Sharing Folders With Specific Computers on a Workgroup Network.

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Sharing Folders With Specific Computers on a Workgroup Network.

EternalSeeker 36

Hello,
On a Windows 10 Workgroup based network how do i share files and folders with specific Computers. Folders/Files shared with a specific computer should not be visible and accessible to another computer on the same Workgroup network. Selective Sharing is what I am referring to. This is possible in a domain based network but not in a workgroup based network OR i do not know how it is done. If this is possible please help me on this. Now that Homegroup feature has been eliminated I am finding it difficult to share files and folders with specific people on the network.

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Answer 1

Anonymous

Hi,

Welcome to Q&A platform.

Based on provided information, my understanding is one specific workgroup device needs to access shared folder on another workgroup device. Please correct me if there is any misunderstanding.

I did a test in my lab and found that this goal only can be achieved by sharing the shared folder to everyone since both of them doesn't join into a domain so that the user in SMB client cannot be recognized by the SMB server. Meanwhile from SMB client side, we need insert credential of SMB server to access the shared folder.

Here is my test results for your reference.

From SMB server side:

Please share the folder to everyone and make sure that we have turned on network discovery and file & printer sharing.

From SMB client side:

Press Win + R to open Run and insert the correct network path of the shared folder. Then we need insert the correct credential to connect the SMB server

Or in order to avoid inserting credential every time, we could save the correct credential in Credential Manager in SMB client.

Now we can access the shared folder of SMB server.

Hope this can help you.

Best Regards,
Sunny

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EternalSeeker 36 Reputation points

2021-07-28T16:58:33.487+00:00

@Anonymous :: Thanks a bunch for taking time off to look into this. Shall work on this as suggested and revert to you ASAP. Thanks Again
EternalSeeker 36 Reputation points

2021-07-28T17:13:59.247+00:00

@Anonymous :: Let me be more Specific. Sharing folders/files with Everyone and setting permissions is achievable without much difficulty. However, my query was as quoted below.
Lets say I have Workgroup called "ShareAll" and this workgroup has about 4 Networked Computer Machines & for better understanding let's name them as "FileFeeder", "FullRights", "ViewOnly" & "NoRights", respectively. Now if I need to share a Folder in "FileFeeder" with "FullRights" and do not want "ViewOnly" & "NoRights" to even see the shared folder in their machine. How do I achieve that. Sharing the Folder with Everyone will not help because all the machines in the Workgroup will be able to see and edit it. Right? So, as quoted earlier I want this Shared Folder to be accessible to "FileFeeder" only and no other machine in the workgroup. Hope I have made myself clear. Thanks again for your diligent response.
Anonymous

2021-07-29T05:58:08.893+00:00

Hi,

Many thanks for your detailed explanation.

For workgroup machines, we cannot add the specific read or write permissions for specific users. Users in "FullRights" cannot be recognized by "FileFeeder" since they have no other relationship except network, it's not same as that domain users can be recognized in domain environment. But I think if you do not want "ViewOnly" & "NoRights" to see the shared folder in their machine, you could turn off network discovery and file and printer sharing from "ViewOnly" & "NoRights" ends.

Or I did a test in my environment, although the share folder is visible on the other devices, before accessing the shared folder we need insert the credential of source side, so I think you could do not share the correct credential of source side to "ViewOnly" & "NoRights" users.

Best Regards,
Sunny
EternalSeeker 36 Reputation points

2021-08-03T15:08:18.51+00:00

@Anonymous ..Thank you so very much for your lightening response. I apologize for my delayed response. Was stuck a bit with my pre-occupations. I have, probably, tried and tested many ways to get the Selective Sharing thing to work in a Workgroup environment, but have not been successful. As suggested by you turning the "Network discovery" is not an option for me because the systems "ViewOnly" & "NoRights" have something or the other to pull out from the Networked machines more often than not.
Let me figure out a workaround, if i can bump into one..Finally, thanks again for being so diligent in your responses.

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