SECURITY OPTIONS FOR SHARED FOLDERS

Windows 95 is often found in small peer-to-peer networks, allowing amodest number of users to share files between a few computers. This works just fine for the majority of minor installations.

To set up file and print sharing, enable the I Want To Be Able To Give Others Access To My Files and the I Want To Be Able To Allow Others To Print To My Printer(s) options in the Network applet of Control Panel. By default, this allows all users to have full access to the shares you set up.

The Access Control tab, also located in the Network applet, provides you with two security options for shared folders:

* Share Level: You can allow Full or Read Only Access, or you can supply a separate password for Full and Read Only access to the share. If you choose the latter option, it's up to you to make sure only the right people know the password.

* User Level: You can supply the name of a computer on your network that's been set up with a list of users and specify which users are allowed Full, Read Only, or Custom access to shares.

When deciding how to share your folders, bear in mind the ease with which users will need to access the folders, as well as various related issues that are documented by Microsoft. If security is your main concern, consider moving to an NT-based network.

However, if you have a mixed network in which some users have Win9x machines and others have NT boxes, consult Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q131675, which describes a problem with NT workstations being unable to connect to shared folders on Win95/98 computers because of the different password encryption methods.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q131/6/75.asp

To work around this issue, Microsoft recommends that you use all uppercase or lowercase passwords, remove the Share Level access passwords altogether, or switch to User Level access.

For information about a User Level access difficulty, check out Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q162325, which describes a problem when using dial-up networking from a Win95 computer. You may receive the following message:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q162/3/25.asp

Enter network password. You must provide a password to make this connection.
Resource: \\<computername>\ipc$

This might be the result of having User Level access enabled on the Win95 host computer while specifying the computer that the Users and Groups are contained on as an NT Domain Controller. To fix this problem, switch to Share Level access.

Since there are issues with both User Level and Share Level Access Control, thoroughly evaluate each one to determine which will give you the functionality that you require in your own environment.