Share-Level Security on Windows 95

Share-Level Security on Windows 95

Under Windows 95’s simple share-level security, passwords are assigned to permit access to each directory or printer share. To access the share, a user must supply the correct password.

When creating a shared directory using share-level security, you can grant one of three types of access:

Read-only access. After entering the correct password, a remote user can access a directory, its subdirectories, and its files. However, the user cannot delete files or write files to that directory.
Full access. A remote user who supplies the correct password has read and write privileges to that directory and all its files and subdirectories.
Depends on password. Two different passwords can be created: one allowing read-only access, and one allowing full access. The type of access granted to a user depends on the password that that user has supplied.

If no password is entered, all users have full or read-only access to the directory, depending on which option was specified when the shared directory was created.

In Exercise 8.5, you create a directory share using share-level security. Remember that a share is an entry point on your computer from which you can give others access to your local resources.

Print queues also can be shared with other network users using share-level security. If a password is specified for the share, a network user must enter that password to access the print queue and connect to that printer. If a printer is shared with a blank password field—meaning no password was entered—any user can connect to and print to that printer.

Because share-level security relies on access passwords, this form of security has the following disadvantages:

To access different shares, a network user must know numerous passwords.
Passwords can easily be forgotten. Windows 95 can cache passwords so a user does need to enter them each time. However, if the creator of the share forgets the password, then the password must be changed to enable another user to access the share.
Nothing prevents a user from disclosing the password to an unauthorized user.

Further Information

User-Level Security on Windows 95