peer to peer networking

[msnnew.microsoft.com]

in a work group enviroment wihtout domain controller, what are the
benefits and dangers between enabling "microsoft file sharing and printing"
vs adding "peer to peer newtorking " windows component?


thank you for your time.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

I believe you are talking about pretty much the same thing. Enabling file
and print sharing is necessary on computers where you want to create shares
to offer to other users. The danger is that with too lenient permissions
and/or too weak passwords that unauthorized users can gain access to shares
and it could also be possible for worms to spread on the network through
shares. You always want to configure share and folder [NTFS] permissions
with the principle of least privilege in that a user has no more access then
needed to do their job. If a user only needs to read files or execute files
they should not have write/modify permissions. There are also two distinct
ways for XP to manage shares in using the default simple file sharing or the
traditional "classic" type where users authenticate as themselves for XP
Pro. The links below may be helpful and let us know if you have any other
questions. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/