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9845
March 19th, 2004 12:00
Allowing certain access to specific computers
Hi, I have a network set up with 4 computers. Is there any way to allow a specific computer only to have access to another computer? For example, I am using one computer as a file server only and want another computer to be able to access those files...but I don't want the other 2 computers to be able to access them. How can I go about setting this up? I am running Windows XP on all machines. Thanks
junchen
5 Posts
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March 19th, 2004 12:00
Hmm. this sounds tricky. I was reading a module on computer networks last semester and i came across such a problem. You need to play around with subnets and subnet masks. Essentially, you configure the ips for all 4 pcs normally (192.168.X.X) but for the subnet masks for the individual pcs, you modify them. see http://compnetworking.about.com/library/weekly/aa043000a.htm or google for more information on subnetting.
I apologize for not being able to give clearer or step by step instructions because i'm not too sure myself. I just know that it's possible.
Hope that helps dude. =)
Andy
mattcowger
2.6K Posts
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March 19th, 2004 15:00
1) You need to know plenty about networking fundamentals
2) It will be trivial to get around it.
rock15478
6 Posts
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March 20th, 2004 04:00
Herrflik
21 Posts
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March 23rd, 2004 07:00
A server installation of Windows might be configurable in this way too, but it might be at the cost of using domain control.
Breaking the network up into two seperate subnets (as above) ought to work, but there could be an easier hack: You might be able to limit the scope of peer-peer networking by running a firewall on the server, and setting it up to "trust" the machine you want to have file-sharing access. The kerio and zonealarm firewalls have enough functionality to do that, IIRC. But, if you do it this way, you'll have to identify the trusted machine by IP address, which isn't fundamentally particularly secure.
rock15478
6 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2004 12:00
Wouldn't you think that XP would include an advanced setting that allows you to check which systems on your local network can be accessed by each? It would make a lot more sense...The problem with running Zone Alarm or a firewall is that I still want my printer to be accessible on all systems, but not a specific folder. However, I need to leave that folder shared for the one system that I need to be able to access it from.
Herrflik
21 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2004 13:00
If the printer can be hosted directly on the network (or by the router) that would still be OK - it looks like your best bet in the circumstances though will be password control and/or limited permissions on the files.