What PC is the printer attached to and shared by? You can specify where it spools! Yes you need drivers on all PC's!

Hope this helps a little...

 

[Darryl Licht]

Right about the bios switch. I'll try it and see if it works. So, you're implying that any sort of demand placed across the LAN to that system will wake it, not A particular command?

I dont know where you got that idea from my short answer???

It all depends on how, and if, WOL is implemented by your HW. You will have to test to see... Or just leave the "server" running 24/7! I highly doubt that any device other than a PC is going to be able to wake it, if WOL works at all!
Here: Wake-on-LAN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The printer is wireless, standalone.

Is the printer setup as a network device, or shared/hosted by a PC?

why are 7 Homegroups out?

You cannot use Homegroup with any OS other than Win7! You will have to move to a workgroup!

I currently have it setup so that all systems/resources on the net are visible on the net to all clients. the hitch is that I wouldn't want just anyone having the main administrator account/username and password to the serving Win7 machine.
so it would seem that I need to create a different User Account on the 'server' machine, move the more public files [the movie stash, personal pictures etc to share, links, that sort of thing] into that user account, then hand out that set of credentials to the other users.
Right?

This is a home network right? Not sure of what security issues you are worried about on a private home network. For workgroups, you will have to either add each user from all other PC's to the users on the "server", or create a new user on each PC, then set their access priviledges.

What about the iphones and macbook [one of those] and android devices?

What about them??? :sarc: Will they be able to print? You will have to check the printer manufacturer for that! Many newer model printers can!

 

[zapp22]

i see your point. the workgroup pre-existed the homegroup, so I have the xp machines with access to the "file server". my point about the user account was with regard to making those connections a tad more secure.

as said, the printer stands on its own. just a driver issue
easily done

its a whole other topic but related to this one: I am still so confused about the idea of multiple folder identifications for essentially the same folder in Windows 7.
to give an example: with great labor I consult my cheatsheet for how to get windows 7 search to give me good data, search for videos ["Kind" is typically insufficient but I digress], and sooner or later it finds a lot of video files. if I then go to delete a wad of those, I'll get errors and miscues because it is pulling up multiple locations for the same file, so it deletes from "one" of them then the file is not available to the other.

where can I get a good short, clear explanation of User "Public" and its relationship to the other user accounts under Win7?

 

[Darryl Licht]

When Public folder sharing is on... everyone can see it! But you can set read only/change permissions for specific users.

A great article on the topic: Sharing files with the Public folder

Hope this is helpful!