Windows Home Server 2011

How to configure file shares without installing client-side "app"

[frobozz]

Please let me know if this post is better suited for another forum. I couldn't find one that seemed more relevant.

I've just setup a microserver running WHS 2011, and I need to share numerous folders on my home network. With Win 7 this is easy to do, but the whole reason I got WHS is that I want to set permission levels for various users on the network.

User A has read-only access to folders A, B, C; user B has full access to folders B & C, etc. This granularity is not available in Win 7.

(Incidentally, I have no interest in any of the other "features" of 2011 -- backups, updates, etc. I manage all my own backups, I don't use media streaming, none of that stuff. This machine's sole purpose for existing is to give me granular permissions for users on the network. If not for that, I would just stick with Win 7 and keep a peer-to-peer local network.)

Thing is, I don't want each user to install that stupid Launchpad client-side app. I don't want any fishy "apps" installed on any clients; there should be no need for it. So far, once I've shared a folder, all attempts to connect to it from a client machine are denied because of bad credentials. It's as if I can't configure the WHS box to identify users of other machines -- it only seems to want to pay attention to user accounts that are created on it, which is pointless. Is there something simple I'm missing here? Anyone familiar with this?

[J_RaD]

With Win 7 this is easy to do, but the whole reason I got WHS is that I want to set permission levels for various users on the network

sounds like what you really want is a domain controller on your home network, and that you also purchased the wrong version of windows server for what you want to do.

You could do what you want done really dirty with just a normal windows 7 computer, create users123456 on the windows 7 computer, assign folder permissions based on what users you want to see what... share away.

each user is going to have to enter user1 + pass when they go to connect to folders, but hey......its just for your house.

you could even map a drive, login everytime they start up save the user name and pass and they wouldn't even have to enter the user name and pass anymore...and anything that didn't have that users access, would allow or deny.


if you don't know much or anything about user permissions everything I just said is going to sound like jibberish.

[frobozz]

I seriously considered going the domain route, but that's just tremendous overkill for my needs. From what I've seen, the power of domains comes with incredible complexity, and I just don't need all the extra work and headaches.

I got everything working weeks ago. Turns out WHS's Launchpad app is just fluff -- not necessary at all. All client systems still see the server just fine, and I've created all the users and passwords, and set all the granular permissions I wanted. Everything is working perfectly.

(There is one quirk -- when users on client machines right-click on a mapped network drive, they still see the capacity pie-chart and the checkboxes for indexing and compression. I was appalled at this gaping security hole, but after some testing it appears that users cannot actually change these values. Attempts to do so generate an error. Such controls shouldn't even be visible to users in the first place, but as long as they can't be changed, I'm satisfied for now.)