[THRobinson]

I'm not really good with the networking stuff, most I ever had to do was between my old MAC and WinXp for file sharing but was always finicky.

This time though, I have two systems both running Win7x64 so same OS which is handy. I have both set to WORKGROUP. I have a D:\ drive and an E:\ drive, both 3TB internal on my system, one for movies and one for TV series. I want to share those two drives with the family HTPC I built, but I am VERY paranoid they'll delete or wipe something out.

On their XBMC I have the ability to delete/rename disabled.

There are no logins for the computers, just a user name like FAMILY and it just boots right to the desktop, which auto loads XBMC for them since that system is only for XBMC. My system is used as a computer for everything and runs XBMC to a TV. all computers in the house run off the same network, and this computer will connect to the family HTPC with a network cable, not WiFi. Just got 100' of cable today so still need to snake it through.

Not sure if any more background is needed than that or not.

What I did was, right clicked my D:\, went to Share with-Advanced Settings. Clicked Advanced Sharing, gave it a share name (THR-Videos) so we know which computer it's from, went to permissions and this is where I'm looking for advice.

I clicked EVERYONE, only name in the list and set to Read-Allow, and the other options are unchecked.

Is this fine? Or do I need to create a user account like Family-HTPC, add it into the list, and make their system login with that? since I'm not blocking some computers and allowing others, will this work? and when it says Everyone am I safe to have full access still? Kinda worried if I reboot, I'll lose access to change/delete files off those two drives from the computer they're attached to.

Tried looking online, but all seemed geared towards making an account so some have access and some don't type deal... also folders not drives. We have 3 systems here total, mine, the dedicated HTPC for the family and a desktop for just regular use which may/not also stream video on occasion, and also using network cable not WiFi.

[THRobinson]

...no one ever networked XBMC?

[nickr]

Yes of course, but yours is a win7 question, not an xbmc question.

Personally I run everything media very loose from security perspective. No password required. But I don't allow xbmc users to delete files - that is an xbmc setting not an os setting.

So just share the drive and if it doesn't work post some clear error logs/messages.

[THRobinson]

Ya Win7, but also XBMC since trying to get them to link and stream media... that's why posted here, figured half the users on the site have done it and may have some feedback.

I know when I added a user, it made me have to login to my own system (choose a user) which wasn't what I was after so, deleted that, just set the folders as shared, read access... wasn't sure on XBMC's end how it works, like, when accessing a folder over the network it pops-up that login window, will it happen on the remote HTPC, will it minimize XBMC on me each time, etc...

Got the cable half snaked through to the opposite end of the house, but, bit of a delay. Got 100' network cable off eBay from the US, and it's garbage... kinks easily, and the plastic covering it stiff and brittle, cracking and coming off... sometimes eBay is great sometimes you lose money off it. Gotta order another one, NewEgg or TigerDirect this time, then re-snake it through.

[nickr]

In xbmc you set up a video source as a windows/smb share. If necessary you can put a username/password. Then the files are available like any other files on your existing system.

---

Ps there are instructions in the usual place http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=SMB

[THRobinson]

Cool thanks... it's probably easy but hard to search for when not knowing some of the terms... like SMB. I'll give that a read through.

[THRobinson]

Well, link didn't help too much but I did finally sort it out.

In addition to setting up the sharing permissions for 'everyone'... because I am sharing an entire drive, not a folder, I had to go into the properties-security and add 'everyone' to the permissions list there as well.