Topic: turning off Network Places

[Rick]

I'm running the esmith 6.0 and I want to disable the ability for the computers connected to my esmith box to be able to see each others shared directories or printers or for that matter anything else on the other computers. Is there ANY way i can do this. I have searched these forums for the past hour now and all i can find is how others are having the problem of the reverse.

Please someone out there help me.... .  

have a great day,
Rick

[Charlie Brady]

Rick wrote:

> I'm running the esmith 6.0 and I want to disable the ability
> for the computers connected to my esmith box to be able to
> see each others shared directories or printers or for that
> matter anything else on the other computers. Is there ANY way
> i can do this.

No.

Charlie

[Boris]

SME is designed for single LAN connected to it.  It can not control LAN traffic, only trafic between the LAN and the Internet.
For what you want to do, you need firewall with multiple network cards. Put computers on the different subnets and create firewall rules restricting traffic between the subnets. Many firewall only system will let you do that.

[Ray Mitchell]

Rick
From Win2K Help index topic - $ shares

Securing shared drives
In Windows 2000, all drives on your computer, such as drive C or D, are automatically shared using the name drive letter$, such as C$ or D$. These drives are not shown with the hand icon that indicates sharing in My Computer or Windows Explorer, and they are also hidden when users connect to your computer remotely.

However, any user can gain access to your computer over a network or the Internet if the user knows your computer name, and the user name and password of a user who is a member of the Administrators, Backup Operators, or Server Operators group. A user who gains access to your drive over the network or Internet can view all folders and files on that drive, even those that are protected using NTFS permissions, provided the NTFS permissions allow access to members of the Administrators, Backup Operators, or Server Operators group.

To keep your drives secure, you should:

Create a difficult password for the Administrator account. Many people leave this password blank, which leaves the computer vulnerable to security breaches because any user can log on as the Administrator using a blank password. It is also a good idea to rename the Administrator account using the Local Users and Groups snap-in.
If for some reason you must leave your Administrator password blank, you can disable sharing by doing one of the following:

Disable the Server service. Disabling this service removes the ability to share folders on your computer. No user will be able to connect to any drive or folder on your computer. However, you can still access shared folders on other computers. When you disable the Server service, under Startup, be sure to click Manual or Disabled or else the service will start the next time the computer is restarted.

Uninstall File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. This option appears when you view the properties of any connection in Network and Dial-up Connections. Click the Uninstall button to remove this component; clearing the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks check box will not work.

Regs
Ray

[Schotty]

Yes there is a way....
If you dont want to see the shared stuff then just dont share it. If you still want to share the stuff then use the $ sign after the share name such as cdrive$.

Then you will need admin rights to connect to the shared stuff, but the shares will not be seen.


Schotty

[Tom Keiser]

There's also a utility for win boxes called ITWEAKU, I think from Germany. You can literally pick and choose what network resources each box can see. Of course there are hundreds of other settings too, if you want to customize / lock-down the win machines.

Tom

[Rick]

What i was looking for was a way to shut of the sharing in the e-smith box.. but doesn't look that it can be done.

Thanx for all the ideas, I'll try to figure out something... .

Rick

[boris]

In the original e-mail you aske for disable "for that matter anything else on the other computers."
If you just need to  lock down the server, then its an easy builtin task.
Create different groups on the server, put users to those groups and assign permissions to the Ibays (shares) per groups.
If users are not the member of allowed group,  they will not be able to see folders others folders and files.