MaximumPC 2008 06

Confi gure Your Media Library

Once you’ve selected a server, you’ll want to build a good directory

structure on the rig that’s not only easy to maintain and back up but

also secure from accidental deletions and malware running on other

machines on your network.

While you could put all your fi les in one giant folder and share that

folder, it is much more eff ective to create individual shares for your

music, movies, and photos. That way you can control your users’ ac-

cess levels based on the type of content in the shares. While everyone

should have read access to photos, you may want only one or two

people to be able to write to the photo folder.

To access the advanced permissions dialogs, go into the Folder

Options control panel, click the View tab, and uncheck “Use sharing

wizard” in Vista or “Use simple fi le sharing” in XP.

LESSONS LEARNED

Networking Tips and Tricks

3. BACK UP YOUR FOLDERS: Now repeat the same steps for your
   photo and video folders. Once that’s done, you should set up a regu-
   lar backup procedure for you media folders. Even though you’ve
   protected your photos, music, and movies from accidental erasure
   at the hands of family members, you still need to do regular
   backups. We recommend using SyncBack Freeware, which you can
   download at http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html.
   
   
   1. CONFIGURE GROUPS: First, you need to create and populate
      groups with users. You should create groups based on tasks
      they’ll perform—for example, Music Listeners and Music
      Admins—and then set permissions to allow the lowest level of
      access that your users will need to complete those tasks. Once
      you’ve decided who gets read access and who gets write access,
      go to Administrative Tools, Users & Groups to set up your groups.
      2. ASSIGN PERMISSIONS TO FOLDERS: Once you’ve created your groups
      and fi lled them with users, you need to enable sharing and adjust the
      permissions on the folders you want to share. Right-click the folder you
      want to share and select the Sharing option. Vista users need to click
      Advanced Sharing and then Permissions. Add your groups and set the
      permissions you want to allow, removing the Everyone option.
   
   
   
   

THE^ DIGITAL

DOMICILE

50 | MAXIMUMPC | JUN 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

 A full-blown PC operating as a server will consume much

more power and generate a lot more noise than a NAS box.

 Don’t forget to budget for speakers when planning a

multiroom audio system.

 If you locate your server in an equipment closet, make

sure there’s adequate ventilation.

 You’ll want an 802.11n Draft 2.0 wireless network to

stream high-def video, but you might need a wired con-

nection for best results.

 If you’re mixing Vista and XP machines on the same

network, make sure they all use the same workgroup name

(the default is MSHOME on XP but WORKGROUP in Vista).