The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine
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February 1994 - Volume 10:4 [Printout | Contents | Search ]
By Helen Anderson and Andrew Perch Are your Mac files important? Who can read and write files on your Mac? Anybody at Penn? Just you? Just you and your colleagues? It's up to you. Because PennNet supports campus-wide AppleTalk, your files can be shared anywhere on campus. The instructions below let you decide who can read and write the files on your Mac.
Are you accessible?To find out if your files are accessible to other people on the campus-wide AppleTalk network, choose Control Panels from the Apple menu and then open the Sharing Setup icon.
The status boxes show whether file sharing and program linking are on or off. If you do not want to worry about other people reading or writing your files through the network, make sure that both of these boxes indicate that sharing is off. If either of the Status boxes indicates that sharing is on, click the button to the left of the box to turn it off. If you do want to share your files, then you should first establish a network identity. To do so, type your first and last name in the box labeled Owner Name and then press the tab key. Now type a non-trivial password (such as your PennNet password) in the box labeled Owner Password. Press the tab key. Your password is now displayed as bullets so that no one can read it. In order to share files, file sharing must be turned on. If its status box indicates that it is off, then click the Start button to the left of its status box. To decide what you want to share and with whom, follow the instructions in the next section. Program linking allows your programs to communicate with programs running on other Macs. If you want to link your programs, click the Start button to the left of the its status box. If you have created a network identity and turned file sharing on, your Sharing Setup dialog box should look similar to the example to the left.
Decide who can access your filesTo decide who can access your files, choose Control Panels from the Apple menu and then open the Users & Groups icon. If you followed the instructions above, you will see at least two icons. One icon will be labeled with your name and the other will be labeled
The privileges shown above allow you to connect from any other Mac to your own Mac, change your password, and see everything on your hard disk. Note that the Program Linking check box does not contain an "x." If it did, you could send messages (Apple Events) between programs running on different Macs. Please refer to your program manuals to determine if you need this capability.
After checking the appropriate boxes for yourself, close your File
Sharing dialog box and then open the
If you want everyone on campus to be able to access some or all of
your files, click the "Allow guests to connect" box and then close the
It is usually safer to allow only registered users and groups to
share your files. You can create registered users and groups from the
Users & Groups window. To do so, first select New User from the File
menu. A New User icon will appear. Change the name of the icon to the
name of a real person, double-click the icon, and then give that person
a password and appropriate privileges. If you wish, several new users
can be put together into a group. To create a group, first select New
Group from the File menu, give the group icon a name, and then drag and
drop individual user icons into the group icon.
If you decide that you do not want someone to access your files,
drag that user's icon into the trash.
The check marks in the example above indicate that Ellen Andrews
owns the MacShare folder; that she can see folders and files and make
changes to them; but that no one-not even Ellen-can move, rename, or
delete the MacShare folder. In addition, all registered users in the
MacShare Group that she created have the same privileges that she does.
Finally, guests cannot access this folder since none of the check boxes
next to Everyone are checked. Note: A single folder can only be shared
with either a single registered user or a single group.
What if your really want to give everyone on campus access to your
Mac? A common mistake is to allow everyone to make changes. If you
allow guests access to your Mac, do not give them privileges to make
changes.
You can confirm that your MacShare folder is accessible via the
campus-wide AppleTalk network by viewing your files in "icon" view.
Such folders have a special icon showing a network connection-as shown
below. You can move any items you want to share into this folder or you
can use the same procedures to share your entire hard disk or any number
of individual folders. Note: Don't make copyrighted programs available
to other users unless the license allows it.
In the example above, no one is currently connected and there is
only one shared item-the MacShare folder.
Now you are in control of who can read, write, and run files on
your Mac.
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