Help fun networking question for college student

[efloetry83]

hey everyone im at school in a dorm on a university's very large network i have my laptop(win2k) and desktop(winxp pro) and i want to allow it so i can keep all my music on my desktop and just access it via my laptop I have the plug in my dorm room plugged into the uplink on my personal switch in my room where both my laptop and desktop are plugged in i would generally at home behind my hardware firewall just share my music folder and go from there but i want to be secure about it here at college and i dont have my hardware firewall so i just dont want anyone who wants looking at my music folder on the network granted i could just add a password protected folder when i share it but theres gotta be a better more techie way to do this maybe a software firewall on both machines??like for example i have zonealarm on my desktop machine and theres something about a safe zone but im not sure how to get it to work or is there something else out there that can help me. thanks for any input or help.

[Dyck15]

There is a way that you can hide a folder from the entire network, while its still accessable. I believe all you have to do is right-click the folder and go to the sharing tab, then in the network name, add "$" to the end of the current name. This way no one can even see it there. Now I know thats not usefull for your laptop but what you can do now is map a network drive to the music folder, either before you hide it, or after, which would envolve knowing the entire path to the folder.

Now thats not totally secure, since if someone knows the folder name all they have to do is type the path, but its a good start. I would still recommend passwording it.

I hope that helps you. I didnt full understand what you are asking.

[efloetry83]

oh wow never knew that ill have to try the $ string there anyways basically what i was asking was an efficient and secure way to share a folder between my two machines on a open network any more suggestions?

[Beefy]

Set up a basic FTP server. That way, you can also set up other users to have varied access (if you want them to).

[efloetry83]

ya thats a good idea but im just trying to make it so i can load songs into apps like winamp and windows media remotely not acutally having to copy them over or having to save them locally but at the same time preventing other users on the network from doing this

[Beefy]

That's what I was thinking, which is why I didn't reply initially. Aside from than, an XP share with password is probably your safest bet.

[efloetry83]

thanks beefy very much appreciated:cheers:


EG