CHAPTER 20
MONITORING ACCESS TO NETWORK RESOURCES
Lesson 1:
Monitoring Network Resources
Windows 2000 includes the Computer Management and Shared Folders snap-ins so that you
can easily monitor access to network resources and send administrative messages to users.
Understanding the Purposes for Monitoring Network Resources
There are three primary reasons why it is important to assess and manage network resources
and they are:
Maintenance. When you must perform maintenance tasks on network resources, you will
need to periodically make certain resources unavailable to users. To do this you must determine
which users are currently using a resource so that you can notify them before making the resource
temporarily or permanently unavailable.
Security. To maintain a network’s security you need to monitor user access to resources that
are confidential or need to be secure to verify that only authorized users are accessing them.
Planning. Meeting the expanding needs of the network’s users requires that you determine
which resources are being used and how much they are being used so that you can plan for
future system growth.
When you add the Computer Management and Shared Folders snap-ins to a custom console
with MMC, you specify whether you want to monitor the resources on the local computer or
a remote computer.
Understanding the Requirement to Monitor Network Resources:
Groups that Can Access Network Resources
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A member of these
groups Can
monitor
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Administrators or Server All computers in the domain.
Operators for the Domain
Administrators or Power Local or remote computers in the workgroup.
Users for a member
server
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Lesson Summary:
easily monitor access to network resources.
monitor resources when you add either the Computer Management or Shared Folders snap-in
to a custom console.
monitor resources for the local computer or for a remote computer in the workgroup.
the domain can monitor resources on all the computers in the domain.
Lesson 2:
Monitoring Access to Shared Folders
You use the Shared folder in either the Computer Management snap-in or the Shared Folders
snap-in to view a list of all shared folders on the computer and to determine how many users
have a connection to each folder.
NOTE: Microsoft Windows 2000 doesn’t update the list of shared folders, open files, and
user sessions automatically. To update these lists, on the Action menu, click Refesh.
Determining how many users can access a Shared Folder
concurrently
On the Action menu, click Properties/General Tab, shows you the user limit. In Windows
2000 Professional, the maximum is 10. However, you can set this to a lower value. This is a
great tool, you can access all the shared folders on the Computer in one area, versus looking at
Windows Explorer, and sifting through the folders.
Start/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Shared Folders/Shares
Notice that you will display how many can share this folder. The limit of 10 concurrent and
simultaneous connections is related to the Workgroup Theory, for a peer-to-peer network.
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Modifying Shared Folder Properties
You can modify existing shared folders, including shared folder permissions, from the Share folder.
To change a shared folder’s properties, click the shared folder, and then on the Action menu, click
Properties, click the share name, the path to the shared folder and any comment that has been
entered.
Monitoring Open Files
Use the Open Files folder in either the Computer Management snap-in or Shared Folders snap-in
to view a list of open files that are located in shared folders and the users who have a current
onnection to each file.
Disconnecting Users from Open Files
You can disconnect users from one open file or from all open files. If you make changes to the
Microsoft Windows 20000 File System (NTFS) permissions for a file that is currently opened
by a user, the new permission won’t affect the user until he or she closes and then attempts to
reopen the file.
You can force these changes to take place immediately by doing either of the following:
Disconnecting all users from all open files. To disconnect all users from all open files, in
the Shared Folder snap-in console tree, click Open Files, and then on the Action menu, click
Disconnect All Open Files.
Disconnecting all users from one open file. To disconnect users from one open file, in
the Shared Folder snap-in console tree, click Open Files. In the details pane, select the open file,
and then on the Action menu, click Close Open File.
CAUTION Disconnecting users from open files can result in data loss.
Lesson Summary:
Shared Folders snap-in to view a list of all shared folders on the computer and to
determine how many users have a connection to each folder.
limit, or maximum number of users that can concurrently connect to that share.
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Lesson 3:
Sharing a Folder Using the Shared Folders Snap-in
You can use either the Computer Management snap-in or the Shared Folders snap-in to share
an existing folder or to create a new folder and share it on the local computer or on a remote
computer.
From either the Computer Management snap-in or the Shared Folders snap-in, you can run the
Create Shared Folder wizard to create a new folder and share it.
When you use the Shared folder snap-in to share an existing folder or to create a new shared
folder, Windows 2000 assigns the Full Control shared folder permission to the Everyone group
by default. You can also assign NTFS permissions when you share the folder.
NOTE: Using either the Computer Management snap-in or the Shared Folder snap-in is the
only way to create a shared folder on a remote computer. Otherwise, you need to be physically
located at the computer where the folder resides to share it.
Sharing a Folder on a Remote Computer
If you want to share a folder on a remote computer, you run the MMC and add the Shared
Folders snap-in to it. When you add the Shared Folder snap-in, point it to the remote computer
on which you want to create and manage shared folder.
computer.
6. Click Finish
NOTE: If you want to create and manage shared folders on remote computers and you aren’t
in a domain, you must create the same user account with the same password on each computer.
In workgroups, you don’t have a central database that contains all user account; instead, each
computer in the workgroup has its own local security database.
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Lesson Summary:
Lesson 4:
Monitoring Network Users
You can also use Computer Management snap-in or the Shared folders snap-in to monitor
which users are currently gaining access to shared folder resources on a server from a remote
computer, and you can view the resources to which the users have connections.
Monitoring User Sessions
This information enables you to determine which users you should contact when you need to stop
sharing a folder or shut down the server on which the shared folder resides.
You can disconnect one or more users to free idle connections to the shared folder, to prepare for
a backup or restore operation, to shut down a server, and to change group membership and
permissions for the shared folder.
Disconnecting Users
You can disconnect one or all users with a network connection to a computer. You disconnect
users so that you can do any of the following:
Have changes to shared folder and NTFS permissions take effect immediately. A user retains all
permissions for a shared resource that Windows 2000 assigned when the user connected to it.
Windows 2000 evaluates the permissions again the next time that a connection is made. Users
can have the file open, and changes will take effect while they are in the file.
Free idle connections on a computer so that other user can make a connection when you reach
the maximum number of connections. User connections to resources might remain active for
several minutes after a user finished gaining access to a resource.
Shut down a server
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NOTE: After you disconnect a user, he or she can immediately make a new connection. If the
user gains access to a shared folder from a Windows-based client computer, the client computer
will automatically reestablish the connection with the shared folder. This connection will be
established without user intervention unless you change the permissions to prevent the user from
gaining access to the shared folder or you stop sharing the folder to prevent all users from gaining
access to the shared folder.
You can disconnect a
specific user, as follows:
In the console tree, under Shared Folder, click Sessions.
In the list of users in the details pane, select the user that you want to disconnect, and then click
Close Session on the Action menu.
NOTE: If you want to disconnect all users, click Sessions in the Console tree, and then click
Disconnect All Sessions on the Action menu.
Sending Administrative Messages to Users
You can send administrative messages to one or more users or computers. Send administrative
messages to users who have current connection to a computer on which network resources are
shared when there will be a disruption to the computer or restore availability. Some common
reasons for sending administrative messages are to notify users when you intend to do any of
the following:
By default, all currently connected computers to which you can send a message appear in the list of
recipients. You can add other users or computers to this list even if they don’t have a current
connection to resources on the computer.
Start/Programs/Administrative
Tools/Computer Management/Shared Folder/Shares/Action/All
Tasks/Send Console
Messages.
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Lesson Summary:
disconnect a specific user or all users with a network connection to a computer.
messages to one or more users or computer, and that by default, all currently connected computers
appear in the list of recipients to which you can send a message.