can someone explain the difference between

[djs1w]

the settings on a Windows file share. When you share out a folder, there's the 'security' tab and there's also the 'sharing' tab where you can set permissions. What's the difference between the two?

 

[bsobel]

The security tab is the file access permissions stored with the files on disk, the sharing tab is the permissions on the share itself. To access files remotely you need to have proper permissions to both a) access the share point and b) access the files the share is making available. Where as to access the files locally (from the same machine), you only need the correct permissoins in the 'security tab'.

Bill

 

[luv2chill]

They are two separate ways of doing the same thing--granting permission to the share. The sharing permissions only apply to the share though, so if you stop sharing the folder then the permissions also go away.

In addition, the sharing permissions aren't nearly as granular. You'll notice that you can assign more precise levels of permissions on the security tab than on the sharing tab.

It is recommended that you always use the security tab to assign permissions. They work hand in hand with the NTFS file system and are a lot more "secure" if you will. File share-based permissions are a throwback to old versions of Windows that didn't have NT's level of security.

l2c

bsobel - I'm 99% sure that if you set up NT-level security you don't also need share-level security. In fact I know that to be the case because I've set up a ton of file shares on my Win2k network at work and have never touched the permissions button on the sharing tab.