Network basics: Part 18 - Sharing resources

Brien M. Posey

In the previous article of this series, we introduced you to the OSI model and how it is used in implementing abstraction between hardware and software. In this article, we will introduce you to creating resources on a network. If you want to learn more about protocol stacks and their relevance to the OSI model, read some of our other articles on this topic.

With that in mind, we want to put your focus on creating resources in a network. If you're still wondering, the whole reason for building a network in a certain place first is to share resources between computers on the network. Normally, resource sharing means sharing files and folders, but that's not always the case. Network sharing can also save costs for companies in buying and maintaining printers for network computers.

Smaller, home networks also need to share resources. The most common home network type, including a wireless access point, is also served as an Internet router. In these types of networks, an Internet connection is a shared resource.

There are quite a few different types of resources that can be shared in a network. The actual process for sharing resources is always changing, depending on the type of resource being shared and on the network operating systems being used. With that in mind, we'll discuss this by talking about how to share files and folders in a network.

Before we get started, we want to quickly mention to you that the information we are introducing is based on Windows Server 2003. Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and earlier versions of Windows manage file sharing. and basic directory in the same way. The steps you use during the sharing process will vary depending on the different operating systems, but the basic concepts are quite similar. Windows Vista needs another method to share files compared to previous products that still work. With that in mind, we will talk about file sharing and Windows Vista later in this series. Now what is introduced is not applicable to Vista.

Create a shared file

If you want to share files saved in a server, you need to create a shared file. File sharing is essentially a designated entry point through which users can access the file. The reason for sharing such a necessary file is because there is a big risk of security when sharing the entire contents of the server.

Creating a file share is really simple. To do this, start the process by creating a directory where you want the shared data to reside. For example, many file servers have a designated storage array or data drive with the main purpose of saving data (as opposed to program files and operating system components).

In most cases, you can have quite a few directories worth sharing. And for each directory also needs specific security needs. You can create a separate share for each folder, but doing so is often considered a bad idea unless each share resides on a different drive. There are many exceptions for each method, but in most cases you just want to create a file share on one drive is more than enough. You can put all the subdirectories inside this directory and then assign the necessary permissions on each base directory.

If you already have a group of folders in a certain location, don't worry about it. You can easily create a new folder and then move existing folders into this new folder. Another option is to create a shared file at the drive level, in which case you won't have to move existing folders.

For the purpose of this article, we will assume that you have created a directory, which has internal subfolders and you will share this entire folder. Once you've created such a folder, right-click the folder and select the ' Sharing and Security ' command from the right-click menu. You will see a properties page of the directory that appears as shown in Figure A.

Figure A: The Sharing tab allows you to select the folder sharing option

As you can see in the figure, the Sharing tab allows you to control which folders are shared and which folders are not. When selecting the ' Share this Folder ' option, you will be prompted to enter a shared name. The shared name you choose is very important. Windows is very picky with the names used for this sharing, so we recommend using this shared name under 16 characters and avoiding using spaces or some other symbols. Note that if you create the last character of the shared name as a dollar sign ( $ ), the share file you are creating will not be visible. This can be called a hidden share. Windows provides some hidden shares by default, but we will talk about these hidden shares later in this series.

The ' Comment ' field allows you to enter the shared annotation used for what purpose. This issue is entirely for administrative purposes. The comments here are completely optional, but documenting shared documents is never a bad idea.

Now let's look at the User Limit section. You will see in the figure that the User Limit section set to default is Maximum Allowed . Any time you deploy a Windows server, you must have the necessary client access registration. You can optionally purchase a subscription for each individual client or register a server to support certain connections. At any rate, when the user limit is set to Maximum Allowed, it means that an unlimited number of clients can connect to the shared folder until the number of links is reached. The connection reaches the maximum number of subscriptions you have purchased. If you are using the client registration model, access to the shared folder is technically unrestricted, but you must still ensure that you have a subscription for each client.

Another option is to allow a certain number of users to connect to the shared folder. Here Microsoft offers the option to limit the number of simultaneous connections to the shared folder to secure your hardware.

Conclude

In the article, we introduced you to which resources to share in the network. In the next part of this article series, I will continue the discussion by showing you how to set the permissions on the shared folder you just created.