Windows 7 - Folder sharing question

Rikki

Rikki

Rikki

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Glasgow, Scotland
Hi folks,

Just a quicky about networking :)

My office (small company) has 4 or 5 notebooks all running Vista or Windows 7 in various guises of Home, Home Premium etc.

For the past while there has been a shared folder on one of the laptops where all the "stuff" is held and backed up from but now we have more staff security is an issue so we want to still have that generic "stuff" share for everyone to access holding letterheads, comp slips and open stuff but also have a folder for the business owners to view only.

Im not up on networking so thought it would be as easy as clicking on the folder thats to be shared with only specific people and select those people from a drop down - but that would be toooooo easy :)

I did a few google searches too and got myself into a right muddle talking about domains, group policies and what nots.

Can someone give me the For Dummies version on how to do this or if its indeed possible using Home based Windows systems.

Many thanks for reading this far :)

Rik
 
A domain would probably make things a little easier to manage file permissions and setting different levels of access for users but since you have a bunch of home operating systems that isn't really an option! To join a domain youll need Professional/Ultimate/Enterprise versions of 7 or equivalent versions of Vista.

You could look into 'Homegroups' that came along with Windows 7 to see if that can do what you need but I'm not sure if Vista works well/at all with Homegroups!

Anything else involves a lot of extra user creation/file permissions etc :/
 
With what you have at present you'd want a dedicated machine as a server with the shares on, running windows 7 and you'd need to create everyone a user account on it locally. This works but it's not the best way to do it by a mile.

To do it properly you should really get a machine installed with server 2008 or some sort and run a domain. If you have 5 or less machines you won't even need additional CALs with it, just the OS license.
BUT you will need to upgrade everything to "professional", and IMO to windows 7 Professional at that. (because vista is ****)
 
I think I fudged it!

Created users on the main laptop where all the stuff is held mirroring the names and passwords that the other laptops use to log into windows. In the background everything seems to have tied itself together and works :S

Dont know how or why but it works and I can have certain folders set to certain people.

All very confusing this network malarky! :D

R
 
That's basically what I suggested first, but without the dedicated PC. This works but if anyone changes their password it'll stop, plus it's not the most secure.
If you can milk the budget small business server solution would be best.
 
Skidilliplop said:
That would sync everything through his internet connection, which would be slow as hell. Dropbox is designed for syncing lots of remote devices and backup not replacing a local fileserver.
Click to expand...
As far as I know dropbox will sync locally on a LAN not over the internet. It would still upload every file put in the dropbox folder though.
 
moss said:
As far as I know dropbox will sync locally on a LAN not over the internet. It would still upload every file put in the dropbox folder though.
Click to expand...

From what I've read the client is notified by the web service what to sync, which implies it'll upload the web copy first then alert the other clients which will search locally within their subnet if configured to LAN sync.
So my understanding of it is it'll still have to upload the web copy first, thereafter it'll sync across LAN.
Though this is a slightly arbitrary point as the free version is limited to 2GB, if you want to sync more it'll cost a monthly subs. So all in all probably best to get windows file sharing working properly in the first place.
 
To be honest, im not 100% sure how it works, it just noticed when I was packet sniffing on the LAN recently dropbox was doing broadcasts quite often.
But agreed, a properly configured file sharing would be best.
 
Thanks for your advice and help people - Didnt know about the Dropbox stuff tho I have an account there too :)
 
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