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I've been trying to configure a Shared Drive on my Network to be accessible by only a handful of PCs on the network, but haven't been able to find a solution so far. All PCs are on the same network with the same IP range. They are all a part of the same Windows Workgroup. No active directory is configured on the server though. Any help would be appreciated!

  • If not directly configurable, I would use a firewall to restrict the access to only this IP range (`iptables` with Linux which is far better than Windows for networking) – user123456 Oct 31 '16 at 22:40
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    Windows shares can be restricted by user not computer. Additional restrictions can be set in NTFS for the folder. The bottom line is you restrict by user not computer and if you want to use a firewall to restrict access by computer then the computers need to be assigned static IP addresses. – user5870571 Oct 31 '16 at 22:48

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You're probably going to have to kick it old skool and use Workgroup style authentication. I assume the PCs have usernames and passwords that the users already use to log in (and that they're unique). If so, create identical credentials on the machine where you want to share the drive, and share out the drive granting those accounts permission.

This is basically how shares were created back in ye olden dayze.

(Active Directory is a lot more convenient and secure, though. If the users change their passwords, you'll have to change the password on the server, too, for example.)

Katherine Villyard
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  • I've heard about this method. Also I've heard about a method where you create a new account on the Sharing machine, and add it to the Remote Desktop Users group. Afterwards you share the drive with Remote Desktop Users group only and get prompted a username and password box when trying to access the folder from a specific computer. You access the Drive on the desired PCs entering the username and password combination once, saving the credentials. I am unable to get to the point where it asks for a password though :D –  Oct 31 '16 at 22:52