User name & password access to Excel files in a folder

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maria
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M

Maria

Hello:
I have a bunch of excel files in a folder (located on a shared network
drive), accessed by different users. Is there some way to restrict access to
these files to only those users who create a user name & password. In other
words is there a way to have an opening screen ask for username & password &
only then allows users to access the files?

Any suggestions for commercially available software that would be applicable
for such use?

Thanks a lot

Maria
 
Maria said:
I have a bunch of excel files in a folder (located on a shared network
drive), accessed by different users. Is there some way to restrict access to
these files to only those users who create a user name & password. In other
words is there a way to have an opening screen ask for username & password &
only then allows users to access the files?
Click to expand...

If these files were in a single directory in a shared network drive, it
should be possible to restrict any access to that directory to members of a
particular named group of users on the network. Then assign all intended
users of the files in this directory to that group. Once these users have
logged onto the network, they'll have access to the files. No other users
would have access to them. Would that suffice?
 
You can easily do this independent of Network access:

Set up a Master worksheet with columns for UserName, Password.
Populate these columns.

In the Auto_Open sub, open a Userform with 2 Textboxes, and labels
which direct the user to enter his/her UserName and Password (this can
be an organizational password or one which YOU assign to the user).
Also put an OK button on the userform.

In the Userform code for the OK click event, do a VLOOKUP of the
Textbox1.Value in your UserName list and return the value from your
Password list.
If this value equals Textbox2.value, then you have a match, so open the
file or activate a desired sheet. If not a match, then give a message
box and return to the userform for another try.

A Cancel Button on the UserForm will allow the user to quit. Or you
could automatically quit if the user fails on a 2nd attempt.

This "permission concept" can be expanded with columns on your Master
sheet with Sheet Names or Workbook Names which are "accessible" to that
particular user.
 
gocush said:
You can easily do this independent of Network access:
Click to expand...
....

Really? How do you prevent 'unauthorized' users from accessing these files
using Explorer, then opening them directly? For that matter, how do you
prevent users from accessing the username and password data stored in the
master worksheet?

Without network access restrictions, anyone could open these files. Given
that, why would it make sense for 'authorized' users to be the only
potential users who'd need to enter username and password to load them?

I believe the key phrase in the OP's message was 'restrict access'. There's
no way to do that in Excel alone. The server OS must be used to restrict
file access. All Excel alone can do is provide a nearly worthless appearance
of restricted access while actually doing nothing to truly restrict access.

As for anything involving Auto_Open or Workbook_Open, all a user has to do
is turn off macros, and there's no more access control.

For real security you need to use software that can provide real security.
Most server OSs can provide some. Excel provides next to none.
 
I agree with Harlan. I do this all the time. Windows takes care of security
with no problems.
 
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