What are your permissions?

What permissions do you give 'Everyone'?

Best Practice (Litmus Test)

Professionals: Remove the default permission 'Everyone' -  Full Control

Amateurs: Don't mind 'Everyone' having full control of all shares

Permissions - Everyone Full Control

Share permissions are like giving users a key to the office door.  NTFS permissions are like giving them the key to the safe.  Too many organisations leave the safe unlocked!

Make it your best practice to remove the group Everyone because they have full control, and substitute users and only give them read.  It usually makes sense to also add the Administrators and give them full control.

Right click a shared folder, check the permissions under both Share and NTFS Tabs.

Note that there are two tabs to control permissions on any folder - Sharing (Key of the door) and Security (NTFS lock on the safe).

Windows Server 2003 - Best Practice

The default permissions in Windows Server 2003 has been changed to give users only Read permission.  This is but one of numerous improvements to security in Windows Server 2003.  It as if Microsoft have put security first ahead of 'easy to use' or 'cool feature'.  This is what people want, more security less flashy bells and whistles.

The biggest change compared with NT 4.0 is that you now have the Deny permission.  In NT 4.0 the No Access was rather a blunt tool, it meant you could not read documents or list files.  The new Deny means that you can explicitly Deny Write.  That means that if a user is a member of another group that is give Change permission, they still only end up with Read.

Windows Server 2003 has a little know snap-in called Shared Folders, I use it to check and set share permissions.

Another of Guy's Litmus Tests - Performance Monitoring

Professionals install ipMonitor
Consequently they can see instantly which servers are short of resources, and which are running smoothly.  

Amateurs
Keep their fingers crossed that the servers have enough memory and disk space.

Free Download of SolarWinds ipMonitor

Train Signal has just released their New Windows Server 2008 Training Course.  As an MCT trainer, I am a huge advocate of Train Signal’s products.  What impresses is me is that they demonstrate everything that they teach and they stay away from traditional 'lecture-style' training.  If you are looking for a complete DETAILED coverage of Windows Server 2008, then I highly recommend that you give this course a try.  I have reviewed their 6 hours plus of videos myself, and I guarantee that you will not be disappointed!

Watch a Windows Server 2008 Training Video Demo.

Sign up to my new Ezine and get a free Best Practice ebook. 

 *