DameWare NT Utilities Shares View is designed to allow for remote share creation, deletion and modification of share properties and online viewing of share sessions in use. File and folder browsing functionality is included by way of the Shares tree view. Security permissions may also be set/modified at the share level.
The DameWare NT Utilities Share view provides the following mini-toolbar options.
Add Share When selected, will display the Add Share dialog window. DameWare NT Utilities provides a Browse button which, when selected, will dynamically establish a mapping to the drive on the remote machine selected for the user to select the drive/path to share. Note: The Share path must be a drive based path in reference to the machine on which you are creating the share. The share name, comment and user limits are also specified in this window. Selecting the Permissions button specifies the access through share permissions.
Delete Share If any user(s) is connected to a share when Delete Share is selected, an informational dialog window will display a warning that a user is connected and that loss of data may result if you stop sharing this directory.
Share Sessions When selected, will display the Share Sessions dialog window. The share information will be displayed along with a line entry for each user that has a session to this share. The Share Sessions dialog window will display the User, Computer, Connected Since, Idle Time, Open Files and Guest fields of information related to this user session. You can Refresh the view, Disconnect a user(s) session to this share or retrieve file details of the user session to the share.
Share Properties When selected, displays the Share Properties dialog window. You can enable/disable the share, modify the share comment, modify the user limit and modify the permissions associated with the share.
Set Default Shares When selected, creates the default administrative shares on the selected machine. These include the Administrator Share (ADMIN$), Drive Shares (C$,D$,…) and Print Share (print$).
The following is a brief overview of shared resources, special shares and shared directory permissions.
Shared Resource Any device, data or program that is used by more than one other device or program. For Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7, shared resources refer to any resource that is made available to network users, such as directories, files, printers and named pipes. Also refers to a resource on a server that is available to network users.
Controlling Access to Files and Folders
On NTFS volumes, you can set permissions on files and folders that specify which groups and users have access to them and what level of access is permitted. NTFS file and folder permissions apply both to users working at the computer where the file is stored and to users accessing the file over the network when the file is in a shared folder. With NTFS, you can also set share permissions, which operate on shared folders in combination with file and folder permissions.
With FAT volumes, you cannot set permissions on the individual files and folders. The only security you can set on FAT volumes is share permissions. Once a folder is shared, you can protect the shared folder by specifying one set of share permissions that applies to users for all files and subfolders of the shared folder. Share permissions are set in very much the same way as file and folder permissions are set in NTFS. But because share permissions apply globally to all files and folders in the share, they are significantly less versatile than the file and folder permissions used for NTFS volumes.
Share permissions apply equally to NTFS and FAT volumes. Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7, not the individual file system, enforces them.
Special Shares A computer’s shared resources include those resources (such as directories) that have been shared by a user or an administrator plus any special shares that may have been created by the system.
Depending on the configuration of the computer being administered, some or all of the following special shares may appear when Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7 presents a list of the computer’s shared resources. These shares are created by the system. In most cases, these special shares should not be deleted or modified.
The following is a list of special shares.
Driveletter$ Represents a share which allows administrative personnel to connect to the root directory of a storage device. Shown as A$, B$, C$, D$ and so on. For example, D$ is a share name by which drive D might be accessed by an administrator over the network. For a Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows7 Workstation computer, only members of the Administrators and Backup Operators can connect to these shares. For a Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computer, members of the Server Operators group can also connect to these shares.
ADMIN$ Represents a resource used by the system during remote administration of a computer. The path of this resource is always the path to the Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7 system root (the directory in which Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/Windows7 is installed. For example: C:\Winnt). For a Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Windows7 Workstation computer, only members of the Administrators and Backup Operators can connect to this share. For a Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computer, members of the Server Operators group can also connect to this share.
IPC$ Represents a resource sharing the named pipes that are essential for communication between programs. Used during remote administration of a computer and when viewing a computer’s shared resources.
PRINT$ Represents a resource used during remote administration of printers.
REPL$ A resource created by the system when a Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computer is configured as a replication export server. It is required for export replication. This resource is only provided for Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computers, which are configured as replication export servers. It is not provided for Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Windows7 Workstation computers.
NETLOGON A resource used by the Net Logon service of a Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computer while processing domain logon requests. This resource is only provided for Windows NT/2000/2003/2008 Server computers. It is not provided for Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Windows7 Workstation computers.
Shared Directory Permissions
You can set the following permissions for files and directories through a shared directory.
No Access (None) Prevents access to the shared directory, its’ subdirectories and its’ files.
Read Allows viewing filenames and subdirectory names, changing to the subdirectories of the shared directory, viewing data in files and running application files.
Change Allows viewing filenames and subdirectory names, changing to the subdirectories of the shared directory, viewing data in files, running application files, adding files and subdirectories to the shared directory, changing data in files and deleting subdirectories and files.
Full Control Allows viewing filenames and subdirectory names, changing to the subdirectories of the shared directory, viewing data in files, running application files, adding files and subdirectories to the shared directory, changing data in files, deleting subdirectories and files, changing permissions (NTFS files and directories only) and taking ownership (NTFS files and directories only).