I have 5 computers, all Windows 7 Prof - Ultimate, and all in the same homegroup. One acts as a file and print server and is tucked away in a closet. headless. with about 8TB of storage. It runs 12 hrs a day with 5 drives and 2 printers hooked up to it. On this machine I have 5 shared folders (I will call them 1-5), that are shared with the homegroup, and the username “Server”, the admin account on the server machine. Currently all 4 other computers can access all 5 shared folders. I would like only certain computers to be able to access folders 1-3, but not 4&5 (example). I would like other computers to be able to access all files. I want to keep the homegroup, and I have found that with the files I don’t want to share with everyone in the homegroup, I just disable sharing to homegroup for folders 4&5. But now they are not shared with any of the computers. When I try to share them with specific computers (ie. \\computer-name\username ), I am unable to. I can share with everybody, nobody, or homegroup. If I try to get all advanced, I can add user accounts that are established on THAT machine only. I am unable the share it with specific locations on the network / homegroup. I tried adding an account on the server, sharing with the account, and then creating a credential on another PC, but was not able to connect. If anyone knows how to solve this please let me know. I am very interested in solving this problem. My HTPC only need to see 1 folder, and my wife and son will screw up a lot of data if they have access to all folders that I do. I know this is basic for a server, but it seems like a fairly basic function for a home network, something Windows7 is really pushing towards. BTW, before it is suggested, 1. Windows Home Server V1 I found to be a little quirky 2. Windows Home Server Vail has a horrible proprietary file system, and is Beta anyway 3. I am to stupid to use Server 2008 ( I do have a copy from MSDN )
Workgroup, which is how Windows home networks are usually setup using all client OS's, do not let you login using credentials from another machine. That requires domain, which requires real server products. Instead, on your "server" add user accounts the same as on your client machines, preferably with matching passwords. Set the permissions as per those local accounts. When your client machines try to connect, they will try using that user's local credentials.
Well, it worked initially, but then after a while it just quit working, it seems to be dropping the shared settings for the new user profile. No matter what I do It just keeps dropping them. Think ill just keep sharing with homegroup, as all of the files are in a truecrypt container anyway. I think I will try Server 2008 on a VM for a while, it cant be that hard, as all I want is to share printers and files BTW Thanks for the fast reply