hide inaccessible shares

We have 2 Windows Server 2003 SP1 servers. I have installed the access-based
enumeration utility which hides files and folders which users don't have
permissions for. Is there a way to do the same thing for the share names
themselves? This is an issue because since half of our workstations are
windows 98, we have to share the user home directories in order to map drives
to them. This results in there being almost 80 shares on our main file
server. We have share and file system permissions set up so that users cannot
access each other's home directory, but if a user browses \\server, they
still see all of the home directory shares, making it difficult to see the
shares they need to access.

Is there a way to hide the shares which users do not have access to?

Mezlo

It is not possible to hide the shares themselves with access enumeration. Often
one share will be created with folders in that share. That way the user would
only see folders in the share he has read/list permissions to. Users can map
drives to a share if need be to make access easier so that they do not have to
search through the list of shares each time.. --- Steve



"Mezlo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:FA064842-53E5-41A5-82A9-(E-Mail Removed)...
> We have 2 Windows Server 2003 SP1 servers. I have installed the access-based
> enumeration utility which hides files and folders which users don't have
> permissions for. Is there a way to do the same thing for the share names
> themselves? This is an issue because since half of our workstations are
> windows 98, we have to share the user home directories in order to map drives
> to them. This results in there being almost 80 shares on our main file
> server. We have share and file system permissions set up so that users cannot
> access each other's home directory, but if a user browses \\server, they
> still see all of the home directory shares, making it difficult to see the
> shares they need to access.
>
> Is there a way to hide the shares which users do not have access to?
>
> Mezlo

I was afraid this was how it worked so thanks for the reply. The other idea I
had was is there a way to hide a share so that it isn't listed for anyone?
For example, say I have a share \\fileserver\share1. If I browse to
\\fileserver, share1 would not be listed, but a user could still browse to
\\fileserver\share1 and access it. If this can't be done on a per-share
basis, is there a way to have the server not list any shares, yet still be
able to browse directly to them?

Mezlo

"Steven Umbach" wrote:

> It is not possible to hide the shares themselves with access enumeration. Often
> one share will be created with folders in that share. That way the user would
> only see folders in the share he has read/list permissions to. Users can map
> drives to a share if need be to make access easier so that they do not have to
> search through the list of shares each time.. --- Steve
>
>
>
> "Mezlo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:FA064842-53E5-41A5-82A9-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > We have 2 Windows Server 2003 SP1 servers. I have installed the access-based
> > enumeration utility which hides files and folders which users don't have
> > permissions for. Is there a way to do the same thing for the share names
> > themselves? This is an issue because since half of our workstations are
> > windows 98, we have to share the user home directories in order to map drives
> > to them. This results in there being almost 80 shares on our main file
> > server. We have share and file system permissions set up so that users cannot
> > access each other's home directory, but if a user browses \\server, they
> > still see all of the home directory shares, making it difficult to see the
> > shares they need to access.
> >
> > Is there a way to hide the shares which users do not have access to?
> >
> > Mezlo
>
>
>

You should set home drive shares to be hidden, i.e. append a $ to the name of
the share and they won't show up in standard Windows Enumeration (though they
can still be remotely enumerated if someone knows what they are doing).

joe

--
Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
www.joeware.net


Mezlo wrote:
> We have 2 Windows Server 2003 SP1 servers. I have installed the access-based
> enumeration utility which hides files and folders which users don't have
> permissions for. Is there a way to do the same thing for the share names
> themselves? This is an issue because since half of our workstations are
> windows 98, we have to share the user home directories in order to map drives
> to them. This results in there being almost 80 shares on our main file
> server. We have share and file system permissions set up so that users cannot
> access each other's home directory, but if a user browses \\server, they
> still see all of the home directory shares, making it difficult to see the
> shares they need to access.
>
> Is there a way to hide the shares which users do not have access to?
>
> Mezlo

Why is it I always overlook the simplest solutions? Thanks for the answer
Joe, this will accomplish what I need, though not the way I was trying to go
about doing it.

Mezlo

"Joe Richards [MVP]" wrote:

> You should set home drive shares to be hidden, i.e. append a $ to the name of
> the share and they won't show up in standard Windows Enumeration (though they
> can still be remotely enumerated if someone knows what they are doing).
>
> joe
>
> --
> Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Windows Server Directory Services
> www.joeware.net
>
>
> Mezlo wrote:
> > We have 2 Windows Server 2003 SP1 servers. I have installed the access-based
> > enumeration utility which hides files and folders which users don't have
> > permissions for. Is there a way to do the same thing for the share names
> > themselves? This is an issue because since half of our workstations are
> > windows 98, we have to share the user home directories in order to map drives
> > to them. This results in there being almost 80 shares on our main file
> > server. We have share and file system permissions set up so that users cannot
> > access each other's home directory, but if a user browses \\server, they
> > still see all of the home directory shares, making it difficult to see the
> > shares they need to access.
> >
> > Is there a way to hide the shares which users do not have access to?
> >
> > Mezlo
>