3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources

Table of Contents

1. Working with Shared Folders
   1. Creating Shared Folders from the Command Line
   2. Working with the Shared Folders Snap-In
   3. Using the Share a Folder Wizard
   4. Publishing Shares in Active Directory
   5. Hidden and Administrative Shares
   6. Shared Folder Offline Settings
   7. Share Permissions
2. Offline Files
3. Troubleshooting Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Connections
4. Windows Server 2003 File Systems
5. Configuring File System Permissions

Working with Shared Folders

You'll need to set up shared network folders, often referred to as shares, if you want users on remote computers to be able to access files stored on Windows Servers or other Windows desktop computers. Only members of the Administrators group or the Server Operators group have the necessary permissions to create, manage and remove shared folders under Windows Server 2003. Shared folders allow you to:

• Examine lists of files that are open by remote users, and close these files.

• Create, set and view permissions.

• View a list of users that are connected to shared resources.

Sharing folders under Windows Server 2003 is similar to setting up shared folders under Windows XP. You can use Windows Explorer (or My Computer) to right-click any available folder that you want to share with remote users over the network. You can create a shared folder on a Windows Server 2003 computer, as follows:

1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer and right-click the folder that you want to share and select Sharing and Security.

2. From the Sharing tab, click the Share This Folder button. Type the new shared folder's name in the Share Name box and optionally, type in a description in the Description box.

3. In the User Limit section, either accept the default setting of Maximum Allowed, or click Allow This Number of Users and type in the required number.

4. Click OK to create the shared folder with default share permissions.

Under Windows Server 2003 (and Windows XP) the default share permissions are Everyone: Allow Read as opposed to Everyone: Allow Full Control, which was the case for Windows NT and Windows 2000. If you'd like to create multiple shares with different share names that all point to the same physical folder, maybe even with different access permissions on each share, click the New Share button that appears at the bottom of the Sharing tab for an existing shared folder.

To remove a share when you have multiple shares for the same physical folder, select the share from the Share Name drop-down list box and click the Remove Share button at the bottom of the dialog box. To stop sharing the folder entirely, click the Do Not Share This Folder option button at the top of the dialog box. This action removes all shares from the network browse list, and the folder will no longer be accessible by remote users.

The activities given on this page and the following pages can contribute towards your log book for this unit. You must demonstrate that you can configure and manage shared folders and shared folder permissions.

Next: Creating Shared Folders from the Command Line