Review All Network Shares
Windows allows you to specify that all files in a particular folder should be available for sharing with other users over the network. You can create a multitude of individual shares on your computer for use with individual projects. If you're not meticulous about cleaning up after each project is finished, however, you could end up with shared folders that are open to view by anyone on the network. Every so often, it's a good idea to review the complete list of network shares and eliminate any that are no longer needed. To see the full list of shares, open Control Panel's Administrative Tools folder and double-click the Computer Management icon. In the Computer Management window, double-click Shared Folders and then click Shares. Figure 2-11 shows one such list.


Figure 2-11. Inspect the list of shares regularly and remove any that are no longer needed.
In Windows 2000, you can right-click any entry in the Shares list and inspect its properties or remove the share. In Windows XP Professional, these options are available only if you've disabled Simple File Sharing; in a default, nondomain installation of Windows XP Professional, this list is read-only. That's also true on a computer running Windows XP Home Edition, where Simple File Sharing cannot be disabled.

In Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional with Simple File Sharing enabled, you can use Windows Explorer to stop sharing a folder. Right-click the icon of the shared folder, choose Properties, and click the Sharing tab. Under Network Sharing And Security, clear the Share This Folder On The Network box.

INSIDEOUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional include a long list of administrative shares whose names end with a dollar sign. For instance, every drive includes an administrative share that consists of the drive letter and a dollar sign (C$ for the C drive, for instance); these administrative shares are accessible to anyone in the Administrators group. If you're using Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP with Simple File Sharing disabled, you can right-click the entry for any default share and choose Stop Sharing. However, Windows will automatically create the share the next time you restart the computer.

To permanently remove an administrative share from Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional, open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to the registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters. Right-click the key name and choose New, DWORD Value. Give it the name AutoShareWks and use the default value of 0. After making this change, the administrative shares will no longer be re-created after each restart.

Removing the default shares on drives that contain program or data files is a sensible security precaution. Don't delete the ADMIN$ or IPC$ shares, however. These are system-level shares that are invisible to network browsing and are not available for interactive use; they're essential for interprocess communications and remote administration.

Libellés : Network, Review, Shares