How do I make only *some* network folder sharing require a password?

1

I should know how to do this, being a techie, and I have tried a few things already, but they aren't working.

What I am trying to do is have two folders, one is shared with everyone on the network, and the other folder is only accessible by one specific person across the network. (These are all "Windows 10 Home" PCs)

I have the folder for "everyone" access setup and working, but the folder I am trying to make accessible by only one person won't let me access it even from their computer.

What is the secret sauce for having both of these folders working? I want to keep the "everyone can access" folder without a password, while the other folder should be shared with only the one person. (But currently is inaccessible to even them.)

How do I do this again?

PS: Simple peer-to-peer networking.

Sindyr

Posted 2019-01-05T00:43:29.170

Reputation: 169

I would first try with playing with the permissions of the folder you can set it up to only be accessed by that user under the Group and user names. – NetworkKingPin – 2019-01-05T00:58:39.563

I added a user with the same username and password to the sharing computer and gave that user full permissions, but that did not let the other computer access it. – Sindyr – 2019-01-05T01:21:16.667

If the added user, was created on the same machine, instead of the other computer user that would explain your issue – Ramhound – 2019-01-05T01:36:48.250

The added user was created on both. – Sindyr – 2019-01-05T15:37:47.960

Answers

0

You are correct, 'everyone' will grant anonymous access to the shared folder. If you can make a network connection to the server, you can open the shared drive.

If you do not want anonymous access, then you want to remove 'everyone' from the access list. This will automatically start prompting people to authenticate when they try to access the share. Who do they authenticate as? You need to add specific users or groups that should have access. Without Active Directory (i.e. Windows 10 standalone), you only have local users and groups. Your share permissions need to be assigned to users that exist on the machine hosting the share. When users connect, they may need to specify that they are connecting with a local account, e.g. carl@hostname or hostname/carl.

Based on comments clarifying the question, it appears local versus remote users was the mistake. You may need to create additional users and groups on your host machine. Alternatively, you can use a 'faceless' account that is shared between many users, although this makes it harder to figure out who did what if you need to audit activity.

Andy

Posted 2019-01-05T00:43:29.170

Reputation: 1 400

I'm confused. I do want everyone to have passwordless access to one of the folders, but I want only one specific person to have access to another. How do I keep the one folder being shared passwordlesly while the other lets in just the one person? – Sindyr – 2019-01-05T15:39:31.560

You can have separate permissions for each shared folder. Does that clear up the explanation? I do not understand which part you are having trouble understanding. – Andy – 2019-01-07T19:15:38.753

So what I wound up doing is creating 2 shares, each with it's own username and password. However, what I had wanted to do is have one share with a username and password and another share that simply let anyone in. I tried many things, but I never figured out how to get that done. – Sindyr – 2019-01-09T14:27:01.343

You can apply permissions to sub folders as well. NTFS permissions are also applied to network users. Note that you may encounter an issue with clients not being prompted to re-authenticate as a different user when denied permission under this method. There are workarounds for 'connecting as' a specific user. – Andy – 2019-01-10T21:48:47.587

Asked: 2019-01-05T00:43:29.170

Viewed: 210 times

Active: 2019-01-05T06:55:07.337