BleepingComputer.com: How To Allow Only One PC To Access A Certain Folder On Wireless Home Network?

Note that I consider myself fairly decent on many computer-related topics, but with networking I'm totally lost. I don't care about how the computer gets online, just what happens while it's online!

The situation...

There are 3 PCs in the house, all connect to the same network (local and internet), all 3 use Windows XP (I think the PC I'm having the trouble with is on the Home edition, the others are using Pro). Our connection is DSL connected to a wireless router. One of the PCs uses a wireless receiver, the other I just setup with a wireless USB device. We also have network share folders setup to transfer files from one PC to another wirelessly... that's where I'm having the issue.

I've got everything good on the PC that I just setup (online and connects to the network, and is able to share with the network). There's just one thing I can't figure out... I want ONLY this PC to be able to access a specific folder that I'm sharing, but not the other PC. Is that possible, and if so, how can I do this?

I've searched all over Google to figure out how to do this, I'm definiately no networking expert, I can't find anything. The closest I came was go to Folder Options > View > and unchecked Use Simple File Sharing. This gave me more options but I can't figure out what to do with them, I messed around and found where I can add a user but when I clicked the "Location" button, it only lists my PC as a location to add to be able to access the folder (and like I said, there's 2 other PCs and I only want one of them to access it but it doesn't list either one of them where I was looking). I don't know if that's a problem on my end or if I'm missing something, but I'm starting to get kind of frustrated trying to figure out what to do.

You are talking about Permission based file sharing. This site should help you figure it all out.

I think I understand the idea of what I have to do. But the problem I'm having here is exactly how to set the permissions. After turning off simple file sharing, under the "Security" tab, then clicked the "Add" button (figuring I could use this to add my other PC as a user), then clicked the "Locations" button because I assumed doing this would let me add the location that is my other PC. Here's the steps I did in order:



Now the problem is that I only see one computer listed here, and that's the one I'm using to do all this. I know for a fact that there are two other PCs connected to the network, and both can be seen on the network and files can be transferred between them and the PC I'm trying to configure for a folder with restricted access. Is there some other step I have to take, or am I going about this incorrectly?

I have typed this out like 4 times now and each time it looks confusing, so trying again lol

You have 3 PCs - PC-1, PC-2 and PC-3. PC-1 is going to have restricted access and the other two are openly accessible.

What you are basically doing is a kind of "server / client" set up. Meaning, you sit down at PC-2(the "client) and want to access PC-1(the "server"), to gain access you have to authenticate to PC-1. The authentication information(ie user info.) is on PC-1. You enter it and you are allowed whatever access is granted to that particular user. Does that make sense?

So what you have to do is on the restricted PC is setup a user that has the kind of access you want to give them.

But your original thing was to block an entire PC from access. Perhaps looking into Windows firewall would be a better approach. Just block that PC's IP address from gaining access. Open Windows Firewall -> Click on Exceptions -> in the list click File and Printer sharing -> Click Edit - > click Change scope -> By default its everyone in your Subnet. To change that -> click beside Custom list and enter the IP address of the PC you want to have access along with the subnet mask. It should be something like 192.168.xxx.xxx/255.255.255.0 - > click OK three times and that should only allow the IP address of the PC you want to have access.