[jszrules]

Hi, I am the only person in my fraternity with a Mac (10.3.2), and I am trying to share some files on our local network. So far, I have created another account on my Mac specifically for this purpose and shoved everything into its Public folder (inside it's Home folder). I have also made it so that no password is required (just type the username and click OK). I went on one of the guy's Windows machines and found my folder in Microsoft Windows Network-->Workgroup.

The problem is that when I opened my icon on his computer, I found more than just that Public folder being shared. The whole Home folder of that new account was on there, in addition to an AdobePDF icon, a Lexmark icon, and a Printers and Faxes folder.

So my questions are: How do I make is so that those three other files are not shared (I do not know where to find them on my Mac)? How do I limit the content of my shared stuff to just that Public folder? Or at least just that account's Home folder (where I can at least restrict access to the other folders inside, such as Library, Desktop, Sites, etc)?

Thanks in advance.

[Macola]

AFAIK, the only way to do that (other than running OS X server) is something like SharePoints:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12512

[SMacTech]

Just change the permission of the User's folder so that there is no access to it for anyone other than the owner. Or you can set the permissions of the individual folders in the users account as needed. You can create a share that anyone can have either no access - read access or read and write. SharePoints is an obvious better answer, but you can restrict access to the other folders without it.

[pat++]

You see the whole folder of the user because you connect using his login/pass.
Make sure you put a password (to prevent people from connecting to this account),
and people should login as guest on your box (not sure if they need to use guest or unknown for the login on the windows side). That way they will only have access to
the Public folder.

[jszrules]

Originally posted by pat++:
You see the whole folder of the user because you connect using his login/pass.
Make sure you put a password (to prevent people from connecting to this account),
and people should login as guest on your box (not sure if they need to use guest or unknown for the login on the windows side). That way they will only have access to
the Public folder.

But can't I just restrict access to certain folders? I have restricted permission to everything in this other account's Home folder (except Public), and am puzzled why an AdobePDF icon, a Lexmark icon, and a Printers and Faxes folder all appear on the Fraternity's network EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT CONTAINED IN THIS ACCOUNT'S PUBLIC FOLDER!

If this doesn't fix the problem, then I don't see how changing to Guest or using SharePoints will fix it. What am I doing wrong? Thanks again.

[Kristoff]

First of all...what kind of Frat only has one mac user??? WTF? You're supposed to choose these things with care--not reckless abandon. I sure hope they drink Bass, Liberty, or some other decent beer besides Buttwiper.

Second of all, you will see everything in the /Users/Shared folder as well...which explains why your "Faxes" folder is there.

"Printers" is showing up because you have printer sharing enabled.

Can't tell you about the Adobe Icon, nor the Lexmark icon, but if you made a special account for sharing files, and that's the account they are using to access the machine, then assuredly that's all they can access.

That being said, what you really ought to have done is to use SharePoints to set up a single folder for sharing with it's own username and password. That way you wouldn't have had to make a whole new OS X account.

[jszrules]

Originally posted by Kristoff:
Second of all, you will see everything in the /Users/Shared folder as well...which explains why your "Faxes" folder is there.

"Printers" is showing up because you have printer sharing enabled.

Can't tell you about the Adobe Icon, nor the Lexmark icon, but if you made a special account for sharing files, and that's the account they are using to access the machine, then assuredly that's all they can access.

'Printers and Faxes' is one folder. I have removed the Faxes folder out of Shared. And the 'Share Printers...' option in System Preferences is not checked. Yet the Lexmark and 'Printers and Faxes' folder are still both being seen on the network. I don't get it.

As far as the AdobePDF folder, I removed it from Shared, but another one was automatically created in Shared again. I don't know how to stop this either.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[jszrules]

Just bumping my last reply back to the top. Thanks.

[jszrules]

Originally posted by jszrules:
'Printers and Faxes' is one folder. I have removed the Faxes folder out of Shared. And the 'Share Printers...' option in System Preferences is not checked. Yet the Lexmark and 'Printers and Faxes' folder are still both being seen on the network. I don't get it.

As far as the AdobePDF folder, I removed it from Shared, but another one was automatically created in Shared again. I don't know how to stop this either.

...and here's nother dumb question that hopefully can be answered along with the ones above: if I wanted to share some stuff from a certain User's account, I would have to tell people that User's password, correct? Isn't that kind of insecure if some of those peope happen to stumble across my computer and already know that User's account info? Is there a way to make a User's account password different from the password it uses to share stuff with over the network? I'm sure most of these questions are probably really stupid, but any help is much appreciated. Thanks.